Musiq 4 The SOUL

When I was quite young my father accidentally placed an old audio cassette in an incorrect case in his old pickup truck. A case for The Tractors held an old cassette from the group/collective Earth, Wind, & Fire, I suspect it was a greatest hits recording. He, while trying to focus on the road, slid this cassette in the tape deck of his stereo in that pickup and it picked up right before the song "September" began. The song blared through those speakers and startles us have to death. He was especially startled at this point, because he realized he had the wrong tape in the stereo. However, before he could stop the song he wanted me to listen to some of what this group had to offer me, a child of probably about six years in about the year 2000. We listened to what I would learn to be songs such as: "Let's Groove," "Fantasy," and "Shining Star." This music would forever reveal to me the meaning and understanding of the concept of music's feeling. This meaning that I was on the verge of learning how to draw the feeling of music from a song. This feeling is what can truly make the potential of music worth listening to for me.

-This song, "That's The Way of The World," I later found to be a true testament to this attribute to soulful music. Songs such as this one are what makes the name for the genre 'Soul.' Soul and R&B are the go-to music for me whenever I need those moments of slow motion and meditation throughout my day. It is my prayer, seeing as how I am not the most religious person. The characteristic of these genre's styling is slow and intrinsic to align with my inner peace. This is something I need. This 'apple-a-day' prescription that I self-medicate with has become quintessential to my college career. After a long day of class, I come back to my room crank up some hard rock or rap/hip/hop and then slowly calm my intensity and set a groove in to soulful music of this past century. I fill my life with the likes of Curtis Mayfield, EWF, Marvin Gaye, Donnny Hathaway, Al Green, and occasionally Luther Vandross. This may seem surprising to some who were around to watch the careers of such entertainers develop, to others it is an array of blissful ignorance. This music seems to be untouched nowadays with such influxes of synthesizers, auto-tune, and digital sampling. I tend to look back to groundbreaking instead of newer game changing. My theory has always been that it's one thing to change something, but it was another game to derive that game from nothing.

Meditative Musical Selections:
"What's Goin' On"-Donny Hathaway(Marvin Gaye Cover)
"Sexual Healing"-Marvin Gaye
"Fantasy"-Earth, Wind & Fire
"Move On Up"-Curtis Mayfield

Relatable Blurb:

Justin Timberlake recently released the song "Take Back The Night" on his most recent album 20/20. The song features an "old-school" style with its use of slow but dance inspired rhythms. The song sounds phenomenal alone with great bass sound and high tweeting. However, the song is nearly identical to that of the song "Never Too Much" by Luther Vandross. The flow of the melodic vocals and the base support of the band makes a very trivial case as to the credibility of Timberlake's new release.