Music Makes the World Go Round

Well, thanks Kathleen for being interested in whatever happens. It brings me courage to write again today, though I don't really have any fantastical fabulous foreign anecdotes of an adventure.

So today is the forth day in a row it has been rainy and chilly. Thank goodness for scarves and umbrellas. Yesterday, after Mom and I had just kinda been cooped up in the apartment all day, we decided to go with Dad (he had come home for Mitagessen) to go find this shopping mall that Pika had told us about. So we hopped on the Linie 5 bus and rode it for half an hour to, what looked on the outside, a huge and kind of ugly corrugated concrete store. We walked inside though, and I was instantly transported back to the states. It looked exactly like a mall we would have in the U.S. and I felt right at home browsing the book, shoe, clothes, and pet stores. There was also a home depot type store, and even a wal-mart type store. The internal halls were even complete with little kiosks selling beauty products, and self-advertising massage chairs. Mom and Dad and I bought some chocolate to try, including at my insistence, a "hot grenadine dark chocolate" bar. The 'hot' comes from the red chiles they put in it. Hey, I wanted to say I had tried it! Well, now I have. And I think the only person who might be able to appreciate it is my uncle Dave (yes, I will bring you some home). The yogurt and cranberry chocolate Dad picked out was a universally liked flavor, however (yes I will bring all the rest of you some home...).

Mom's goal for the week was accomplished, when she finally located where to buy hot coca mix (oh they have coffee aplenty, but we have had the hardest time finding hot chocolate).

So I have this new philosophical question that I would like some opinions on. Here, at least 70% of the music they listen to (at least on their personal i-pods, radio, CD selection in stores, and what is played in public places) is American music. Or, at least music where the words are in English. Yes I know this shouldn't be that weird to me: many people speak fluent or semi-fluent English. But many people don't. A lot more people than I first realized actually don't speak English. And even if one is fluent in a second language, as Kara found out while trying to translate a poem from German into English the other day, it is really difficult to actually catch the intended meaning or feeling even when something is directly translated: there is so much "between-the-lines" interpretation and connotation or implied meaning or background associated with written literature, especially poems and lyrics. At least in English, and I would assume in every language.

Ok, all that laid out, I wonder if music, to other cultures who listen to English-lyriced music in majority (beside America or England probably), means something different to them. I mean, anyone can appreciate music for the sake of music- classical music or even sometimes opera for instance are valued for the beautiful music quality. And I can appreciate beautiful songs that are sung in a language foreign to me for the sound of the music or even the aesthetic of the sound of the language. But for me and the music I listen to, with my favorite bands such as Postal Service, Goo Goo Dolls, John Mayer, Coldplay, Angels & Airwaves and that whole genre of alternative type rock, half of the listening experience for me is interpreting and applying the lyrics for my life; I am not one of those people who can tune out the lyrics in a 'bad' song, for instance, and excuse myself saying that I don't even listen to the words. I can't help it. Now I kind of claim to be somewhat of a poet, and so maybe I am different than many music listeners and their music-listening goals. But my major point of these whole two paragraphs of doom are this: How can they (meaning my German peers in this case) appreciate popular English-lyriced (I don't actually know if 'lyriced' is a word) music and enjoy it as much as Americans when even those who are fluent in English, probably cannot get nearly as much meaning out of the lyrics as someone who understands American culture and connotations of the American-English language. And it's totally fine of they don't and just are listening to American music out of music sake, and honestly because it is mostly what they have to choose from, but I just wonder if music, at least to the current generation of people, means the same thing to them as it does to me and other American music-listeners.

Wow. How was that for confusing. I just re-read that. Hmm. Well, anyway, now I have opened up way too publically how my mind works.

Oh well. Totally aside from the aforementioned music philosophical views, I want to tell anyone reading this the following: I love life. I love my family and friends. I love living in Germany. I miss and have a new appreciation for living in Utah, living in the U.S., and being close to all of you. Love from Goettingen,

Emily