Why You Should Work For Your Music

Why You Should Work For Your Music

You should work for  your music because, if you do, your music will work for you. And I'm not only talking about this from a training perspective ( and though I believe listening to music helps, I actually don't listen to any music and prefer to, if I can, lift in silence). 

I grew up listening to punk and emo (that's right, I said it) and hardcore for most of my life. I listen to hip-hop every once in a while, and as I age, I've gotten into folk and electronic and everything else in between. 

But I still love pop punk melodies and breakdowns and screaming and everything else. 

And I'm really really thankful for it. 

Because most people don't know much about music other than those few songs they hear over and over again on the radio. From a technical standpoint - I don't know much. But from standpoint of depth of appreciation, I know quite a bit.

You should work for your music because you will, in turn, develop a sense of ownership of that music. It will allow you to live in the moment.  It will become as important to you as it is to those who made it in the first place - You can take that feeling with you, forever. And it's yours. And what's even cooler is that it is someone else's, too. 

Working to find new music to listen to, even if it sort of sounds just like other music you listen to, will open up new doors for conversation and new places to go emotionally and spiritually. I know it sounds corny - but even when I'm lifting in silence - sometimes I can hear licks from this song, for some reason, at the bottom of a squat:

And here's the thing - I don't even like Set Your Goals that much. And I had to work when it came to finding this song because I had to listen to a bunch of tunes I wasn't too fond of. It's like collecting anything else. If you collect antiques, you might spend HOURS driving and visiting shops only to come away with nothing. We're at a point now with music, because of how accessible it is, that it's the same thing. And for this song, everything that happens after the 2 minute mark was worth the hour or so of listening to other SYG songs that I didn't like all that much. 

The beauty of it is that "Echoes" lead me to other songs I love from other bands. It's the gift that keeps on giving. It's just a matter of how much you want to dig. 

Now I know that, for some people, I'm preaching to the choir. Because you guys know what its like to spend hours at the record store or in a line at a show to buy a band's record at their merch table. 

But for those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about - who think I'm simply being dramatic or embellishing or... whatever... just try it. Give it a shot. Take an hour to look for a song and fall in love with it - all by yourself. 

Circling back, though, just to make something clear and explain myself a bit: I prefer to not listen to anything before I lift. I grab the bar and then this is almost on a loop over and over again in my head: 

         “All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks . . . If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there’s naught beyond. But ‘tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk to

me not of blasphemy, man; I’d smite the sun if it insulted me" (Melville). 

But understand that I had to WORK (anyone who reads Moby Dick is working, for sure) to find that and fall in love with it. 

(I'd like to appropriately cite it. I know. English Teacher. I get it. I'm thinking it's from the chapter "The Quarter Deck" - Chapter 36... maybe? No idea what page number. My pages fell out of my copy. Glue melted in the sun while I was reading it in Italy. Another story, perhaps.)

Anywho. That's what I have rolling in my head. Most importantly, though, there is no sound anymore. Even if there is sound, there is NO sound. I've managed to finally go to that place. And it's awesome. So in my head, all I have looped are phrases from above. Most of the time it's "strike through the mask," or "smite the sun," because... who has time to recite all of it, know what I mean?

So, for me, it's silence and Moby Dick. But the real question is, where do you go?

For fun, listen to this song:

And then read these Moby Dick Quotes along with the music. 

I'm giving you pearls here, people. 

But really it's about the art. It's all about being able to live inside something and own it. And that's my challenge for you all this weekend. Go to the beach (or lake if you're land locked... ew...) and get a bunch of songs that you've FOUND... that are YOURS... and crank up the radio. Get nostalgic. Be 18 again. And be it forever. 

And on that note, I leave you all with this (because I have to test my 1 Rep snatch and clean and jerk tomorrow  and those numbers will decide my fate leading up to qualifying for the American Open): NOTE: I'm not a Kanye fan and my interest in Jon North is fading a bit...

... but this video...

Be Well, 

The Poet and The Platform