Thoughts On Inspirational Music Of All Kinds

Music comes in all shapes and sizes.  Its tonalities range from the sublime to the ridiculous.  Take a closer look at nearly every aspect of life here on Planet Earth and somewhere in it all, you’ll find music.

We may say that we only like a particular kind of music, but for what?  There’s music to dance to, music to wake up to, music to go to sleep to and music to work to.  We have music to relax to and workout music.

They are not the same.  There is music for road trips, music for making love, music for deep listening, music for walking and running and even music for traveling in elevators. 

Inspirational music, we like to think, is full of variation meant to inspire, but inspire to what?  Inspire to pray?  Inspire to create?  Inspire to relax? Or perhaps inspire to inspire others.  Some music we like to share.  Other music is more personal and is meant only for our private selves.

Music underscores the full range of human emotions in movies and television and underscores just about everything we do in life, for that matter.

I spent an hour and a half in a headbanger’s bar on the lower East side of Manhattan last night being totally assaulted by a rock band whose music was so loud that I feared for my life.  While I watched, winced and listened trying to get past the overwhelming sound and into the craft of the band, a man danced like a madman on the empty floor before me, freed from his civilities and off somewhere else in a delirious euphoria of rock ‘n’ roll-isms of movement.

Was he high on Sodiumbycarbonatephentatholene, simply stark raving insane, or just letting the incredible volume take him over and govern his entire being?  I found myself fascinated that he knew and sang every word of the band’s music and mirrored every rhythmic accent of the groove as he carried on.  He fell down twice onto the floor and simply scrambled to his feet to dance on.

I learned later on that he is an airplane pilot for Swiss Air.  God help us all…

All in all, I valued the experience.  It was music at its loudest and totally convincing in its assault.  I left and walked across lower Manhattan recovering from the onslaught and was fascinated by the range of music pouring out into the street from all the clubs and bars in each block.  Country, metal, punk, folk, Indian, Afgan, Alternative, Dixieland, and something that sounded like pie tins and bottle blowers working in some Martian modality.

I wake up this morning to tell you about a new WFM artist named Serah whose music might be best categorized as New Age.  Actually, New Age is already kind of old, so even the name no longer applies, but the music still has meaning, still has worth, still has purpose, no matter what the name.

Its musicianship first attracted me.  Its central artist and creator, Serah, has been living and working in France for many years now and so her well-crafted music is new here in America and is ageless in its beauty.  I look forward to finding its applications to my life.  I’m open to its tonalities and inspired by its poetry.  Its music that I choose to share with you and hope that it will find its purpose in your life.

So last night I got blown away at Arlene’s Grocery on the lower East side by a band called Waking Up East that is actually quite good, though far too loud to tell in person.  Their flyer shows a headless man in an astronaut suit with a stack of pancakes for a neck.  Go figure.

Today I celebrate the music of Serah.  From the ridiculous to the sublime…

Music is for everyone, in every circumstance and perhaps even expanding out far beyond life on Planet Earth.

For more inspirational music, thoughts and ideas from Peter Link,
please visit Watchfire Music.