Tag Archives: Music

Adoring This Song

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Most would describe my taste in music to cover a wide range of genres. I’m always open to listening to new songs and exploring new genres to better understand, not only the music, but also the people that listen to the music. As I got more into music, I found myself to be primarily listening to hip hop being that I like the hype of the community, the compilation of the beats and how they make you feel. However, I have an interest to see why it is that different people prefer different genres.

These past couple weeks though I’ve been exploring the pop rock genre through Harry Styles. My coworker has been obsessed with his music and has been playing his songs on our speakers at work. Most of the time, I’m too focused on getting my work done and miss some of the songs, but for some reason this song stuck out to me. Not only did I like the melody, but when I searched the lyrics and watched the music video I saw the message behind the song. Schiller describes that aesthetic experience harmonizes opposites such as our senses and our intellect. I felt like listening to the this song and watching the video not only puts you in a good vibes mood, but also makes you think about the lengths that you will go for someone or something that you love. The video along with the song also hints at the concept of letting things go if you love them even if their release may be of more benefit to them than you. I hope y’all enjoy the song that I have grown to vibe with because it has a beat that puts you in a toe-tapping mood.

With Every Moment, I’m Shaking

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Something that is aesthetically pleasing is usually considered beautiful. The word aesthetic is usually paired with senses, in specific sight and hearing. This song by The Shakes, in my opinion, represents both of those senses. The video itself is pleasing to the eye and captivates one’s attention. It starts off as an old-time movie in black and white, and this then shifts to the actual music video in color. The use of colors in this video help to give it different vibes that invoke different reactions due to the meanings of different colors. It also helps to give it a nostalgic feel. In addition to this, the sound of the music (starts at about 1:15) is very slow and helps to give it an indie feel. When listening to this song, one can picture themselves in certain scenarios. This will vary from person to person due to our different experiences. This invokes both the sensual and intellectual aspects because, through its use of the senses, one can feel emotional and/or physical pleasure and this can cause one’s mind to think about certain situations and create ideas or emotions that tie into the intellectual part of aesthetics. Through its effect on one’s emotions and thoughts, music becomes aesthetic.

A Rather Touching Song

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Touch is typically depicted as one of the five main human senses, yet in a truer sense one could argue that touch is every sense. Sight is light interacting receptors in the eyes, taste is molecules interacting with taste buds, hearing is sound-waves interacting with bones in the ear, smell is the interaction of olfactory receptors with molecules. To put simply, touch is the only true sense that allows us to experience the senses at all. Without touch, we cannot enjoy the true Beauty that surrounds us.

The song begins with a distorted, almost alien culmination of sounds with a voice remembering the sensation of touch of which it has lost, which without it does not know where it belongs, yet recognizes that even with touch it still asks for something more beyond touch. Why is that? With Schiller’s philosophy, I would argue the individual, despite enjoying its memories of touch, they were only memories of sensual experiences. The voice emphasizes the waves of emotions that came with the sense of touch, more specifically a kiss, which brings with it a sudden upbeat liveliness to the song describing, “hunger like a storm”, which touch satisfies this hunger too well as the song mellows from its climax, stating, “You’ve given me too much to feel”, the individual is overwhelmed by sensual experience. Without intellectual thought to which the individual can answer the questions behind what touch has brought to them and its meaning. They are overwhelmed and still unable to convince themselves of their existence. In other words, there is a meaning to life that goes beyond simply experiencing the aesthetics surrounding us rather as human beings, as our given nature is not to only use our senses but also our intellect to appreciate any type of Beauty.

Music Feeds the Soul

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My favorite music artist right now is a band called LANY. My friend introduced me to them 3 weeks ago and I haven’t been able to stop listening to their music.

The aesthetic experience that I choose to explore is the song “Malibu Nights.” It is about a breakup and all the good memories that are always on your mind after you have your heart broken. Music is something that is a part of life. Music can put sound to complex emotions like love, heartbreak, revenge, loss or to something as simple as taking a walk in nature. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of music is that it allows a person to delve into the feelings of others. In “Malibu Nights”, the listener can feel the sadness of heartbreak even if they have never had their heart broken before. Or if their heart has been broken before, the song brings them back to that time and everything they felt. The ability to feel these harsh and real emotions through music allow listeners to have a sensory experience.

