Drunk Singing and Bringing the World together

I was listening to Pandora on my computer the other day. For those of you who may be technologically inept, or just not familiar with Pandora, it is an amazing application where you choose your favorite genre, song, or singer, and it will chose all of the music that is similar to and thinks that you will enjoy. I started out with country, listening to the musical talents of Lady Antebellum, George Straight, and Rascall Flatts. Then I switched it to rock/heavy metal with Seether, Three Days Grace, and Linkin Park. I realized that neither of these genres were what I was in the mood for. Then it dawned on me, OLDIES!

There is such a nostalgic feeling I get when I listen to band such as Fleetwood Mac, Journey, CCR. I mentioned before that growing up with JJ, our parents consistently had this kind of music playing in the background of every family event. James Taylor, Tracey Chapman, and The Beatles started to feel like close friends. Then I realized as I listened to "Don't stop Believin" By Journey, that these bands have followed me through my young adult life also. Certain songs like "Don't Stop Believin", "Brown Eyed Girl", "Pour Some Sugar on Me", "Benny and the Jets", "Piano Man" seems to make an entire bar join together in a God-awful rendition of group karaoke and uncoordinated flash mob dancing. Complete strangers put arms around each other's shoulders, swaying back and forth while we beg along with Billy Joel, "Sing us a song Piano man, sing us a song tonight," or jump around and accidentally spit all over our neighbors as we belt out, "B-B-B-Benny and the Jets" while making up the rest of the words to the song. It is as if for those three and a half minutes everyone forgets about their differences, ignores the troubles going on in the world, come together in drunk, not so harmonious voices FEEL. They feel happiness, nostalgic, maybe even sadness, but they feel.
I have always turned to music regardless of the occasion. If I am mad or running I listen to heavy metal like Marylin Manson, lately I have been listening to a lot of country and christian music for obvious reasons. If I am in a happy, calm mood, I listen to the old rock and roll. I love music and no matter where I am, what is going on, I can always turn to my old friend. I can't say it any better than one of the all time best music advocates and artists, Bob Marley:

“One good thing about music, when it hits- you feel no pain”
and
“Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”~Author Unknown