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Musical Escapism: The (Cheap) Stress Relief You Need
Source: (Edited) Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash. If you haven’t noticed online, musical artists, including Alison Wonderland at Digital Mirage and Lollapalooza, Porter Robinson and his Secret Sky Festival, and LIONE for League of Legends Mid-Season Cup (2020), continue to perform even with social distancing measures in place. While almost every industry suffers from the effects of COVID-19, musical artists and the music industry continues to volunteer their time to raise money for COVID Relief programs while trying to spread happiness to the fans. Although the performances and music festivals are delivered online this year, we feel connected and happy when we see our favourite bands and singers jam…
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Writing Might Save Your Life
Why do we watch movies, listen to audiobooks, and write poetry, songs, and stories?! What makes storytelling compelling to all of us regardless of our knowledge, social classes, and our wide variety of interests? In Jen Sincero’s book, You Are A Badass (2013), she shares personal anecdotes reflecting on her journey to finding her “true self” or “higher self” by changing her perspectives of the world we live in (35). Sincero addresses internal battles we may all have with ourselves about feeling overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated, and feeling “not good enough.” Providing many brief and insightful “how-to” lists to tackle each one of the obstacles, the key point that Sincero continuously emphasizes—and does so…
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Creating a Story Without Words: Parallels in Story and Music-making
Music and writing have a lot in common. You may have even heard stories themselves be described in terms of music- like beats of action, the rhythm of words, and the melody, or a voice, of an author. Throughout the years, these two disciplines have helped each other to both become powerful outlets of creativity and expression. When polyphony, or music with more than one independent voice, became common, there was also a rising interest in composing music with a story plot. Many techniques were developed, particularly in the Romantic Era, where extramusical art forms such as books and plays were used to help musicians find an emotional truth in…
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Lyricism as Literature
A couple months ago Bob Dylan accepted a Nobel Prize for literature. This might strike some as odd, because of the stigma of grouping lyricism with literature. People may argue, if one lyricist’s work is considered literature, where do we draw the line? Can the work of Miley Cyrus or Drake be looped in with Bob Dylan and the like? Can Desiigner’s “Panda”, of which the chorus reads “Panda, Panda Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda, Panda, I got broads in Atlanta, Twistin’ dope, lean, and the Fanta” be considered literature? How do we make the distinction between music and literature? Yet on the other side of the debate we must consider…
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The Sad Songs of J. Alfred Prufrock: A Playlist for Times of Rain and Stress
A curated playlist of sad songs for the probably-sexually-frustrated-nihilist in all of us. Bonus Track: Sad Eyes – Mini Dresses Image “1959 Cooley’s Gardens” via Flickr.
