Rock It: Learn to love Valentine’s Day with music
By: Rachael Mattice
Think of the most intense emotion you felt today. More than likely, you can find hundreds of songs written to relate to that moment. But the most abundant selection, from metal to classical, belongs to those musical poems penned about love.
Music affects our lives the most when matters of the heart come into play. The insanity of a love pursuit can be so enhanced by music that those conquests, victories or defeats can forge a tie to certain songs that can be vivid for years.
We remember songs differently on our paths of self-discovery. From music we danced to at our wedding, to songs heard in the car on a cross-country road trip or discussed on a coffee-shop date, what brings ecstasy to one could bring up love lost for another.
Valentine’s Day can be torturous for some, who sabotage or protest the commercial holiday by spewing their disgust for the day and listening to breakup songs. Everyone has dealt with extreme heartache.
Some may think the day is sappy, mostly because our culture desensitizes us to romance and we wince at clichéd, cheesy mementos instead of embracing them.
Today, those toxic thoughts need to be pushed aside. This could be the year a friend is excited about a new relationship and today is their first happy Valentine’s Day, the first year a couple can afford an extravagant date night, or even the year someone close is reunited with a military spouse after being apart for months.
Don’t be caught up in stress or negativity, but show gratitude and forgiveness. Acts of kindness can be given to a family member, a friend or strangers throughout the day.
Here are a few musical (some free) suggestions for demonstrating affection and filling hearts today and every day:
* Send them a singing valentine.
Purdue Musical Organizations offer in-person or phone songs with personalized gifts to add. The Tippecanotes Barbershop Chorus also offers singing valentines to surprise your sweetheart. Though the PMO deadline has passed, call 765-449-1602 for Tippecanotes reservations.
* Write them a song or sing to them at karaoke.
You will never be forgotten if you write your love a song. Even if you have to sing Adam Sandler’s “I Wanna Grow Old With You” from “The Wedding Singer,” putting in the effort, whether you’re tone deaf or pitch perfect, will make anyone melt.
* Take them to a concert.
Perhaps fancy dinners aren’t your style, but a rambunctious concert is suitable for your personalities. Go wild for one another.
* Go high school.
Make them a playlist of mixed CD with all the songs that make you think of them. Do you have vivid memory attachments to specific songs? Make an imprint on their heart with a collection.
Mattice is a producer and music journalist for the Journal & Courier. She can be reached at rmattice@jconline.com or on Twitter @RachaelM_JC.
Rachael Mattice 
Posted on November 14, 2013
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