I had a summer job back home driving a beverage cart on a golf course. I can’t complain – I spent hours outside in the sunshine selling beer to golfers. Rough life, I know. Normally while I was out there all I heard were the sounds of nature – ducks, the wind, the occasional large airplane flying overhead (I worked near the airport).
One day my one-ness with nature on the job was infiltrated by a large outdoor music show somewhere in the distance and it’s all I could hear for hours. I can’t imagine what the volume of the show would have been like at ground zero because from where I was, which was a long way from where the party was, the bass was thumping through me and the music was clear as day. The genres weren’t even my first choice of what I would listen to – drum & bass, dubstep, hip hop – but I was thoroughly enjoying the break in the monotony of the usual silence.
Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was Jamaica – a land where music is part of the air. You can’t go anywhere (not even to a remote location in the Blue Mountains) without hearing music riding the wind. It got me to thinking about the happiness and “livity” of Jamaican people. There’s never NO music in Jamaica and I quite like it that way. Their lives have a soundtrack every single minute of every day versus our very quiet and sterile lives back home. On the golf course 90% of golfers were complaining about the music and I had to disagree with them.
I spend hours sitting on my patio at home enjoying coffee or the occasional rum drink in the sunshine and all I hear outside is the wind blowing and kids off in the distance. Yet any time I’ve retreated to or lived in Jamaica I’m awakened very early every morning by music from across the yard, across the street or in a passing car.
Perhaps this is why North Americans are so uptight and have to fly away to Jamaica to get their groove back. What do you think?
Comments
15 responses to “If Life Had a Soundtrack”
wind, hammering, children, birds, goats, banana leaves, whipper snipper, cars, snoring, talking somewhere down the road… and yup, music from at least 2 directions plus a passing car!
Great blog post! When I’m not in JA, I so miss the music . . . sometimes thumping tidbits of sound from a passing car.
agreed and the music culture was one of my principal reasons to go to Jamaica in the first place… if its not someone playing music, then it’s someone singing… and it’s not “Strange” for someone to just randomly start singing 🙂 I love it!!!
Marianna I totally agree! Isn’t it awesome that Jamaicans don’t feel inhibited to just sing and let it all out? I love it.
Ahhhhhh!!! You are making me miss JA so much! Going back in 10 days and I cant wait to reach so I can feel di vybz 🙂 i can hear the music , feel the sunshine and smell the jerk in the air everytime I read something on your blog.
Kierra I’m so glad to hear this blog invokes those feelings for you! That’s the reason I originally started writing it 4.5 years ago….as a way to journal my adventures and relive it all every time I post. Have a fabulous trip!
Ill be in Jamaica in 3 days I’m loving reading through all your posts to see what I should be doing when I get there. Its going to be so much fun thanks Kristi!!
So glad you’re getting some value out of the blog Mark! Safe travels and I’d love to hear about your trip when you get back!
so true,thanks for sharing!
I am visiting after reading your interview with Inside Journeys. I think music as a soundtrack to life would be interesting. I think maybe I would not get much done except sing my day away 🙂
Thanks for visiting Jan! I think the contrary…..how many times do you crank up your tunes while you clean the house? Gives you more drive to clean doesn’t it lol. I know that’s a bad analogy but work is always more fun with singing and dancing involved!
I can imagine Jamaica being alive with music, though it might just be that I’ve seen ‘The harder they come’ one time too many.
LOL good to hear you’re watched a Jamaican flick or two Mette! Yes the island resonates music day and night!
I miss the music…but, not just the manmade kind…I miss the sounds of the frogs, the little lizards, the cricket ‘wave’, … all of the other natural sounds that make up the ‘night music’ on the island. I am an Ochi lover, so the sounds I associate with Jamaica are the ones that I hear there.
I’m an Ochi girl too so I understand. When I came home after 2 months in my apartment there I could barely sleep in the silence back home.