Rough Introduction/Personal Anecdote

If I had to recall the first time I heard music, I wouldn’t be able to. Did my mom play music for me before I was born? After I came home from the hospital? On my first birthday? Music has been so deeply ingrained in my life for as long as I can remember, so trying to figure out when I first heard it would be impossible. As a child, my dream was to become a singer. I loved music and I loved singing; I joined the chorus at my elementary school in third grade which was the earliest one could join. I loved music class at school, and my teacher recommended me for “music enrichment” which was a special class she taught for students who enjoyed learning more about music. Only one other student besides myself took the class, and we learned how to play the violin as well as the piano. This was my first time learning to play an instrument other than the recorder and while it was really difficult it was also very fulfilling. I also signed up for band classes after school and played the flute for one year, but I realized that I wasn’t as passionate about playing instruments as I was about singing. I do regret not keeping up with at least playing the piano as that was the instrument I enjoyed learning and playing the most. Even outside of school, music was so ingrained in my life: the theme songs of TV shows that I watched after coming home from school that I still catch myself humming occasionally to this day, the Taylor Swift and Kelly Clarkson CD’s that I would play over and over again on my little blue CD player alone in my room writing down the lyrics as I listened. I would listen to country music with my best friend even though I could never understand the appeal, and even now that we have long since stopped being friends I am always reminded of running around with water balloons in her backyard in the middle of summer whenever I hear certain songs. To me, music is such a large part of my life and I truly wouldn’t be the same without it. I have heard songs that have changed the way I think, songs that made me cry, songs that made me want to dance. Some songs make me think of old friends or significant others, or specific moments in time. The way that music has been able to evoke such powerful memories and emotions from me is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time; something as simple as a mixture of sounds can change your life. Because all art already encompasses the thoughts and emotions of their artist, art does not have to attempt to have a certain significance or meaning.

TRIAC
There are no requirements to be able to make art. As an artist, what medium you choose and how you choose to express your emotions through art are entirely up to you. If there were strict guidelines for what you could and couldn’t create, we would not have a lot of the beautiful works of art we have today. Nina Simone declares that “An Artist’s duty is to reflect the times”. While I understand Simone’s idea, I propose that all artists are already reflecting the times whether or not they are trying to. All of the things people are thinking and feeling are reflected in their artwork through music, paintings, dance, or film, etc. By placing a “duty” onto an artist their work is restricted, which would produce work not reflective of the times but instead reflective of their disdain at having their art broken down into their “duty”. Artists do not have to consciously work towards making something reflective of the times: the products of their work will be indicative of the times regardless.