Do you have the Soundtrack of life playing in your head?For as long as I can remember I have had what I like to call the Soundtrack of Life. The Soundtrack of Life is basically just some evolving music constantly playing in my head throughout the day. I am not sure if this little phenomenon of mine is because I am a musician and composer, or if it is just because I am weird, but it is just always there in some form or another adding music to whatever I may be doing throughout the day.Now, The Soundtrack is not really a continuous track of music or anything like that. I am able to sleep at night. If anything The Soundtrack exists sort of like a movie sound track, where most of the time the music or sounds are ambient and you don’t notice them. It is only in their absence that you notice something is missing.
Occasionally, if I am sitting around bored or I am really excited then the volume level for the soundtrack picks up and I will consciously work on the music and build things in my head. Most often though The Soundtrack just sort of exists, playing along, sometimes getting my attention when an interesting melody pops up, but more often then not just sitting in the background. Sometimes a repetitive sound within the environment that I am working in will create some melody or beat that catches my attention and will bring the soundtrack up. If you are lucky you might find me grooving for what seems like no reason at all. My girlfriend has on occasion noticed me doing this. I think in some for or another though everyone has been caught grooving to the beat in their head. The immediate image that comes to my mind with this is in the movie “Groove” where a character is in the laundry mat starts grooving to the beat of her jeans repetitively thumping inside the dryer. Haven’t we all had a moment like that?I first noticed The Soundtrack playing probably around high school, but I never really had a term for it until I had two experiences that really sort of made me aware of it.The first instance that made me think about The Soundtrack occurred while I was reading the sci-fi series “Otherland”. In this story is a character named Dredd. Dredd is a psychotic masochist hit man of some sorts, who loves his job and loves composing music while doing his job. Now since this is a Sci-fi book all of the characters had the neurological implants that you so commonly see in sci-fi allowing them to plug into the internet and so forth, so instead of just thinking about music Dredd was actually making the music. I distinctly remember a part in one of the books where Dredd was talking online to his boss. Apparently Dredd was only half-paying attention to the discussion and the boss said something like; “Are you listening to that damned music in your head?! Turn it off!” For some reason that little passage just really stuck with me. I think I have had several moments in my life where I have spaced off when people talk to me, just like that one. In fact I am sure everyone has had a moment like that.The second instance that alerted me to The Soundtrack of life was from “Family Guy”. I don’t remember the exact episode but Peter was granted a wish of some sort and he chose to have a soundtrack play whenever he moves. I think his soundtrack was more along the lines of a musical or 1950’s TV show or something, but I immediately thought that segment was hilarious, if only for the fact that it rung so true. I think it was in that “Family Guy” episode that I was able to finally put a term to the music in my head.As comical as the “Family Guy” can be it put the perfect label on the music in my head: “The Soundtrack of Life”. It is too bad everyone doesn’t have a soundtrack to just take them away sometimes.
Tags: Soundtrack of Life random thought music
Occasionally, if I am sitting around bored or I am really excited then the volume level for the soundtrack picks up and I will consciously work on the music and build things in my head. Most often though The Soundtrack just sort of exists, playing along, sometimes getting my attention when an interesting melody pops up, but more often then not just sitting in the background. Sometimes a repetitive sound within the environment that I am working in will create some melody or beat that catches my attention and will bring the soundtrack up. If you are lucky you might find me grooving for what seems like no reason at all. My girlfriend has on occasion noticed me doing this. I think in some for or another though everyone has been caught grooving to the beat in their head. The immediate image that comes to my mind with this is in the movie “Groove” where a character is in the laundry mat starts grooving to the beat of her jeans repetitively thumping inside the dryer. Haven’t we all had a moment like that?I first noticed The Soundtrack playing probably around high school, but I never really had a term for it until I had two experiences that really sort of made me aware of it.The first instance that made me think about The Soundtrack occurred while I was reading the sci-fi series “Otherland”. In this story is a character named Dredd. Dredd is a psychotic masochist hit man of some sorts, who loves his job and loves composing music while doing his job. Now since this is a Sci-fi book all of the characters had the neurological implants that you so commonly see in sci-fi allowing them to plug into the internet and so forth, so instead of just thinking about music Dredd was actually making the music. I distinctly remember a part in one of the books where Dredd was talking online to his boss. Apparently Dredd was only half-paying attention to the discussion and the boss said something like; “Are you listening to that damned music in your head?! Turn it off!” For some reason that little passage just really stuck with me. I think I have had several moments in my life where I have spaced off when people talk to me, just like that one. In fact I am sure everyone has had a moment like that.The second instance that alerted me to The Soundtrack of life was from “Family Guy”. I don’t remember the exact episode but Peter was granted a wish of some sort and he chose to have a soundtrack play whenever he moves. I think his soundtrack was more along the lines of a musical or 1950’s TV show or something, but I immediately thought that segment was hilarious, if only for the fact that it rung so true. I think it was in that “Family Guy” episode that I was able to finally put a term to the music in my head.As comical as the “Family Guy” can be it put the perfect label on the music in my head: “The Soundtrack of Life”. It is too bad everyone doesn’t have a soundtrack to just take them away sometimes.
Tags: Soundtrack of Life random thought music