Music, for me, is a conduit for emotions that I want to feel, but I don’t want to express, necessarily.

I’m a pretty laid back guy, but we all have times when we’re angry, frustrated, sad, wahtever. Push the right buttons, and I’ll get angry, but in general I subscribe to the “duck’s back” philosophy and just take things in stride. But I think we need to *feel* these emotions from time to time, even if we haven’t had cause. I think it’s healthy to be angry, sad, etc from time to time. This is where music comes into play.

There’s music I remember fondly from my youth that evokes memories of when I genuinely felt such emotions. There are other tunes I’ve discovered since then that really help me bleed the emotion out of me so it doesn’t jump out at inopportune times.

I guess some examples are in order.

These days, I mostly need to bleed out some frustration from time to time. It used to be that I’d turn to some Nine Inch Nails for that. Pineful tunes like “Hurt” are quiety self destructive. Remember, the idea, for me, is to feel the emotion without it coming out on it’s own. So when I say it’s self destructive, don’t think I want to actually hurt myself, but there’s a bit of catharsis involved in channeling such feelings so you don’t ever have to feel them in a “real” capacity.

Then there’s more energetic NiN fare such as “Mr Self Destruct” (which really goes great after a “Pinion” build-up). But I’ve also found some great solace in Mindless Self Indulgence. Man, what great noise and energy. There’s a certain maniacal insanity involved here. A total lack of control or reason.. just a raw unleashing of emotional power akin to some crazy Japanese cartoon character powering his proverbial lazerz.

So what’s on the other end of the spectrum? Well, there was a period in my life (in high school, of course) when I found myself in love, heartbroken, infatuated, intoxicated, etc over and over again. Damn hormones. hah. During this time, I was really becoming musically aware so music meant even more to me then than any other time in my life. I think you really get locked into the music of that period of your life. For me, the ‘love’ music that really suck in and still tugs a little at the heartstrings are things like Matthew Sweet‘s “Girlfriend” album (where he sung about a different woman every other song) and maybe Material Issue‘s “International Pop Overthrow“.

Man, I really loved music back then. Very few bands really tickle my fancy these days. Sometimes someone will come along that I really appreciate, but nothing like back then. I just don’t have the emotions I used to have. Or maybe it’s the emotional instability that I used to have. Maybe I should give emotional instability a try again, just to find that passion (even if it comes along with some insanity hah).

Not so much on the heartache/loveache but I have to mention that around the same time, I really fell in love with bands like Too Much Joy, Cracker, MC 900ft Jesus and some others. I love you all for what you gave me back then.

But whatever does it for you, I think it’s important to find your muse. Find what really strikes a chord with you, and you’ve really got something good.

This comes to my point about art in general: just find what you enjoy and enjoy it. It doesn’t matter why you enjoy it, as long as you do. Whatever joy or emotional outlet you can find in life is a good thing. I know that not everyone enjoys music the same way I do, but whatever capacity you enjoy music or any other art form, is a good thing.