I Love Music!: Music Therapy

Find An Outlet

As I am sitting here right now, I am listening to “Sunshine” by Babyface and am automatically transformed back to the year 1989. I am flooded by so many memories. It is funny how a song can jog a memory or take you back to a different place. Music does that for me. For the past two weeks, I really had not listened to a lot of music because I was mourning the loss of both my Grandmother and Aunt Alleyne, but just the last few days, I slowly got back into listening to my music and began writing again, my two biggest creative releases.
1989 was obviously such a different year than 2013. As I listen to various songs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I am thinking of pictures, situations, and people from that era. Like every time I hear the songs “Shake” by The Gap Band, “Shining Star” by The Manhattans, “Don’t Stop The Music” by Yarbrough & Peoples, “Double Dutch Bus” by Frankie Smith, I think back to growing up as a small child at 217 N. Park in Bonner Springs which was my Grandmother’s house where my dad and his siblings grew up. I hear the songs “You, Me & He” by Mtume, “Ah, Ah, Ah” by The Jones Girls, “I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On” by Cherelle, the memories from 1984 flood back and I think of my Great-Grandparents 60th wedding anniversary and their picnic when my cousin Vincent told me that I was “too young” to listen to that music and I could not fully understand it, little did he know.
It is funny how songs can do that for you. Anything from the 90s takes me back to growing up on Insley Ave, going to the high school dances, walking one street over to Springdale, sleepovers at my cousins’ houses, and going to visit my family in California. Music is such a stress reliever and brings out so many different emotions. Sometimes, I get a little misty eyed when I hear songs from the eras I grew up in. It reminds me of simpler times, and sometimes painfully reminds me of the loved ones who are no longer here. When I hear the music I think that it was before 9/11, before Newtown or Aurora. While the 70s, 80s, and 90s were hardly all peaceful, there was a certain innocence of those decades that you cannot find today. This is why I love old school music so much. No other type of music can spark memories in my mind, reenergize me when I am feeling down or tired, and give me peace of mind. When I want to get the creative juices flowing, I put on some Anita Baker or Stevie Wonder. Nobody inspires me to write like they do.
So as you deal with the day to day hustle and bustle of life, deal with the stress and strain of it all put on a little Natalie Cole sing with reckless abandon “I’ve Got Love On My Mind” or to a little Earth, Wind & Fire telling you to cheer up with “Keep Your Head To The Sky”. There is a reason music is the universal language. It gives comfort and evokes so much emotion and reflection.

Happy Listening!