I guess this Schopenhauer bloke thought that music was the only art that did not need to be translated. He thought music is directly connected to The Something Larger, the awareness or “the Will” as he called it.

I’m trying to make sense of this myself, but I think the gist is that if we draw or paint a tree, we have to transfer the idea of the tree from The Something Larger, to ourselves, then render it through our understanding, and through our bodies into to the tools we’re using to draw or paint it.

Music exists without that translation. We’re all just wired directly to The Something Larger via music. Rhythm, harmony. We just get those things, even if we don’t know them well. Even if we don’t study music, our toes all tap along to the beat.

We can use a stick to draw a picture of a tree in the dirt. Simple tools. But tools and a translation. We can make music by clapping our hands and singing. The tools are our bodies, and there is no translation. More directly connected than making art in other ways.

Pop music is popular because a lot of people simply enjoy it. It speaks to them. Other genres speak to people because they enjoy them.

Regardless of the genre(s) we fancy, our toes tap along to the beat, sometimes without us even realizing it.

I think I’m going to try to find ten minutes today to put on a song or two and just sit with it.

PS - as my forehead increases to a “fivehead” due to hair loss, Schopenhauer’s vibe from that photo might be my “hair goals” in five years.