Music To Start The Morning By

 

Just before the alarm clock... (Alan Pederson - Photo)

I saw a tweet flit by yesterday where someone suggested that dubstep is the best way to start your morning.  My opinion on the genre aside (…I don’t ‘hate’ it…I just don’t ‘get’ it…and I don’t know if I want to musically start my day slowly twitching through audio-syrup) it got me thinking: what is the best music to wake up to?

Years ago, that music was chosen for me by the music directors at whatever radio station I had my alarm clock set to. I have since changed the alarm to a beep, although I’ve been playing with the idea of getting a neato iPod (digital music player if you dislike brand awareness) alarm clock, and choosing the music I hear when I jump out of bed.  Otherwise, I have to do the annoying manual task of *sigh* walking to a music-making-thingy and pressing play.

The other morning, I started my day with this:

Kind of classic, actually.  For years I would put on something pumping to get the blood…erm…pumping.  Dance music, high energy rock, electro and pop!  That’s one choice at least.  The question is: do you want to start your day the way you start your weekend?  Assuming you listen to loud dance music on the weekend.

Once in awhile…this just makes me anxious.  Maybe you prefer this:

The soft start.  I admit that I chose this song because I like it now and I can foresee a morning starting with it in the future.  But I have started my days with something gentler, like that track, if it was needed…ease into the day, offer up reflection time or savour a coffee while sitting outside.

The downside…soft music can turn depressing real fast unless you’re careful.  Or put you back to sleep.  I highly suggest you avoid anything by a soft-folk artist on your alarm clock.

I heard RadioLab (…yes, I’m pushing it again, I’m a whore!) talk about the concept of priming.  Like…if you like warm coffee, before going into a craptastic meeting prime yourself with a warm coffee and it’ll feel much nicer.  If you hate ice cold water first thing in the morning…don’t guzzle a glass before heading to work. Priming!

The same totally happens with music.  What if you start your day with this:

I guarantee if you were alive in the late 80s, early 90s…even if you find the song annoying…you’ll feel pretty good.  Or choose another overly happy song, one that you like to sing or move to.  Love Shack?  Come On Eileen?  I’m Too Sexy?  Even comedy like Weird Al?

What about this?

I LOVE Sunny Day Real Estate.  They pump me up.  But I’m not sure if my Sunny Day days started off well.  I remember a lot of ‘world against me‘ thoughts, introspection and deep thought. But…sometimes that’s the fuel you need!  The Cure?  Interpol?  Linkin Park?  This kind of music might be more in tune with you than, say, the Black Eyed Peas.

Whether to pump you, or prime you, I personally feel that music can be more than just background…hell, that it ‘is’ more than background, even if you don’t know it.  If you’re a music lover…why not take fifteen seconds in the morning and actually think “What kind of day do I want to have?”

Maybe music can get you started!

What kinds of music do you prefer to start your day?  Is there something that works well for you?  I wanna give it a try myself, so pass it on please!!

It’s Springy, as is my music!

Music has seasons.  A song came in yesterday at work that was VERY much a summer song, and my first thought upon hearing it was “Summer anthem.”  In my brain, it’s almost spring so I figured the artist was a little early trying to release it.  Of course, to radio stations, it’s pretty much summer…the amount of time it’ll take for this song to build up to public consciousness means summer will be here when it’s a hit.

So…this summer song has had positive reviews in all the major cities.  I don’t vouch for the song as a piece of great songwriting…I vouch for it as a piece of great season-association.

In school, one of the great stories we heard was about the band Honeymoon Suite and how a re-write might have helped break the band.  You see, the album was set to be released in the summer, but one of their songs was very much a winter song (lyrics about snow and cold and all that stuff.)  It was suggested that they alter the song and make it suitable to a summer release…which they did…

Music moves with the seasons.  It’s subjective ‘and’ objective, in that some songs just scream ‘SPRING’ or ‘FALL’ or (very commonly) ‘SUMMER.’  If that song had remained cold…they wouldn’t have had such a hit!

Subjectively, songs are bound to you by the season for one reason or another.  For instance, this song means the end of winter, and the start of spring for me:

This is because I was heavy into Sunny Day Real Estate, and this song, around the melting time in Guelph early 2003.  I would go for long walks with my mp3 player…which could hold about 6 or 7 songs…and hear this song over and over and over.

For road trips, I always think of Sparklehorse and the Lightning Seeds…because I had a tape with ‘Vivadixie…’ on one side, and ‘Jollification’ on the other…and a road trip back from St. Mary’s City, MD in 1997 had me listening to those albums about 8 times each.

This morning…I turned to Aimee Mann, who has always been a year-round thing for me but most certainly springy, especially this song:

During a rainy spring I used to go running in Guelph while trying to quit smoking and simultaneously lose weight.  Sidenote: I quit smoking in 2010 (7 years later) and am quite fit but in all those years have never managed to reach that ‘goal’ I set for myself a decade ago.

Soooooo much is tied to music, and seasons, and memories.  It’s not just the songs on the radio and what the ‘machine’ has decided we’ll like year after year, but that album you put on to listen to during a hot thunderstorm one summer when you were 19, or the song playing over the speakers at a bar the first time you took a drink.

Think about it!  What songs are ‘your’ spring songs right now?  Comment, let me know, I’m curious!