“It’s hard to dance with the devil on your back, so shake him off.”
I love that song. I love Florence + The Machine, and the cast of Glee covered that particular tune during Tuesday night’s episode (did you watch it? There was an excellent message regarding domestic violence). Their acoustic cover of Shake It Out made me truly focus on the lyrics, and reminded me how powerful music can be.
I started thinking about the way music can speak to a person. Music plays a huge part in my everyday life.
While I’m on the stationary bike each morning, will.i.am tells me to go hard or go home.
When I’m on a road trip, Adele takes up residence in my passenger seat. We’re besties. And sound alike, obviously.
When I’m in a terrible mood, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts tend to make me feel like a bad ass and want to punch someone to rock me right out of it.
My coworkers and I have frequent dance parties to We No Speak Americano. Like, at least once a week. We’re total guidos.
When I was in junior high, one of my absolute favorite teachers in the whole world taught a Religion class (I went to a Catholic school). I think I was in the eighth or ninth grade. We had to bring in a song every Friday, and he would choose a different student each week to play their pick. We had everything from Green Day to Blink 182 to Tim McGraw. We listened to the songs each week as a group, and had to interpret what we thought it meant and share our thoughts with the class. It was just a minor part of the lesson plan, but I’ll never forget it. One day, we listened to Uncle Kracker’s “Follow Me” and discovered it was about a man convincing a woman to leave her husband. I would have never realized what it meant without making a conscious effort to pay attention to the lyrics.
Since then, I tend to look for a message in my music. Some songs, of course, don’t have much of one.
I’m looking at you, Ke$ha.
What kind of role does music play in your life? I know it’s an absolute necessity for me when I workout. I forgot my headphones at home last week, and my hour at the gym was unbearable. I don’t want to hear my own heartbeat, I don’t want to hear the man next to me wheezing, and the music distracts me from everyone’s my sweaty smell 
How often do you listen to music? Do you ever identify messages in the songs you listen to?