Can You Imagine a World Without Music?

"Music is the only language in which you cannot say a mean or sarcastic thing."
- Lord Erskine

Imagine what would our world be like if music or, for that matter, sounds too, never existed. Here's may be what it would feel like. ...

Neither will the alarm clocks ring annoyingly to wake you up, nor will the birds chirp to do that. How do you know it is morning already?
The coffee maker won't go 'beep-beep-beep' to tell you your coffee is ready.

No bathroom singing! Wow! Is the day over yet?
You will have to make do with a plain 'Good morning son' instead of the cheerful, happy, and melodious 'Good morning son, here's your coffee and bun, believe and half the battle's won, go out and conquer everyone!', which breathes life into your day.

♪ What would you dance to in the clubs on Saturday nights?

♪ What would you tap your feet and nod your head to?

♪ What would those long drives with your best mates be like?

♪ How would you woo your crush?

♪ What would your workout be like?

♪ Imagine life without music concerts ...

♪ What would musicians do with their lives?

♪ What would weddings be like?

Driving to work every single day, for an hour, with the same cars passing you by, the same traffic lights asking you to stop and leave, the same hoardings staring you in the face, with nothing to take your mind off your boring same old routine. Yeah, beat that!

Inside the elevator. You. Strangers. Awkward silence. No subtle music serenading the silence. Elevators just got more dreadful and boring!
Your phone's ringing. Sorry, vibrating. It's a day without music, remember? No fancy or classic old ringtones, just vibrations and lights.

It is your first date tonight. Big day! Yeah, good luck with making it romantic without a love song or a beautiful background melody, the one that touches all the right chords, stirs up the emotions, and makes you want to be cuddled. Seriously, good luck!

Music ...

♪ to a mother is in the first cries of her newborn baby.

♪ is the rhythm of your heartbeat.

♪ is the sound of your lover whispering the promise of eternal love in your ear.

♪ is describing a golden sunset to a blind man.

♪ is the sound of goodbye, never heard, but louder than any drumbeat.

♪ is also in the clock, sound of life ticking away.

Some of you might be heading to a club, and plan to do what without music there?
It's a friend's birthday. No 'Happy birthday to you' while he cuts the cake! Poor chap for being born on a day which has no music.

Reminiscing about college days? How many of you will agree with me when I say that these memories will seem more real if you listen to your favorite music from back then?
You return home and suddenly notice that something is amiss.

The usual sounds that emerge from the balcony while your grandpa plays away melodiously on his piano, the sounds that you had been taking for granted don't fill the house today and make your heart skip a beat. And the heart doesn't recover until you see that your grandpa is just fine, it is just that it is a day without music.

The day is over. And you have seen better days. You wish to be left alone, yet need company that will just give, not ask for anything in return. You know music can do that for you.

But alas, it is a day without music, and you must drown in your sorrowful thoughts that feed on the wrongs of the day, when instead, you could have floated in the lap of healing music and focused on the rights that will happen tomorrow.

That's that, about me. What about you? Stop for a second. Think ... if there was no music ...

Difficult, isn't it? If a day without music seems impossible to imagine, how can we think of a world without music? How ironic it is that I seek words to tell you that words just aren't enough to explain how I feel about music.

I might just pen down a few hundred of them and try to make you understand what it means to me. But, music forms a part of my soul. How do I explain my soul to you? Take away that part of my soul, and there is every possibility that my existence ceases.

Life has no meaning beyond its existence. So, what do I do with a life and world without meaning, without music?

Have been taking music for granted, are we? Music is not just a song playing on your iPod or the radio.

There's more to it. Listen carefully, and you will find that music shines through every action, it resides in every emotion, it hides in every word, it resonates in every moment, and in moments between those moments.

A place where it connects people, yet helps you find solace. Where music is the soul of language, a language spoken and loved by everyone, the purest form of expression. Is it a coincidence that music is written in a script which requires no understanding of any other spoken language?

I don't think so. Since ages, it has been written in a form that is universally understood.A language in which the inexpressible can be expressed, and feelings can be named. Music is a planet that grants you your solitude when you need it―play your favorite song and revel in its melody, get lost in a world of your own and don't come back unless you want to.

Music is a planet that allows you to revisit places that have been long forgotten―listen to a track that reminds you of someone or someplace and relive those moments. Music is a planet that lets you own a night with the people that make up your world―dance in the club with your best friends to the 'group song'. Music is a planet that lends you your freedom.

And I, for one, couldn't agree more. Such is the power of music that it is known to possess amazing healing prowess. The extensive and formidable use of music therapy has helped cancer patients bounce back with a vengeance, has kept users from being stuck in the dangerous quicksands.

And has privileged many of the unfortunate ones by gifting them back their sanity, has motivated kids with social anxiety disorders to overcome their self. And all this, music does in a magical way. In a way that seems hard to explain, but is the simplest to understand.

And not only does it heal poor health; the strength of music can keep relationships from falling apart, hold the mental state of a person, repair a poor way of life. Transform a person emotionally, help someone transcend to a place which lights up their world, and make them believe in the good.

A newborn is welcomed into the world with the most cheerful songs playing in the background, your graduation ceremony is marked with you and your friends dancing to your favorite song, the bride walks down the aisle to soul-rendering music, and the funeral of a loved one is made special by playing his/her favorite music.

That's what music can do, map your life for you. Music makes life's milestones special, worth living and worth remembering.

In today's world, where you have a hard time trusting and believing people, where loneliness takes its toll on you, try seeking refuge in the loving arms of music and you will never be alone again, ever.

The only truth you know is what you feel, and with music, you feel the strongest of desires resurface, you feel the rights in a sea of wrongs, you feel the good in a room full of bad.

Certainly not the ones that get you through a difficult time, the ones that trick the mind into immense happiness and joy, or the ones that make you feel alive. Music is an illusion, strong and powerful, which helps you through, helps you revel, and makes you feel alive.

Music has the power to do all this, touch chords that have gone to rust over the years, and yet bring a tear to your eye and a smile on your face at the same time.

♪ Music will inflict the pain of a lost memory, but it will also wash away that pain.
It will remind you of your wounded heart, but it will also nurse and heal the wound.

It will bring back the pangs of disappointment, but also give you the strength to overcome it.
It will help you know that you are caught up, but it will also free your soul.
It will bring tears to your eyes, but it will also wipe them away.

Never losing its sheen, building memories along its way, bridging gaps between generations, and strengthening bonds of love, music has and always will be an integral, eternal part of our lives. A timeless classic as a whole.

For me, it is food, clothing, shelter, music, and I bet it is like that for most of you, too. Music would be enough to get you through a lifetime, but a lifetime is just not enough to take you through all the music there is.

It makes life better, giving it the much-needed solace, beautifying it with hundreds of thousands of melodies, sounds, and tunes, lending it the meaning, creating moments that make it a life, keeping you from going insane. Music is everything that nourishes a soul, it takes you to a different kind of high, and makes you want to live more.

If you still seek my answer, let me just tell you―I can never, ever, ever, imagine a world without music. For in the end, when everything has been said and done, when I am stranded all alone, which I know is inevitable and will happen someday, I'll have my music and its refuge with me, guiding me through, helping me escape, gently and effortlessly.