Independent Post #3

You gotta love random, annoying-as-hell emails that show up in your inbox.

Because one day, one of those emails will present you with a diamond of sorts, and your time and patience with looking through the assortment of emails that have appeared in your inbox overnight will have finally paid off.

Anyway, time to actually explain what I'm talking about.

One thing that I think about whilst reflecting on this course so far is that while we have definitely talked about music in this course - it is definitely been a subject that has come up - we never really got to thoroughly discuss the concepts of music in the course, and it's a bit disheartening.

Of course it's also understandable; how does one dedicate merely one course to the ideas of music, am I right?

I mean, it would have been interesting to learn how to properly write a music review.

I took a writing class in my second year where we were to write a review, and I originally intented to write a review on a CD.

The plan was, I was going to sit there and listen to the music, take notes, and then come up with some sort of review.

Here's the thing though:

I find it very difficult to try and review music.

Maybe it was just the type of music I chose to review (the CD was "Ceremonials' by Florence + The Machine), but I was unable to go through with it and instead decided to write a review on a Young Adult novel I had recently finished.

But, let's be honest, writing a music review seems entirely different than writing an exhibition review or mainstage review or film review, am I right?

I still can't fully fathom it.

I think it would be nice to learn how to attempt this kind of writing in the future. Even now, with an example of music in front of me, I can't do a full review, but I can still comment on it.

So the diamond found in my email inbox was a message from the site StumbleUpon, which I joined at some point for some reason unknown to me now.

But anyway, inside the email was a link to a delightful music arrangement. The link was titled, as the picture above shows, "99 Songs to Make Your Homework Awesome."

I've been sitting here listening to this playlist for a while now, and I have to admit, it's awfully soothing.

It's not too excitable, in that it doesn't distract me from my work. And I haven't heard any of the songs before, which is also in a way helpful for me to concentrate on the homework I have in front of me.

With this playlist playing on my computer in the background, I've been able to get a lot of writing done and I haven't yet stopped to sing along to a tune, or been otherwise distracted by the music.

Here's one thing I've wondered as I listen to this music though:

Is it only relaxing and promoting me to work harder because it's been advertised that way? Is there perhaps no merit in the music itself but only in the way that the playlist has been presented to me? Is this some sort of placebo effect brought on by the image above and my own wishful thinking.

I guess there's no real way that I myself will know for sure . . .

Guess that's it for now! The link to the playlist in question can be found here, if you so desire to check it out.

~ topCAPcritic