Why are you a musician?

[herodotus]

This is, of course, a complicated question.

I am more interested in abstract 'this-is-what-music-means-to-me' sorts of answers, than in personal 'because-my-mom-made-me-take-piano-lessons' sorts of answers.

But given that the person who starts a thread is generally on the level of pond scum in terms of what eventually happens to it around here, I will obviously have to settle with whatever people want to talk about.

[vurt]

do i have a choice?
while not being what most people may call a musician,im more of a sculpturist who just uses sound i suppose
but either or its what drives me,its what keeps me alive(in the mental sense) without it i am lost and have no way to express the pain and the joy i feel at anyone time.it is my thoughts,my being my essence.
do i sound too arty farty? i bet i do,but its true,i am what you hear.

[Hovmod]

I'm not a musician.
I have way too much respect for real musicians to claim any such thing.

But I think the simple answer to your question would be "I have no choice".

edit: vurt's post came up as I was typing, so mine was not a poor attempt at copying him.

[geekboy]

Because it pleases the ladies

[beej]

My audio roots started when very young - I was always more interested in the music and atmospheres of film and TV programs than the actual program. I used to get very annoyed from the ages of about 5 if people tried to switch over during the end credits while I was trying to listen to the music... grr..

But didn't really excercise any musicality until the age of 10 when my dad bought me a Casio VL-Tone on a whim, and that was it, music all the way until about 17 when computers came along and gave me a hefty distraction from music (which I'm not sure I've ever really recovered from... )

[Shane Sanders]

For me all the arts have been like a private Avalon since I was able to hold a crayon with a steady hand. From there it just birthed various public outposts. It's quite out of control at this point.

[dx-9]

i was seven years old as all this started...

music is the one and only international language
to express feelin's, make "pictures" of thisngs you've been goin thru...

it's great to play in a band, at concerts, live acts...
meeting people and the industry...

music is the reunion of mind and mathematics

that's all why i'm a musician (drummer, keyboarder arranger.....and and)

[Hink]

damned if I know, I didn't choose music...it chose me

[Meffy]

Another not-really-a-musician here. For me the appeal of electronic music -- and computers too -- goes back to earliest youth. What I am now isn't that different, fundamentally, from what I was at age three or four when I first started messing with simple electronics.

I like things with lots of colorful lights and knobs and switches and things. Ones that make interesting sounds are the best of all.

To me, sound is like clay. Synths let me sculpt it. A host lets me arrange and play with the bits I've carved out. This is how I feel about computer graphics, programming, 3-D modelling, and so forth. They're all toys I can (amazingly) use to make money. Not much money, but some.

Sorry that's so prosaic and all. I really am a very simple-minded critter. :-)

[itsplayed]

I just couldn't help myself, I had no choice. I knew I would be from the very first time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grow up. Well, I finally got there...the grown-up part is debatable however.

[VMan88]

damned if I know, I didn't choose music...it chose me

Well said.

[bduffy]

I think one of my biggest reason is to hear notes, chords and sounds that I had no idea could come from me or a collaboration. When you hear that note with that chord and your heart skips a beat, or you kinda have an out-of-body experience, where you're like "I can't believe I'm writing this", or the song feels like its writing itself. That's amazing; there's nothing like it.

I guess those magical elements of music keep me coming back. That and headbanging.

[JackDark]

It is a constant challenge to try and create and mold something which is intangible.

Messages through this media are more "emotionally" charged than any other media in existence, due to the perception required to receive it... a picture is a picture, a movie is a movie, a sculpture is a sculpture... when you see it, you see it and that's what it is... you can formulate an opinion about it, but you do so at your own leisure. Sound is different, sound instantly brings emotion, perhaps due to biology, who knows. But for myself sound requires contemplation constantly and immediately, what -is- that sound? What emotion does it invoke? Fear? Happiness? Wonderment? Then the sound changes and the contemplation begins immediately again...

Because of its intangible and emotionally charged nature, audio sculpting (as Vurt so adequately put it) is the only medium I feel is truly capable of expressing that which I would like to say.

If you can say a thousand words with a picture, you can say a hundred thousand with a few minutes of audio.

[bbanyard]

I don't think we should really be putting ourselves down if we can't actually play instruments...I consider myself a musician since I make music. Some "musos" might be able to play instruments to virtuoso level but not write a song or piece of music for toffee. That said, some people who make digital music might have all the kit, know all of the obscure lingo and theory behind it but are creatively dead. To me, the instinct of what's going to come across well to an audience is what really matters rather than my command of either real or virtual instruments.

[ugo]

music is an extremely important and inseparable part of my mind and my soul, so i am a musician.

-ugo