Music.

Settle in for Dashie’s storytime everypony, I’ve got some things I want to talk about.

I used to be an active participant on the series of websites known as Fandom. I jumped from forum to forum, but I found my home at some point on the Wings of Fire Wiki. I stayed there for a while.

Looking back on those days, that Wiki sucks. I don’t regret my time spent there, and I learned some life lessons I carry with me to this day, it was instrumental in making me who I am today.

They used to have a little fun series known as “Last Post Wins” or LPW for short. Back in the days on Fandom when they still had forums, they used to have a hard cap on 500 posts per thread, so the idea was that whoever got that last post, well, won. This was a very popular game, and it made it well beyond 200 threads until the Fandom shifted to the modern Discussions format and the game became impossible to perform, and then the terrible moderation team shut down all non-WoF themed Discussions, so anything resembling it was impossible as well.

I recall, vividly, a massive argument I had with a user on the site on these old LPW threads. I was constantly referencing music, derailing conversations, posting lyrics, rattling off obscure trivia… and this person asked me in no uncertain terms, that they hated that I talked about music all the time.

They claimed that I had to make everything about music, that they hated that I said stuff nobody would get, and that music had to be my entire personality.

I probably threw back some venom, because I was a jerk in those days. But, if someone told me that today on Discord I might even consider blocking them, I never block people.

I remember getting so involved in this argument that I found myself breaking down into tears because someone just told me, to my face, that they hated how much I loved… what I loved. They later apologized a long time later, but the damage had already been done.

There’s probably some remnants today, but thankfully, nobody’s been quite this vicious with me since, and most people I’ve had long conversations with find my hyperfixation on music endearing, even if they don’t get it.

But I also remember one of the things I told this user.

I gave a big long paragraph that I don’t remember much of, but I do remember one thing. When I was in 7th and 8th grade, I attended Junior Achievement Finance Park, and for my 8th grade year, I was living alone on a budget of $27k, for the record, $27k is less than I’d make if I were to get my entry level non-conveyable packing job back, which has a salary of $31k (minus all the fees and taxes, but Finance Park had those things as needs as well). I mentioned that on this $27k budget, I set aside $80 for entertainment.

Why?

Because all I wanted for entertainment was $80 for a CD player and a singular album. At the time, Reaching Into Infinity by DragonForce. Nowadays, probably Preacher’s Daughter by Ethel Cain.

I mentioned this to the person who was arguing with me about making everything about music. I literally set aside $80 because I loved music so much I was willing to entertain myself off a single album.

So… why do I bring this all up?

Well, I’m bringing this all up because I love music, of course. However, I’d forgotten about why I grew to love music in the first place.

I’ve been listening to a couple albums a week, using AOTY charts. I usually listen to the most anticipated album and then one that’s getting knockout reviews. This week (from Friday), that was 10,000 Gecs and Praise a God That Chews but Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds) (yes, that’s the album title). I love hearing really neat production. I love hearing weird takes on existing sounds, I love hearing what people can do with manipulating noise. Hell, I love manipulating noise myself (check out YouTube Erinn Rose new music coming hopefully soon).

Music is cool.

But… that wasn’t it.

It’s why I had a continued appreciation for music, but not why I started liking it in the first place.

You thought Dashie’s storytime was done? Sorry.

So, way back in February, I mentioned that I’d struck a close friendship with someone I met on the MssieMae Discord server. Well, our relationship has gotten deeper, I’ve developed a bit of a crush and right now the relationship is floating somewhere between “more than friends” and “best friends”.

But he knows this. It’s fine. Last night, we were on an absolute flirting blitz on a public server while I was participating in a Music Night. Somehow in the middle (or before), he sent me a song over DMs.

Blossom by Porter Robinson.

So after all this flirting (half-jokingly), and after some of the things we’d said, I decided that before I was going to go to bed, I was going to listen to the song because I’d forget otherwise.

The song?

It was a beautiful song about how the singer loved this person with all their heart. How they wished it could last forever. How they wanted to keep them safe, free from all danger. How the only thing they wanted to do, was to make this person happy.

I was crying at the end of it.

He could’ve sent me this song under completely normal pretenses, but after that night, listening to it? Sometimes there’s a song that strikes right to your soul, that twists your feelings in such a way that you can’t help but cry.

He apologized for sending me a song that made me cry, but that’s not a bad thing.

See, when a song makes me cry… that’s a greatest honor a song can achieve.

Then I remembered why I starting loving music in the first place.

Dave Grohl is quoted as saying one of my favorite quotes I think I’ve ever heard. Apparently, he once said, “My favorite thing about music is that you can sing a song to 40,000 different people and they’ll be singing it back for 40,000 different reasons.”

There’s a song for everyone… and everyone has a song. A truly unique song. If a song is your favorite song of all time, it has to have spoken to you on a deeper level that’s personal and may not be shared by everyone.

Songs can be emblematic of emotions, and music excels at getting it across.

All media can, but the way that media excels at portraying emotions is when it utilizes that medium to its maximum.

When it comes to music, that maximum is almost entirely based around raw emotion. Portraying sadness through noise, or any other emotion you want.

You can utilize that in songs like Blossom, an ode to beauty, to happiness, and to love. Something done so well that it reminds me what music can be. This won’t be the last time you hear about this song.

And the beautiful thing about that? My reason is one of 40,000 distinct reasons why someone might love that song just as much.

I think that’s beautiful.

And until next time; be awesome!
-Dashie