Quotes About Music

I will say this: Rapping-wise, there has never been anybody to match Tupac's energy when coming on a song, like when rappin'. It's unmatched. You can't duplicate it.

When the audience resonates with my music and sings every single word from the song, the high of performing live is unmatched.

But not to have music would be unnatural to me.

Early on, I was into David Bowie. Then someone in the band suggested I try a Bryan Ferry type of thing. That's when I started wearing three-piece suits. It wasn't unnatural for me.

I'm suspicious of the idea of categories in music and this idea of things being in boxes. To me, that seems unnatural. I write the music that somebody with my biography would write, and the thing that's always driven me is an enthusiasm for the material. I sort of follow the notes to where they want to go.

People think I'm not polite. But, what I have to say to people seems so unnecessary. I can't be forced. I'd rather just be what I feel. Even when I sing I try to imagine I'm all alone, there's nobody out there listening. I play with the notes, with the feeling. Each time the song is different for me.

One of the things I particularly enjoyed doing was taking raw sound from locations during the film, like the candy machine, and writing pieces of music to go with them, which is totally unnecessary within the context of the film, because they have their own logic.

Especially with women in music there is this unnecessary competitive element. And, like, why? Why do people do things where they try to put peers up against each other?

The first time you listen to someone else's interpretation of what you've created, it's a little unnerving. They'll change lyrics or something almost every time. That's them being an artist, and you appreciate it more over time.

Fela Kuti blew my mind. His playing is very unorthodox, but I learned how to appreciate that.

Nina Simone, to me, singing about black culture - she's unparalleled.

I think The Doors are one of the classic groups, and I think we're all tempted to feel like the time in which we grew up was somehow special, but I really do believe that there were two golden eras in music: The Forties and Fifties of big band, jazz and swing, and the Sixties and Seventies of rock. To me, they're really unparalleled.

My father was an aspiring country singer and songwriter. He just didn't get that off that ground. I was afraid, very tentative to do anything with music for years. I didn't tell him I was playing in bands when I was away from home, because it had been such an unpleasant experience and a letdown for him.

You sometimes get the feeling that people think getting back together after a hiatus to write and record a record is work, you know, arduous and unpleasant. Being able to write and record - that's a privilege. I don't forget the long days I spent working in a restaurant, when I wanted to be done so I could go home and work on a song.

I was coerced into taking piano lessons in the early '50s. It was a quite unpleasant experience.

A lot of people from my generation can't write songs anymore, or it's really hard and it's an unpleasant experience. I don't feel that way at all.

My singing voice had rescued me from the scene I was in at school - I was an unpopular, bookish kid who had an indeterminate ethnic background. I became fascinated with women sopranos because they had a future that I didn't as a singer.

When I was growing up, there were two things that were unpopular in my house. One was me, and the other was my guitar.

I was 17 years old and in my first band, and we played at the university. I was kind of a gawky, unpopular teenager and there was about 400 people smiling and dancing to what we were doing.

I personally think Beyonce's a strong feminist. What she's done in music and for women is unprecedented. I love her. She definitely makes me feel like more of a woman.

Taylor's first four albums have been certified platinum a combined 21 times, but despite her unprecedented success in country music, '1989' is strictly pop.

Music is always changing and the changes are unpredictable.

I love great lyrics, and I love the way it could shape a tune into a very unpredictable one, and I also like taking a great melody and putting lyrics into it.

The music industry has become so unpredictable. And I think people know that if someone has a Number One song, it doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have several ones after.