By Anna Kosta-Rodriguez
Photo of ZKosta, local Austin, TX DJ and producer
Music plays a vital role in so many people’s lives, being cited as one of the main reasons people stay sane and alive. I live by the motto Music = Life. Because, honestly, it is completely true. There is a song for every emotion, every day, every action, every adventure, every need. Why are musicians able to create something so amazing which speaks to millions across the globe in similar yet completely different ways? Because they feel it when they create it. They feel the sadness, the raw emotion and that innate part of their DNA is what gives them the amazing ability to share their gifts with the world.
You might say that famous musicians are celebrities who don’t care about us little people, or, that it’s a frivolous thing to look up to them as much as we do. But I have to tell you that without musicians and the songs they create, a lot of us would never have the hope to get through our darkest days or the courage to express our moments of immense joy. Without these amazingly talented individuals, the world would be silent. And silence is the scariest thing for so many of us.
Lately I’ve been listening to a playlist I created on Pandora which I’ve labeled “Nostalgia” and another one I’ve labeled “Comeback Kids”. Both of these playlists are special and important for different reasons.
“Nostalgia” is 100% Linkin Park, and if you’re an early 90’s kid like me, you understand. Those of us who were in middle and high school during the early to mid 2000’s, know all too well who Linkin Park is and what they mean to us – our lives, our relationships, our emotions, our everything. Without bands like Linkin Park, Evanescence, Hoobastank, and so many more, so many of us wouldn’t be here. And I mean that in every literal sense you can think of. While my life wasn’t even remotely as tragic as so many other people I know, these bands and the music they create(d) spoke to me on so many levels and continues to do so to this day.
These days, us 90’s kids are in our thirties or close to it. We’ve lived through Y2K, 9/11, war, a recession, our friends and family struggling to afford basic necessities, fights for basic human and civil rights, a global pandemic, more war – just to name a few. My generation has been through so much, and music is what keeps us sane. Due to the fact that we’re more than 20 years past 9/11, still technically in the midst of the pandemic, and on the verge of WWIII, there are a lot of things out of our control and most of us have always felt that way our entire lives.
This is where my playlist “Comeback Kids” comes into play. We’ve been through so much. Loss, new life, chronic stress, anxiety, depression, exhaustion, you name it. Uplifting tunes like “The Light” by Disturbed, or “Still Swingin’” by Papa Roach, or “Warriors” by Imagine Dragons, speak to us in a different way than the “Emo stuff” we loved as teens. As adults we actually have to deal with adult shit and as we all know, sometimes it sucks. But we love the underdogs, we always have. We thrive and survive knowing there’s always a light at the end of the long, dark tunnel of minimum wage, depression, and global tragedy.
That’s the beauty of music. One single song can speak to millions in a million different ways, and even differently every time someone listens to it. Some songs we can listen to a million times on repeat and it’s meaning stays the same, while others we can only listen to on certain occasions and we have to be in exactly the right mood for it. And while this post is from the perspective of the listener (I am by no means a musician!) this applies to those who create music as well. Musicians, DJs, Producers, all of those people in the music industry know how important music is to the entire world.
Music is in the blood of so many of us in a myriad of ways. Some people create it from a place of joy, depression, etc., all the while knowing how it will make their listeners feel. They can evoke those emotions in us listeners because they’ve literally lived through it in some way. Music is in everyone’s DNA. You read that right. You may not realize or acknowledge it, but every single person on this earth has some connection to music. I bet you could think of one song right now that you absolutely love and just as quickly, one that you absolutely can’t stand to listen to. It’s because they evoke completely different emotions, but buried in your mind you still have that reaction to them. For example, I cannot ever listen to the hymn “It Is Well With My Soul” ever again because it was played at my grandmother’s funeral – in 2008.
So, once again I’ll say how important music is to the entire world. It means different things to different people, but it is and always has been vital to the very survival of us all. Think about the history of music and how integrated it has been in all parts of the world since the dawn of time. Before you ask, yes, I was an Emo kid. Yes, I freely admit that. Yes, music saved my life in so many ways, some of which I still don’t fully understand more than fifteen years later. If you get it, you get it.
Thanks for reading, leave a comment if you feel so inclined and at the very least, enjoy a Linkin Park song which remains one of my all-time favorites since the first time I heard it:
Linkin Park – Figure.09
#RIPChesterBennington
P.S. – I still listen to the “old school” stuff from 2005. I’m not ashamed to admit it.
P.P.S. – If you know of and still listen to three or more of the following bands, you’re my people: Thirty Seconds to Mars, Panic! At the Disco, Paramore, Within Temptation, Nightwish, Disturbed, Breaking Benjamin, Three Days Grace, Shinedown, Papa Roach, Evanescence, Hoobastank, Yellowcard, and last but definitely not least, Linkin Park.
The Write Way TX 