Just now, I thought
to myself: What does music look like?
So,
like any other teenage life form, I googled it. I clicked images.
This is what I saw.
Then,
I got to thinking about this scene in the movie, “Ratatouille”,
where the rat is describing different tastes, and as he does it, all
these different colored swirly things start spinning around on the
screen, and how that is much more representative of what a non visible thing looks like.
Of
course, music isn't supposed to look like anything, but in a lot of
ways, it does. It can look like a piece of sheet music. It can look
like the pictures above. It can look like explosions of color, like
in the video. It can look like picture book telling a story. It can
look like what it actually is; an orchestra, a jazz band, a wedding
singer. It draw on a memory, and look like the past. It can draw on
your inner thoughts and look like a dream. Music can look
however
you hear it.
As
a musician though, I've come to the conclusion that music just looks
like sheet music, or a violin, or a concert hall. To me, it's nothing
abstract, because to me, that's not the stuff that matters.
Music
is composed of two things: sound and emotion. When it comes down to
it, people care how it sounds, and how it makes them feel. No matter
how extravagant your stage design, or how skilled your backup dancers
are, or how many fireworks you set off in the back ground, people
will still criticize you if it doesn't sound good. And while they may
not criticize the emotional component (most people aren't even aware
that that is such a large part of music) they will know it's off.
There
is a reason we put music in movies, and commercials, and elevators.
It sounds good, and it influences people in a way that they are
unaware of. It doesn't matter what it looks like.
So,
to answer the question that I asked myself, yes.
What
does music look like?
Yes.
A
vague answer to a vague question. A non relevant answer to a non
relevant question. So it goes.
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