I got to thinking about music yesterday. Maybe it is because of my snazzy new Zune Player. I enjoy music as do pretty much everyone. I have yet to come across someone who hates music. I am sure they exist but not in my universe. What I got to thinking about was what draws us to a particular genre of music. Why is music such an important part of who we are?

Music predates the written word so it is hard to imagine when the first sounds of music came about. It could be as simple as a primitive man beating a piece of bone on some wood or humming as they went about their daily rituals. No one knows for sure. The oldest written records of music come from around 4,000 years ago. Flute like objects and stringed instruments have been dug up out of archaeological sites. Today music is a part of our everyday lives. We listen to the radio on our way to work. We have our mp3 players, we have our CD collections and god forbid we have our pirated music collections.

But what draws us to a certain style of music? This is hard to say. Music is a personal thing I think. Each person has their own reasons for liking certain types of music or songs. I can only really comment on what I know and speculate on other things.

Culture plays a big part in musical tastes. If you look at a broad generalization of people you can say the following things. White people from the South listen to Country. Black people listen to rap. Teenage white kids listen to alternative. Old people listen to big band music. Stoners listen to Pink Floyd. While this generalization works for the most part it is far from accurate. I will agree that if you were brought up in a household that listens to country music more than likely you will to. This isn't always the case though. I am a prime example of that. Growing up my mom jammed to Pat Benatar, Genesis, Michael Jackson, Journey, and the likes. While I do like some of that stuff my main genre of music I listen to is rock, the heavier the better. You can say that rock would be a natural progression from some of those bands but when you look into my music collection and see bands like Cannibal Corpse you no longer see the progression.

Your emotions will play a big part in your musical selection as well. If you are relaxed and want to stay that way then selecting heavy metal as your background music will probably not work for most people. Listening to some Pink Floyd would. If you are pissed off then maybe something from the metal category would be better. Since we are not in the same mood all the time this will alter your listening preferences. I still stay within my genre of choice though. I rarely stray from the alternative/rock/metal mix. I do like some classic rock which unfortunately some of my favorite bands are now falling into this category.

Expression is another one and this is where you find most teenage kids. Youth tend to lean towards music they can identify with. Look at our Emo culture. Back in the day these are the kids that listened to Depeche Mode and The Cure. They have morphed into something that makes me laugh now but I digress. The only thing that scares me about the self-expression aspect of music is the kids who listen to hardcore "gangsta" rap. How these kids identify with this is beyond me. Most are too young to understand "bitches" and "ho's" and "popp'n caps". It scares the jeebus out of me though.

Another one I think plays a big part is memory. My wife is a key example of this. It seems every event in her life is associated with a song. We will be in the car and a song will come on and she will say "Me and so-and-so were at a party when this song came on" or "me and so-and-so made out to this song". It is amazing how she does this. I do it to but not at the extent she does. It is very easy to associate a song with a memory because there is a very good chance music was playing at the time especially when it comes to romantic encounters.

There are other reasons but don't necessarily work for everyone. People who play musical instruments may gravitate to music their instrument is used. Trumpet players will probably have some jazz in their collections. Guitar players may have some blues. Pianists will probably have some Mozart in the mix.

The music I listen to I identify with and is an expression of who I am. I remember when I was in High School and the Henry Rollins Band put out a new album called Weight. I was drawn to buy this CD. No particular reason that I could think of at the moment. I just knew I had to have the CD. I bought it and put it in my CD player as soon as I could and started reading the lyrics. I then knew why I needed that CD. I felt the lyrics were written for me. I always read the lyrics. For the most part I tend to have music where the lyrics speak of something in my life or who I am. Another example would be Life of Agony's The River Runs Red. The lyrics spoke to me on an emotional level. A lot of NIN songs do to. Aside from the lyrics the music represents how I think and feel for the most part. Outwardly I present a very calm person. I rarely look rattled. I usually have the same expression on my face at all times. But inside, deep inside, it is chaos. My mind will race faster than I can keep up with, I'm processing information as fast as I can. I'm not as bad as I used to be when I was younger. I am a lot calmer now internally than I once was but I still hold onto the style of music.

I would love to hear what you think of your musical choices. What draws you to certain types of music?