Many people, nowadays, describe their music tastes as “eclectic”.
And I’m the same way.
However…. there’s a common theme I’ve identified in the music I like most.
And the theme is “celebrate and sustain.”
I Like Music that Celebrates and Sustains
This music helps me celebrate life, from a deep place. Or it helps me feel myself & gather myself at a deep level.
One way or another, it helps me keep going, and keep growing.
It evolves me.
There are 2 common elements that I can pinpoint in a lot of this music that celebrates and sustains, fascinates me, and contributes to my evolution as a human being:
1. It Touches Deep
It touches something dark emotionally within – and then brings it back up into the light.
This seems to help me acknowledge what I’m feeling deep down. For example: pain, darkness, stuckness, etc.
But this music is not depressing, because – it doesn’t leave me there. As I said, it helps bring my emotions and perception back up into the light.
It offers redemption.
I find forms of this across all genres, including electronic music, R&B, country, new age, gospel, world music, etc.
2. Trance Elements
These are repetitive elements in music that entrain you into a different mind-body state.
It sounds incredibly nerdy to say it like this, but – some of the most common trance elements are known as “a groove”, or “a beat”.
These are the rhythmic patterns that move you more into your body. They literally get you moving.
But there’s also trance-laden music that’s not dance music.
This is music, also with repetitive elements, that’s more about your mental patterns & stabilizing these.
Another thing to consider is that trance elements can be slowed-down… To achieve a different kind of effect, often on a more emotional level.
Trance Can Either Move You or Sustain You
So basic ideas I’m laying out here about trance are:
A) Trance elements in music are something to be aware of.
B) These can move you on at least 3 different levels: mind, body, and emotions.
On the latter point, here are a couple of different examples of trance elements in music, as I’m thinking about them, from widely different genres:
Beyonce Love on Top TEDSMOOTH remix – with the drone elements and the build at the end… to me this is about the emotions and the body both. I cannot help but feel & MOVE hearing this remix!
It’s a classic trance pattern as it escalates you up the “ladder” of ecstatic feeling, so to speak, from around 2:30 minutes on.
Genevieve – Emotional effects. A deep melancholic song by Perry Blake, in which trance elements are used sparingly.
But the slow drone 4 times, around the lyrics “That’s why…” drops me into this biological place of feeling, deeper than any thoughts or story I’m having.
There’s also the pronounced beat, which keeps you going with a sense of living energy underlying the melancholy.
Love Signal – By Jandy Rainbow. This is more about the mind-calming level of things, for me.
This Australian artist came out of the rave scene, however in recent years she’s specialized in music for meditation.
Jandy’s especially known for featuring brainwave entrainment through binaural beats.
I’ve listened to this track so many times after an exhausting day in the city, when I just needed pure recuperation and regeneration.
Summing it all up
If you’re yearning to drop deeper into your human experience — whether bodily experience, emotional experience, or experiencing more peace in your own mind — the above elements in music are something to seek out and be more mindful of.
Try to stay aware of HOW your music is sustaining and evolving you!
There is SO much more to say about this topic, including the legacy of humanity using trance over the generations in various forms.
Beginning perhaps with drums in shamanic music, and leading up to modern “trance” and electronic dance music in the Western World…
More will certainly be said!
But in the meantime… What are your deep thoughts on the music you like?
Have you unlocked the code of what makes music meaningful to you?
I’m interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments below!
