In 7th or 8th grade, a teacher gave my class an assignment to write a short paper describing the most important thing in our life that we felt we could not live without. I wrote “music.”
Music is an integral part of life. I cannot now and could not then, imagine a life without it.
Music helps to pass the time; which is why “musak” was erroneously invented for elevators and hold buttons. I think we would all have fared better without a down-tempo, instrumental version of Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music.
Music is so much more.
Music tells something about who we are and what moves us. It can bring people together: in grief, in joy, in solidarity, for fun, or simply to sing.
Music can drive a wedge between people culturally and socially. It can divide generations as easily as it can join them.
Music provides a connection to memories that we build over the course of a lifetime. How often have you heard a melody and been mentally transported back in time to an event, if only for a moment, to re-live that time? It is a thread that helps to link the past with the present and makes our lives richer.
50: A Figment of my Imagination 