I remember someone asking the question on Facebook of why people get all out of sorts when musicians die. "You didn't know Tupac. You didn't go to school with Aaliyah. Why does it matter so much to you?"
The answer, as I explained in a reply on the friend's post where I saw it, is simple.
In many cases, we get through the highs and lows of our own lives with music. We remember occasions by song. I'll list a few examples.
-I will never forget 'Black & Yellow' after my friend and his wife came out to it at their wedding reception (he's black, she's Asian).
-Changing Faces' 'Stroke You Up'...this fine girl I was dancing with turned around and grabbed me when it came on during the homecoming dance my junior year in HS.
-CeCe Peniston's 'Inside That I Cried'...someone played it at a Christmas party within three minutes of me getting my heart broken for the first time. Yeah, that was fun.
-112's 'Cupid'...um, let's not get into that one.
Wherever there are life-changing events, music is usually not far behind. That's why we feel it when musicians die. Their art reflects our lives: not only the moments, but sometimes our lives in general. It helps set moods and pushes us in general directions toward where we want to go. We embrace our full selves with it.
We've already lost a few musicians this year, and lost another great one Sunday. Whitney Houston has her own post here (http://thejahfiles.blogspot.com/2012/02/whitney-houston-post.html). Just in the last week we lost Chuck Brown, Donna Summer, and Robin Gibb.
I can't comment much on Brown since I've never really listened to go go music. Summer made some absolutely great songs. Hot Stuff, She Works Hard For The Money, On The Radio, Love to Love You Baby, Last Dance...hmm, I wonder how many guys over the years got numbers during that song.
And then there's Gibb, who with his two brothers made some of the most timeless songs in the history of recorded music. You Should Be Dancing, Stayin' Alive (which anchored what was the biggest-selling album of all time...until another guy famous for performing with his brothers took that title a few years later), and this offering (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpqqjU7u5Yc&ob=av3e) of utterly masterful yet simple elegance were among their greatest hits.
Songs like those mentioned - and artists like those mentioned - help change and shape lives. Women are still not earning the same salaries as men for the same work. Think a certain Donna song doesn't apply? If you've ever been unsure about how someone feels about you, that song available via the link is the business.
Of course it's not just about the ones we've lost this week, or this year...but it'd take quite a while to run down any kind of justifiable list. At any rate, these songs and these artists are there for us through our most momentous of occasions. The thing to remember is that as we live through them when they make these timeless pieces of art, they in turn live through us after they pass on.
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