I've used music as an escape. A way to celebrate life and to mourn life. I use it to not feel alone when depressed. It rules my life I don't think I'd be the same at all. I got through some pretty dark times in my life and sometimes all I had was a cd to help me forget. Who know's what I would've turned to to forget all my worries. I find that some things work, but it's only temporary. As long as you have ears music sticks and that's what I love. I'd probably be psychotic in a straight jacket or a manic depressent popping pills to feel numb if I never listened to music.

Same here except for the probably be a psychotic part.

I agree with this...but if music disappeared and I neither listened nor played I'd probably just be a little more bored until I diverted my energies elsewhere...like back to studio arts! :)

I don't think that my life would be that bad or change much without music, since I feel many alternatives probably exist for gaining some of what music can offer, such as a means of escape, celebrating life, mourning life, and feeling less alone in our a l o n e n e s s.

I'd still be left with the written word, so I'd be okay. I might swim more often, though, to make up for a lack of music. There's something about swimming that has always struck me as very musical, which is interesting since it is so silent and otherworldly under the water. Maybe the similarity is that swimming fills up the sense of touch in much the same way as music fills up the sense of hearing.

swimming is just Zen for me

I wouldn't have a hobby and life mission if it wasn't music. I wouldn't be a blogger, musician, show supporter if it weren't for music.

This sums me up as well.

Perfect statement that.

Really?? :) No one has ever said I've made a perfect statement before. I am basking in this moment (bask, bask)!

Yes, that's true, swimming is very Zen, but maybe that's the reason swimming reminds me of listening to music. Both seem meditative to me, drawing you into yourself but also making you feel connected to what surrounds you. Both fill up a sense so fully.

In my last post I forgot to answer BTown's original question. I have never been into any particular artist in a major way, although I have felt moved by certain songs now and then, so my life wouldn't really have been any different if I hadn't heard the music of particular artists.

Most music just doesn't affect me deeply. Music is a little like eating cookies. I have enjoyed many different types of cookies, but without certain cookies life wouldn't change drastically for me. I *would* miss the texture, criss-cross pattern, and smell of peanut butter cookies, though, if I had never had one and could know what I was missing. Peanut butter cookies feel like home.

Similarly, occasionally there is a song that moves me very much and stays in my memory so that I carry some of its feeling with me even when I'm done listening to it. If I had never heard that song I would miss it, if I knew it existed to be missed.

One such song is...

9.5 years of guitar playing would go right out the window which is the most important thing in my life. So many hours of boredom taken care of, and a very productive and fulfilling hobby. Writing music is so much fun. But if music was completely gone, or not even at the forefront of my life I probably would have excelled at hockey more than I did, or track possibly. I don't think I would be a person that I would want to be around though. Sports made me quite an angry person, full of jealousy over losing my spot on the 1st line on my hockey team, or causing a turnover that lost the game. My selfishness overshadowed the concept of a team sport. Music has always been my best friend, a friend that has never once turned it's back on me (although some artists seem to have done so...a.k.a. Against Me!) or not held its end of the "relationship". Hockey has let me down, humans have let me down, I have let myself down, but music does not let me down.

I have no idea what I would do, say, listen to or think about all day... I'd probably kill myself.