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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Music - Seduction, Love, Melancholy and what else?

Right, I'm deciding to be an Aphrodite now, introducing the concept of seduction by music rather than by touch. Ever had that thought? That those mere melodies, with lyrics uttered by the sexy voices of Jennifer, Madonna, Lady Gaga, Christina, Britney, Whitney, Kylie (and the list goes on) could actually turn you on? Personally I'm (un)lucky enough to experience it for myself - 'Dirty Nasty Boy' by Christina Aguilera in her Back to Basics album and 'Love to Love You Baby' by the late Donna Summer. They both had arousing, well, moans by the ladies, depicting a virtual scene of a culminating orgasm. Why don't you go hear them for yourself and get a free AHEM touch? ;)

Xtina's Live performance of 'Dirty Nasty Boy' with the PCDs!
Summer's first single - Love to Love You Baby

So apparently some survey conducted in the UK showed that more than 2,000 Brits are more aroused by music than by touch. But that doesn’t mean aspiring lovers should just make due with whatever’s on the radio. Different songs serve different purposes. Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” is best for a romantic dinner. Abba’s “Dancing Queen” came in first for dance-club flirtation. Another Gaye track, “Sexual Healing,” was found to set the mood best. None of those choices seem particularly surprising, but what about during the act itself?

There's no contention, at least objectively, that there's something music can do to people that nothing else can do. Aside from food, it is the only optimistic thing that brings people together to celebrate life and be merry. It's visceral and ethereal, some hits make you wanna DANCE,
some make you wanna cry/reflect/reminisce/be an emo kid whatsoever and of course, some just make you wanna get it on. 

We grew up with the sounds of ABBA's 'Dancing Queen', 'The Sound of Music's 'Favourite Things' and the blessed voices of Mariah, Celine and Whitney, and despite the fact that they're all of different genres, they have something in common. They invoke varied emotions, thoughts and feelings when we hear them. The argument that only certain forms of music should be considered 'music' like Indie, Classical, Jazz etc is clearly flawed in that it blatantly disregards the immense creativity involved in the clever amalgamation of lyrics, sound tones and beats and tunes in Pop, Rock, R&B and Metal. Such dogmatic assertions about this intangible gift from the heavens are tenuous at best and should NEVER be accepted by the general public - should a situation in 'Footloose' ever occur, where dance music was actually banned simply because someone died in a car crash after partying too hard. 

Aphrodite and Apollo probably worked together in some ways to create today's Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Jessie J, Cheryl Cole and perhaps Rihanna. Musically seductive, our entertainers have bent the rules of compositional styles to their advantage, forming yet another era of music making, post-contemporary perhaps? Credits to the Bachs of the Baroque, Mozarts and Beethovens of the Classical and Chopins and Liszts of the Romantic. They all had a part to play in the musical influences that pervaded across the centuries. It is my hope, then, that this culture of heightened creativity, art and variation continue to emplace its reign in the coming years of fabulous living in our humble abode we so call Earth.