Relationships Through Music

Something I always found incredibly strange when I was at school was how the people you spent your time with was dictated by what genre of music you happened to like. In my school the groups were called "Grungers" and "Trendys." I've also heard the word "Greebo" used on occasion but I think that came after my time. The two groups were massive and, looking back, both groups were quite nasty to each other purely because they liked different things. Looking back as an adult isn't that really weird? I was never fully involved in either group, I definitely enjoyed the rock music that would make me a grunger but also played football with a lot of the trendy guys so I managed to just float around a bit. As I write this now, this could be how I found love in punk rock music - I never fit properly into either group so gravitated to the misfit world of punk. That however is a story for another day. This blog is about music bringing people together.

For those who don't know, Emma, who writes the Art Of Punk blogs as well as contributing album and gig reviews and design for this site, is my girlfriend. We met online thanks to a mutual love of punk rock music and quickly grew extremely fond of each other before starting a relationship. I've never felt like this about another person and neither has Emma. We would have never ever met if it hadn't been for music. Before I met Emma I was alone for a long time and really quite miserable because of it. Where I live there are very, very few people who I know that have an interest in punk music, so in attempts to find companionship I tried to find common ground with people whose musical tastes differ from my own - and wasn't successful at all. People were nice enough but I never found any sort of spark to make me get excited by them. Plus I was going to lots and lots of gigs that they had little interest in, so it was always difficult to find the time to see them. Obviously Emma and I have a lot more to our relationship than music now (we also both love Game Of Thrones) but it was a big starting point for our relationship.

Music has been bringing people together for a long time - long before the Internet, online dating and social media were even ideas. A friend was telling me recently how their parents got together. Apparently back in the day, before the Internet, people would talk about music through magazines - I guess like some sort of personal ads type thing. My friend's mum and dad met through doing this. The dad would drive to the mum's place, which wasn't very local at all, pick her up and then drive somewhere else to go to a concert. From what I know, after many, many years of marriage they are still very much in love, have a couple of great kids and still to this day go gigging together. Isn't that just heart-warming in a world where it seems less and less common for marriages to last. And just think, if it wasn't for music they would never have met.

One of the best friends I've made in the past couple of years is Avon. We met through her somehow discovering this blog via Twitter. I found out that she also did a blog and started talking because of this. Soon enough we were talking about music and found out that we shared a lot of the same favourite bands. (Also that we were born about 30 minutes apart from each other, which is spooky). Avon is a close friend who has helped me a lot with Colin's Punk Rock World and is someone who I can count on for help and advice or to be old and cynical with. Without music we wouldn't be pals.

I could probably list countless other friendships I have due to music but I'm guessing you get the point now. I'm also guessing you're now thinking of a relationship you have with someone, that you wouldn't have if it hadn't been for music. Music has this wonderful ability to bring people together who would never have met otherwise. It's this brilliant thing that evokes so much passion and emotion from people. It becomes such a big part of your life. Without music my life would be a lot different and extremely miserable. Thank goodness I do have music!