You hear the Nokia ringtone from your mobile and you immediately remember that your late for your hot date
So you dash into the elevator, where you are met by some soothing jazz. You reach the bottom floor and sprint into your car.
As you accelerate rapidly towards the cinema, dodging blind old men and small kids on pink bikes, the radio is set to 101 FM and it constantly blares out adverts for the latest Wonder bra and that miracle hangover cure which you could really use right now, each accompanied by a catchy jingle June.
Eventually you make it into the cinema as the main characters dog is being euthanized, to the sound of tear-jerking violins, and your girlfriend crying her eyes out.
If you think backwards, the movie wouldn't seen anywhere near a sad where it's not for the violins – good music undeniably has the power to evoke a strong sense of emotion in people.
Music can also be very effective due to its uncanny ability to be deeply memorable, as can be seen by the successfulness of ‘101 FM’ ‘Nokia’ and ‘Friday’.
And there we have it: music is a deeply ingrained part of our society (as well is that of the west African rainforest gypsies). It is without doubt a key aspect of every known form of mass media, with the exception of books and magazines of course. It is also often an important aspect of entertainment: obviously, music itself in concerts and CDs and suchlike, but also in games (sport and videogames) and the entertainment side of parts of the media I previously mentioned. Music is clearly a huge and incredibly significant aspect of modern life.
I hope that by now you are beginning to think a little differently about music; but hold on, because there's a lot more to it than its significance.
I have a passion for music because it is a challenge. I play saxophone, piano, and a little bit of clarinet, as well as occasional singing enquires and suchlike. And if there's one thing that you will quickly discover when you start to learn the art of music, it's that music is undeniably a challenge. It is an infinite study which many people have devoted their entire lives to.
I recently worked out that due to the fact that there are 23 keys on my saxophone, there are 2.58x10 to the 23 different button combinations – or, if you'd prefer, 25.8 times the number of grains of sand in every beach in the world put together. The number of combinations of keys on a piano are significantly larger than a Googol (if any of you know what that is).
This almost infinite amount of key combinations has led to a massive amount of writing music; there is always variety between songs and obviously between genres but there can even be variety within an individual song.
Of course, one of the things I love most about music is the performance aspect of it. I recently had to make a spontaneous sax solo in front of thousands of people, which was both exhilarating and nerve wracking but it was worth it.
Music is an ever expanding and ever-changing art form that can be more complex than maths lessons with Mr Napper, more abstract than Picasso and infinitely harder to understand than why President Bush was elected not once but twice as president of America. I'd like to close with a quote about jazz which is my preferred musical genre: “when it first reached Paris during World War I the response of the people registered as shock: the music was not simply musical, they said – it was physical, visual, social and emotional as well.”
And there we have it; music is deeply significant – not only to me, but to society as a whole – and it is also memorable, emotional, powerful and complex beyond belief. (Unless you're talking about “Friday” of course).
Thank you.