In addition, the fact that music gives insight into others emotions it allows humans to gain intellectual knowledge about another human’s emotional experience. Though, you may have never felt heartbreak or gone through a breakup, you can feel how devastating it is through music. You can learn about another person’s life and really begin to understand the trails and tribulations that life throws at all people. This would allow us to expand our knowledge of how to treat others and what morals we should have as a society. If through music, we can understand each other, than there is hope that with that understanding comes the ability to treat everyone with respect and kindness all people deserve because we all feel the same emotions.

Music can bring forth your own emotions and also give you a window into another person’s emotions. This can help all people to learn how even at the most basic level, all people are human because of our shared emotions.

Music and the Mind

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Music is arguably one of the most important languages of all time. It transcends common limitations many languages face and connects us in a way that is only rivaled by mathematics. It is, by definition, aesthetic. Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy, is an amazing example of this phenomenon. It is a piece designed to be played by a pianist and has no lyrics, yet it still seems to convey a message. From its composition and harmonious melodies, it tells a story from nothing. It expresses the highs and lows, happy moments and sad moments, and even the fleeting and lasting moments of life. It merges the emotions we gain from listening to this beautiful piece of music to something more tangible. It connects it to something on a more intellectual level. In essence, we derive something (meaning) out of what appears to be nothing. This is something that is truly unique to humans and what sets us apart from every other sentient being that we know exists. It also gives us a duty. A responsibility, even. We must be the moral authority that all creatures look to on this planet. Humans have the amazing ability to see beyond what is in front of us. This already makes us better morally in relation to all other creatures on this world. However, does it make us better than one another? The answer can be both yes and no. I think the answer is irrelevant in the eyes of a secure person. Rather, we should be using our gift to simply help one another. To promote a better future and have a fulfilled life. By doing that, we will have proved Schiller; we will have become morally better. And to think, it was a song with no lyrics that spurred us down this path of righteousness. Music is truly a gateway to a better mind and existence.

NF’s Real Music

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“[God] also gave me this as an outlet. This is what music is for me. When I feel something, whether it’s anger, it’s a passion about something, or fustration, like, this is where I go. … This is a therapy for me.“

Nathan John Feuerstein, NF

The quote from above is in the last few minutes of the song. He breaks down why music is such a powerful tool – it is more than just sounds and noise, rather it is something that helps heal. Real music to him is the unification of truth and aesthetic.

If you haven’t heard some of NF’s music outside of his hit songs (like Lie and Let You Down), it can get very dark. Motifs of abuse, depression, and struggling with mental health are interwoven into all his music and it can be very intense. However, this kind of music, in my opinion, is a perfect example of the unification of the faculties. Using music as an outlet is freeing in the exact way Schiller believes art to be a tool that gives us freedom from the constraints of society. In this song, NF addresses the negative perspectives towards his music ( Ex. “Hearing these parents, they telling their kids / My music is violent, you gotta be kidding me”). However in saying “I am not here for acceptance”, he unabashedly raps about difficult subjects like domestic violence in his songs. Moreover, he expresses that he creates for himself, which is in itself an act of freedom. It also can make the audience morally better by opening discussions for mental health to be spoken about more openly. I also really love how you can feel his emotions through his style of rapping and overall tone of the song and video.

Lay Me Down

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This song by Chris Tomlin helps me significantly in letting go of pride. The lyrics are fairly simple: Lay me down I’m not my own. The song helps me realize what I actually care about in life. With this, it allows me to let go of any worries or fears I have currently. This makes me a better person for several reasons. First off, it causes me to care more about the people around me and value them because I’m less focused on my own pride. Meanwhile, it also gives me energy and motivation to live my best life.

Introduction

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Hello. My name is Andrew im a third year computer science major from Salinas CA. I spend most of my free time going out with friends or working out. That being said one of my favorite workouts is MMA training which I have done for about 3-4 years.The book I have found most interesting throughout the Hum sequence would be Plato’s “Symposium” due to his interesting theory on love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrOntz51sYY

HI

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Hello everyone! My name is Cheng-Yu Chiang, but please call me Ben. I am a second-year Electrical Engineering major. I enjoy music, fitness, sports, video games, etc. My favorite book in HUM so far is probably Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince or Thomas More’s Utopia because of their political influence and ideas. Link to my personal website

Here’s a great song for you if you want something different to listen to. It reminds me of home 😉