Quotes About Music

Only the tone-deaf doubt the power of music, though some feel it more strongly than others.

I was born in the '80s, so I don't really remember it very strongly, but the music is so iconic. And so those artists - Madonna, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston - you still hear those songs all the time. And there's such a distinctive style - the clothes, the shoulder pads, the big hair, the perm.

I think that for every artist, it's very important to have an output and to feel very strongly about the music you're producing.

I strongly believe in the art form of the album.

I do feel a commitment to this art form and to my father's teaching, and I think the older I get I'm feeling that more and more strongly.

Coming from Puerto Rico and having that be my musical universe for the majority of my life no doubt strongly impacts my music.

I grew up listening to a lot of Simon & Garfunkel and Peter, Paul and Mary. I know that sounds dorky, but I always responded strongly to that kind of lyric-driven folk music.

A lot of executives simply told me that my sound was dated and wouldn't work, kind of telling me essentially to go away, that my music would never work in that 'bro-country' world. It broke my heart at times, but I also believed strongly in the music.

The music began, and it was one of those life-changing moments. I saw an artist, Janis Joplin. She was exhilarating. She was vibrating. And she was like no other artist that I had ever seen before... It struck me that hard. Maybe the word is epiphany, when you get that special sensation.

I've played in bands myself, and sat on the floor photographing some of the greatest bands in the world while they rehearse. What's always struck me is how different the sensory, especially auditory, experience is when you're in the middle of the music with the musicians playing off each other around you.

I was always struck by how Picasso had no interest in music.

Talking about covers, whether visually or sonically, if a particular combination of notes struck a chord in your heart in a way that you want to be a part of it by covering that song, then there's nothing wrong with it.

I think I'd be pretty star struck over John Mayer. I'm a big fan of his music, and I think he's great.

In terms of what influenced me, I grew up on The Beatles, and I always was struck by their dry British sense of humor.

I listened to all those blues records. They were great - Clapton, John Mayall. Then eventually I heard Genesis with Peter Gabriel, and I didn't really understand the difference then, but something struck me about the inversions and the diminished chords... they weren't as bluesy, and I loved it. I found out, that was very baroque-influenced.

It struck me that it would be fun to just play stuff with Hauschka. Not even have a project in mind, but just get together and make up some music and see what came out.

I was drawn to the guitar, and still am, because it struck me as the most soulful instrument.

We're a band that struck on a really fantastic formula. We were able to carry it through.

The great musics of the world are great for very similar structural reasons: good melody, good harmony, and a balance of feminine and masculine energy.

Like an apparently strict musical form it breaks the five minute whole into its structural parts - a descriptive preamble, the action of taking the cards, the development of the cards' manipulation and the revelation of what has been achieved.

If you take a band like Nirvana, their biggest hits are structurally the same as even a hair metal band's biggest hits. The structure's not different - the attitude was different. Except it really wasn't. It seemed a little more human.

The problem for me, still today, is that I write purely with one dramatic structure and that is the rite of passage. I'm not really skilled in any other. Rock and roll itself can be described as music to accompany the rite of passage.

Beethoven's importance in music has been principally defined by the revolutionary nature of his compositions. He freed music from hitherto prevailing conventions of harmony and structure.

I'm not interested in possible complexities. I regard song structure as a graph paper.