What is music?

Let's ignore the obvious. A series of notes, a bunch of melodies and rhythms, what actually makes music music? It makes people feel alive. It literally is the blood in my veins, it's how I express myself, how I enjoy myself, it makes me happy and sad, it comforts me and pisses me off. It takes me on journies and I purposely get lost. It takes me up to the highest peak, no, higher, and leaves me stranded, alone with myself to appreciate it and love it and live it. It is the reason I get up in the morning, what I do to learn and what I do for fun. It's somewhere I can escape; whether I'm onstage or sat on my bed. Without music, we would not laugh at films and we would not cry at films. Music is the reason I feel how I feel, whether it's certain bands I'm listening to or how I'm expressing myself when I'm lost playing drums in the familiar sensation, desperately wanting to be taken away forever, when I want to grit my teeth and squeeze my hands tight into fists and cry, when I'm the only person in a room full of people, when I disappear in front of others, but I know they can still see me. Music taught me how to love, how to dress, how to act; the constant rhythms in my head accompany me as I walk alone, as I wait, as I drift off to sleep. It brings me and others together, it's a universal language we all share that doesn't judge, it doesn't discriminate, it's unaffected by wars and religion and governments and everything that's wrong about this world. I cannot imagine a life without music. It would be a life literally not worth living, because what do we have if we don't have music, and what do I have without an outlet, a way to express myself, to impress others, or for my own satisfaction? It is not something you accomplish and leave be, there is always more to learn, more to discover, more to love. And when the music takes you away, wherever it takes the person that you are, it's an identity, a badge, a middle finger to society and an embrace with the world. Music makes people, it destroys people, it makes people rich and famous and it makes them bankrupt and leaves them at their most vulnerable. I dare you to imagine your life without music; without your eternal soundtrack, without your identity, without what makes you and breaks you, shows you which path to take and makes you happier than you've ever been before. Music means one thing or a million things to every single person; whether it's a lifelong passion or a mere cog in one's menial existence. Music dares me to dream and I want to be surrounded by it until the day I die.