SSOS ☽
One day, I was texting one of my friends and he asked me what music meant to me. I said to him that to me, every song is its own living, breathing experience.
Perhaps, I was just in a whimsical mood at the time, but what I answered was true: I actually believe that every song is its own experience.
Nowadays, when I listen to a song, it is like I have one foot stuck in reality and one foot stepping into a dream experience, a "dreamscape" if you will. Every single song I've listened to has a 5-sense dreamscape: hearing, vision, taste, touch, and smell. These sensations whilst in your headphones may just be imaginary, but to me, it is nonetheless a sensory experience; perhaps a spiritual experience.
Therefore, I decided to document these cool experiences when listening to the music I've heard. Each journal entry is going to reveal to you, using my subjective perspective, of course, the Secret Story of a Song or SSOS.
Call me fantastical, cause I know how crazy I sound to some people, but it's what I feel inside man. I could be lying down on the floor of my room at 12am, staring up at the ceiling, and once I plug my earphones in, I can imagine that I have a moon roof that gives me a window into the cosmos.
Learning what stories songs give me has helped me to open up to new genres of music. By listening closely to the lyrics, the melodies and harmonies in the background, the timbres of the instruments they chose or how they play around with the rhythm, I can try to understand where the artist is coming from. Perhaps, I may never mention musical knowledge at all when I write an SSOS post, but that story within the music is what I look for when I write about a song.
Imagine the story that comes out when these intricate elements interweave together. In fact, you don't have to imagine. Look at the diverse amount of music we humans have created in our existence on this Earth for thousands upon thousands of years. Of course, not all of it was created for us to enjoy. But all of that music was made to tell a story, or at least, is connected to a story. It could be a cultural one, a personal one or whatever. In the end, I may never experience the exact moments of happiness or struggles that an artist has faced in their lifetime, but I can at least use my close listening of the song to understand what they could have felt.
Though, depending on who you are, a song's story varies. In fact, you might dislike a song so much that its story is absolutely gross or tacky for you. Of course, that's perfectly fine. I've listened to a lot of songs that I haven't liked, and I used to think that made me close-minded and picky. But, I just realized that it made me human, like everyone else.
Every song that I choose to write a secret story is based more so with my own experiences and perceptions of it than anyone else’s. It's normal if you don't relate to the story I've written for a song, but it's cool if you do.
If there's anything I want you to take away from my posts is that you should never be afraid of something new, you should only try to listen to it before you make claims on it. Listening. That is, to me, the key to unlocking the secret story of a song, and perhaps, the secret story of a fulfilling life. (Is the secret of life somewhere in this blog? Who knows? haha)
My general rule of thumb is: listen to a song at least halfway through before you start to make judgements on it.
Btw: For SSOS, I post 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month.
(Last updated: January 2022)
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