Saturday, April 2, 2011
Some joys in this world have to be rediscovered, just don't press the next button. 
I now truly believe that having my itouch as the first thing I bought with my hard-earned money is totally worth it. I'm haven't used much of the apps yet, but the music player and video has been keeping me happy enough up till now. Having music to accompany me whenever I'm on train rides, like the 1 hour ride home every friday, makes the boring trip so much better. I can just indulge in my own world, and ignore the coming and going of passengers on the train. With the videos, I'm entertained every night before I sleep. A nice time alone, reward to self, before I turn in.
Thou most of the time I'm using the music player, even when on my dad's car. Having music wherever I go, playing in my ears apart from the bustle of activity that's going on, helps to keep a part of me at ease, like I actually belong to myself.
Song writers are like miracle writers. To the plain eye, its all about creativity. It's the ability to get inspiration simply from nowhere, and turn it into a melodious rythm that all others can relate to. However, to me, its not so much creativity, its the courage. Sometimes, out of all thousands of songs we like, we find that the ones we like most is those where the lyrics are relatable, experiences which we've gone through before. Song writers just take the simplest, plainest feelings in life, and make it obvious to us. The lyrics need not be fanciful, it just has to allow us to feel a sense of belonging, and normally these are feelings we so often feel ourselves. And the reason why we like these songs, isn't that a mirror of how much we've been hiding, that we actually need someone else to "tell" it to us? In this way, song writers are the bravest, that they dare to face the brutality of life, and present it as a way for others to relate to as well, so that we all won't be so lonely in this world.
Those who know me will know that I have probably the most limited playlist ever (124 songs now, which adds up to more than just 3 hours of song time). Maybe it's cos I really started to listen to music (thanks to my 1st ever sony ericsson phone) only in secondary school. But I think its more because of the fact that I am very choosy bout the songs that I let my ears enjoy (yes ppl I know I am very picky).
But that's only cos I put songs that I actually listen to in my itouch. One thing that I dun really comprehend, and its quite a common trend, is why people like to put a thousand and one songs into their ipods, but then whenever their play the songs, they will just keep pressing "next", then listen to like the latest songs. I don't understand why they do it, what's the purpose of putting the songs in there then? Is it because new things are always more attractive? What about the sense of belonging you felt when you first heard those songs.
Which is why I've decided to come up with afew reasons to what made me choose the songs that I actually listen to. It took abit of listening to my songlist intently and taking note of the feelings that it conjures up within me on first thought.
1) More then 50% of my songlist is Japanese songs, so let's address that 1st. Japanese songs were the songs I started listening to, and the reason was because of anime. Like any other normal drama, each anime has a opening and ending song, plus the insert songs, OSTs etc etc. So there's quite afew for me to listen to, and whenever I come across one that I really like, I will put it in my songlist. Which brings to the point that I listen to these songs now as a memory of the respective anime it belongs to. I might not recall every scene in the anime when I hear the song, but at least it does give me abit of nostalgia feeling that I once had when I was enjoying the anime. So in a way, listening to such songs helps me to relive the experience that anime has brought to me before.
2) Next on my list, songs with very meaningful lyrics, of which most are Chinese songs. I only started to really Listen to chinese songs because of Kbox. Normally when you hear songs on the streets, its the beat of the songs that catches you. But in kbox where you can just sit down and actually read the lyrics, did I realise how some of the lyrics to some songs are very meaningful, and sometimes apt to describe certain of my feelings. Like I mentioned above, song writers put their experiences into songs, which is why we listeners at many a time can relate to it, feeling a sense of belonging that draws us to that song. Listening to such songs just serves to help remind myself of some of the thoughts/feelings that are somehow unexpressed, or tucked away within me for so long that even I don't want to admit it.
3) Some of the songs, on the otherhand, reminds me of specific individuals. When I scroll to the song, or come across it by chance, the first thing that comes to my mind is that persons' name. Afew of the songs are because I ever sang it with them, some because they introduced it to me, then there are those where I feel the song is very apt in describing that person, almost like a dedication to him/her. Whenever I listen these songs, it just brings a smile onto my face, well at least most of the time.
4) Then I also have this mix genre of songs, some slow some upbeat, of various languages, that's in my songlist but I can't pinpoint it to a specific category to put it under. The best way of describing I can come up with is that the songs have a climax, where somewhere in the song there's this epic portion that never fails to capture my attention. Almost like an induced-highness, but no its not clubbing music. It's another kind of high altogether, like why clubbers like to jump/dance to clubbing music, but I dun jump/dance to mine. Ok that's not a very useful analogy huh. Argh that's why I said I can't categorize this liao, nvm let's leave it as like that (and therefore you have just wasted time reading a paragraph that explains nothing from this already extendedly long post).
5) Lastly, Songs of Unmei (fate). These are songs that under any ordinary circumstances I would not have come across it, but because of fate I got to hear it somehow and viola now it's in my songlist. It's these kind of songs that are a testimont that when it comes to music, you don't necessarily have to find a reason to like the music, you can just like it. A few notes put together beautifully, that has no meaning to you, but you simply just love the harmony produced. Nice.
Hmm that should be about enough to cover the songs that I listen to. Can't think of anymore reasons. But anyways I think this post has gone on long enough. For you readers who read through it all it's just me sharing another bit of me on the net, for those who just want the summarized version, this is just a post dedicated to the long hours I've spent to having my earphones in my ear, when I may seem alone but am actually accompanied by music :)
Cheers to good songs!
Revealed on [2:21 AM]