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We asked you why music matters to you. Here are some of the responses.
Dawn Smart Although I've always loved music, it wasn't until I married a musician whose passion for it dominated his life, that it filled my days and nights. Trips to Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, India, Cuba took his jazz roots to a broader world of music and gave him and us a lifetime of adventures. When he died a few years ago he left a big whole in my heart ... music helps to fill it.
Bill Ushler From Facebook: When you find music that speaks to you, touches your heart and soul, it has both the power to heal and to save.
Michaela Majoun Music matters to me because it expresses the heart and soul of being human. Lyrics distill the essence of emotion and thought, and the vibrations of music itself reach us on the deepest levels.
Eric Schuman XPN and XPN2 host and producer Music matters to me because it takes me to places and times I've never been to and couldn't go to otherwise.
Michaela Majoun Music is a communal experience that XPN is at the heart of. Every time I'm at a Free At noon concert and people sing along, every time we do a fund drive and I look around the room at the volunteers, every time I play a Select-A-Set with the favorite music of a loved one who has passed, I realize more and more how important music is in coalescing people in a positive way in this divisive world.
Kurt Johnston Music matters because it has no borders or boundaries. Music matters because while it inspires color it does not see it. Music matters because it can bring great sorrow but also great great joy. Music matters because you don't have to know how to read it to enjoy it or even play it but can enjoy reading it without playing or listening to it. Music matters because while there are a finite number of notes that can be played there are an infinite number of ways to play them. Quite simply music matters.
Jerry Pappas The sharing of music, within one's own culture or outside, allows for a way of communicating that transcends most, otherwise limiting, barriers.
Chris Frantz Music matters because it is pure creative expression of the moment, with no goal to reach, simply for fun. It is a universal language of sound and movement and flow which brings everyone and everything back to the essential connection shared by all.
Tess Coffey XPN staff Music matters to me because i'll be drawn from my thoughts into a new moment by a note or a lyric competing for my attention. The song almost always wins. The Who knew the compulsion on Pure and Easy when Pete Townsend sings, "There once was a note . . .listen."
Trish Houck From Facebook: Music is transportation. It takes you to memories of love or to a place where you felt pain or back to your childhood or to a joyful place, a place you shared with others or to a place where you were alone and it wraps your experiences in sound.
Tess Coffey XPN staff XPN helps make music matter because: it's inclusive, and all mixed up! Even the vocal gymnastics some of the artists employ express Life - from the bottomed-out voice of Tom Waits, the sublime luster of Ella Fitzgerald on a Saturday morning Sleepy Hollow. It's all in there and it's great art.
Mark Layton Music is the story that we all read. It's always on and you can join in at any time. Music has always soothed my soul and when it feels good it makes your soul soar.
Raymond Heffner Specifically, "Blues" music matters to me. As Willie Dixon once said, "Blues are the roots - all else are the fruits". WXPN is one of the last regional stations where this foundation of so much modern music can be found. Long live the blues - and the "Blues Show" with Jonny Meister.
Elizabeth Scott XPN staff Music matters to me because to borrow the words of Bob Marley, when the music hits me, I feel no pain. However, in all honesty music really does affect me on many levels. It can pump me up, chill me out, and totally just change my mood, mostly for the better. I know that certain music can depress me too, and usually try to avoid those acts. But sometimes, on a cold rainy day depressing music just feels right.
Janis Martin-Hughes XPN staff Music matters to me because it takes me away without ever leaving my desk/car/home - I can travel the world through music.
Wes Bower XPN staff Music matters to me because it is my constant companion, whether I am working, driving, exercising, doing projects, etc - I have music with me. I couldn't imagine my life without music and the joy it brings to me. Either live or recorded, music fills my heart, mind, and soul in a unique and special way.
Dan Reisteter Music matters because it is part of the cycle of life. Think about the songs you first heard when you were a kid growing up, that you listened to on your first date....in high school and at certain key moments throughout your life. When you hear those songs now, they take you back to those important moments of your life.
Music matters because it is like the air we breath, the water we drink, the sunshine that gives us life. It brings happiness, opens the mind, and stimulates all we do.
New music is like the spring time. We look forward to hearing the fresh, new creative output of a newfound artist, just like we look forward to new life each spring.
I could not imagine a day without music. It stimulates our thinking, helps us reflect, exposes us to new ideas and thoughts.
Music matters because of the creative energy artists put into writing and singing it.
Music matters because it is us.
Naila Francis It can turn the most ordinary of moments into a transcendent experience, and give voice to those matters of heart and soul where words so often escape us.
Vincent Vescio Being a member of XPN and a member of the Elwood James Band music is a major part of my life. My siblings and I were raised to appreciate the roll the Arts play in society. XPN has helped to enrich our musical (art) experience by presenting a variety of music not readily available on radio today. I hope that XPN will continue to have an open door policy for new music and continue to champion artist that would otherwise go unrecognized.
Gene Shay Folk Show host Music matters to me because great music brings us together, wraps us in a blanket of warmth and caring gets us to join hands embrace and makes our heart sing and our soul resonate in the most personal way you can imagine.
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