The Relationship Between Music and Writing

And a little bit about how it relates to your safety on airplanes.Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash Music is powerful  — and it is for many reasons.

Music can express the massive array of emotions that we experience: happiness, sadness, anger, love, confusion, grief, excitement, numbness…

Music can explore and expand the boundaries of art, conveying different messages: through the use of different compositional techniques, manipulation of musical elements, and even disregarding musical conventions.

Music can accompany and help us through different stages in life: by being motivating and encouraging, or simply by being understanding.

Music can save lives: it can push people through their hardest times, and it can resonate with those who feel most broken inside.

Writing is powerful  — and it is for many reasons.

Writing can express the massive array of emotions that we experience: happiness, sadness, anger, love, confusion, grief, excitement, numbness…

Writing can explore and expand the boundaries of art, conveying different messages: through the use of different literary techniques, manipulation of language, and even disregarding writing conventions.

Writing can accompany and help us through different stages in life: by giving useful advice that one can apply to their own lives, or by simply sharing the stories of others, fictional or non-fictional, that people can relate to.

Writing can saves lives: it can push people through their hardest times, and it can resonate with those who feel most broken inside.

To the writers out there:

I listen to the music I want to listen to, musicians make the music they want to make. I read what I want to read — and writers should write what they want to write.

The pop-singers find their audience by making pop music, the rock bands find their audience by making rock music, the jazz musicians find their audience by making jazz music…

You find your audience by writing what you want to write. If you don’t want to write what is popular, then don’t.

As the safety announcements on airplanes always say, wear your own oxygen mask before you help put it on for others. Write for yourself before you think of writing for others.

You listen to the music you want to listen to, and those who want to read your work will come to you.

The Relationship Between Music and Writing was originally published in CRY Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.