You’re riding your bike.
The autumn winds rush against your face as the evening bridges the sun and moon. You’re sleep deprived and hungover (you’re not getting any younger in this scenario). This ride is all that’s keeping you feeling like utter shit today.
In the middle of this ride, you realize you haven’t listened to any music — not even a single background note. Only podcasts have graced your headphones. So, you stop to flip on Spotify. You fire up a house song that soundtracked someone’s Instagram story and lingered in your mind until now.
It doesn’t take long for you shoulders to dance around and your head to bob, even if it’s at the risk of your own safety.
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You didn’t decide to move like this. You just are.
Meanwhile, an inner cocktail of endorphins bubbles into consciousness. All of a sudden, you feel completely alive and full of joy within your solitude. You’re transported somewhere not quite celestial, but it feels like you’re on the precipice of its territory.
It’s inexplicable, yet sublime, and not a single word has even graced your ears.
If you ask me, this is the role music should play in our everyday lives: to enhance the present moment and let it augment how you feel. It won’t always bring you elation; many times, it’ll console you when your broken, supercharge your anger, or help you focus on the task that lies in front of you. But when it does foster feelings of positivity and connection, that little sliver of life is just way fucking better.
For me, that bike-riding moment was elevated by a 7-minute instrumental house song ironically titled “The Best Rapper Alive” by DJ Streaks. But you don’t need to be riding a bike or listening to that genre to know this feeling.
A similar effect happens when “Shout” by the Isley Brothers launches a wedding into some beautiful, animalistic fervor (Wedding Crashers perfectly encapsulates this tradition). This also happens when “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen is played in a bar or in between bands at a concert, and everyone, regardless of age, is belting every single word, regardless of quality.
From the mundane to the the tentpole, music serves as more than the soundtrack to our lives. It’s the magical ingredient that intensifies any situation; from how connected we feel to those we’re singing and dancing with to turning your hangover around with a euphoric, gratifying bike ride to jamming out by yourself on a Monday morning to the Gaslight Anthem’s The ‘59 Sound on vinyl.
Put simply, it’s one of the small wonders of this life that make any day or any moment worthwhile.