Music Column
Bobby Rice
Issue date: 4/22/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
Music is like drugs, we have all been around it, we have all tried it, some of us need it, some of us just realize that it is something that will never go away. There are people who understand it and there are people who couldn't give a damn. There are people who can sell it for a living, there are those of us who are slaves to enjoying it and allowing it to consume every iota of our lives, however, the fact is music, like drugs, are apart of the human condition that some of us truly love and some of us are completely indifferent to.
It is easy to spot those who are addicted to dugs, however, it is not as easy to spot those addicted to music. A person can smoke a joint and three days later refuse to ever smoke weed again, but a person who smokes Crank can be fine one day and three weeks later be tweaky, begging for money and losing their teeth. Then there are those who listen to music, buy a C.D., a T-shirt or just turn on a radio for comfort and are not dope sick when they haven't heard good music in three days and then there are those who are addicted to music, these people love the stuff, they need it pure, uncut and in heavy doses.
These people, like heroin addicts cannot face reality without injecting their favorite hits directly into their bloodstream which takes them directly to the ecstasy that is getting lost in the music and not all music will do.
These people will always be music junkies, till the day they die, never full on the wagon and always falling off. Music can never leave you, just like good L.S.D., somewhere down the line a song that changed your life will blind side you like a rogue wave at sea and have your knees buckling just as deeply as it did the first time you heard it.
This is because music is not something that can be measured on a scale of popularity or taste, music is measured on how much it changed your life, how close to home it hits. When YOU know good music you think it was written specifically for you, that the person who wrote this song was inside your head at that direct moment and time and manifested it in lyric and song.
This is what makes drugs different than music. People can enjoy and love music by flaunting this enjoyment and love with materialistic objects (which I am surely guilty of) proving their devotion to the music. However, those addicted to music are not obviously visible like that skinny, pale crack head on the corner of your street, their addiction lies deep within their soul and memories much more entrenched and meaningful than any tattoo or track marks.
It is easy to spot those who are addicted to dugs, however, it is not as easy to spot those addicted to music. A person can smoke a joint and three days later refuse to ever smoke weed again, but a person who smokes Crank can be fine one day and three weeks later be tweaky, begging for money and losing their teeth. Then there are those who listen to music, buy a C.D., a T-shirt or just turn on a radio for comfort and are not dope sick when they haven't heard good music in three days and then there are those who are addicted to music, these people love the stuff, they need it pure, uncut and in heavy doses.
These people, like heroin addicts cannot face reality without injecting their favorite hits directly into their bloodstream which takes them directly to the ecstasy that is getting lost in the music and not all music will do.
These people will always be music junkies, till the day they die, never full on the wagon and always falling off. Music can never leave you, just like good L.S.D., somewhere down the line a song that changed your life will blind side you like a rogue wave at sea and have your knees buckling just as deeply as it did the first time you heard it.
This is because music is not something that can be measured on a scale of popularity or taste, music is measured on how much it changed your life, how close to home it hits. When YOU know good music you think it was written specifically for you, that the person who wrote this song was inside your head at that direct moment and time and manifested it in lyric and song.
This is what makes drugs different than music. People can enjoy and love music by flaunting this enjoyment and love with materialistic objects (which I am surely guilty of) proving their devotion to the music. However, those addicted to music are not obviously visible like that skinny, pale crack head on the corner of your street, their addiction lies deep within their soul and memories much more entrenched and meaningful than any tattoo or track marks.