As someone completely and utterly consumed by music and it’s industry, I can spurt out a fountain of details depicting my favorite songs and bands, the perfect setlist I’ve experienced live, my favorite interview with an artist and what it meant to me, the importance of live music, and the way a person’s favorite song might be able to tell you more about that person than even they can articulate. But from the outside, you can’t quite understand or appreciate that. If you don’t care for music or fathom its beauty, you don’t hold this fabric of music near and dear to your heart. Because that’s what anyone in love with music will tell you it is; a fabric. Music is one huge, welcoming, encompassing quilt. Every album, artist, and song add patch after patch making more room for people to feel at home under. We confide in, rest in music. We curl up underneath it and take shelter behind words strung together far more perfect than we could ever say. We hold the quilt up over us like a victory flag, dancing along to the beat of the best days of our lives. And we use this same quit to wipe away our tears when only chords can comfort us. This quilt gets bigger and bigger every year, month, and day with more tours and more fans, with more and more people joining underneath this world of sound waves that can only truly be appreciated from the inside. We stand up proudly underneath, waving and motioning for more people to join us, knowing they can only experience full appreciation through participation. This quilt knows no boundary of language, religion, location, occupation, age or stage of life. This global fabric stretches as far as the eye can see, and we dance freely below the fresh universe it is so kind to let us dwell in. A movie with no score? A silent drive to work? A first dance to no love song? We wouldn’t dare to even consider these things because music is ingrained into our daily lives, so much so that sometimes we don’t even realize it. The quilt surrounds us by the second. So run, sprint, gallop and hop and skip beneath it. Buy the concert tickets, share the playlist, appreciate the background music and dance like no one is watching. These moments are fleeting, but they can feel infinite under this quilt of cosmic composition.
Words by Haley Walker
Photo by Mac Cornish
