If you took all the best songs in the history of music and laid them end to end, how far would they reach? In the old days, you could have measured it in distance of cassette tape used to record them. These days, unless you want to measure all the best songs in the history of music as the volume of space they require to be stored on your hard drive, one would suggest that a better yardstick would be the amount of people they have touched. In which case, all the best songs in the history of music take up probably more souls than have been killed in the whole story of the human race.
What a nice thought. All the best songs, ever, have been responsible for more happiness than there has been misery in the whole of human history. Which means: thanks to all the best songs ever written, humanity, according to the law of averages, is doing OK. With all the best songs ever tipping the balance sheet, the sum score of misery versus happiness in the human story reads: misery – some; happiness – more.
That’s why we love music, of course. When you think of all the best songs and the wonderful feelings they have given people – whether all the best songs have made you happy, or sad, or let you know that someone else, somewhere, knows how you feel, the fact remains: they gave you common ground – you start to get some idea of the important place the art form occupies in the human psyche. Music, like no other occupation, speaks directly to emotions, without mediation – all the best songs seem to know this instinctively, and use it to plumb in a connection to the best parts of us without even trying.
Think about all the best songs you’ve ever heard. Why did you like them? What is it about them that makes you include them in your personal list of all the best songs you’ve come across? Chances are, once you give it some attention, you’ll start to realise that each and every one of them, no matter what they sound like, link naturally to some deep need: the desire for love, or peace, or joy. That’s what makes them all the best songs.
As far as I know, nothing else in all the living cornucopia of earthly things has this relationship with anything. So next time you think about all the best songs you’ve ever heard, take a moment to think about that too. And smile.
