Music is everywhere. Literally. Birds sing, whales communicate in what sounds like an underwater jazz ensemble, and humans have spent thousands of years making noise with increasingly complicated equipment. Apparently, simply humming wasn’t enough.
From strings and woodwinds to drums, percussion and the human voice, music has an incredible ability to move us through almost every human emotion. Filmmakers figured this out a long time ago. Add the right music to a scene and suddenly someone opening a door feels like either the beginning of a love story or the moment they’re about to discover a body. Same door. Very different playlist.
Music does the same thing in everyday life.
Take a road trip. The right song comes on and suddenly you’re not sitting in traffic on I-95 wondering why humanity invented traffic jams. You’re on an epic adventure. The highway becomes your runway, the car becomes your chariot and the gas station burrito becomes a questionable culinary decision.
Music at work can have the same effect. A good playlist can make repetitive tasks, paperwork and the general corporate experience slightly less soul-crushing. There’s a reason stores play music too. It can influence the atmosphere for both customers and employees. Apparently, even retail managers understand the psychological power of a decent playlist. Who knew?
I love music enough that I’ve been in Spotify’s top 0.5% of global listeners for three consecutive years. Yes, I listen to that much music. When Spotify isn’t providing the soundtrack, YouTube usually is.
For me, music isn’t just background noise. It’s part of the experience of being alive. You can listen while walking, driving, cooking, working, having dinner or sitting outside watching the world go by. Music doesn’t demand your complete attention. It simply hangs around and occasionally punches you directly in the feelings.
So here’s my challenge:
Go find your soundtrack.
Take a walk. Sit outside. Drive somewhere with no particular destination. Put on something that makes you happy, nostalgic, energized, peaceful or ridiculously dramatic for absolutely no reason.
Pick the mood you want and find the music that takes you there.
Because life already provides plenty of noise.
We might as well choose some of it. 🎶
