Talent will only take you so far, and it is your ability to feel the music and explore a movement that will bring you the greatest pleasure in dance.
It’s a crazy world, so sports and athletics and music can be a form of escapism.
Music is the one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.
We’re all just animals. That’s all we are, and everything else is just an elaborate justification of our instincts. That’s where music comes from. And romantic poetry. And bad novels.
My parents are both into music. My mom sings and my dad plays piano, so there was always music everywhere. I was singing at a very young age, but I actually got my buzz through rapping.
I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat.
I am really a very shy person. If I appear, it is because of the music, not because I want to be seen.
My mom is a very religious woman. So when I began recording music, I was afraid she wouldn’t accept it. But when I played her a song, she loved it.
For me, I feed off everything, from bad politics to religion to relationships – I mean, just life in general. And, yeah, I’m not necessarily happy with the state of things. And I think that I get to use music as a release.
Pop music follows the evolution of society in general: Everything moves faster.
Music is about listening, the more you play, the more the magic spreads.
Your personal history is a part of what happens with your hands and your head as you play music.
What does music mean to me? I don’t think I would really be much without it, without it coming through me. It’s my means of communication, my means of growth, my means of transportation from one point in my life to another.
You walk off the plane in Rio, and your blood temperature goes up. The feel of the wind on your face, the water on your skin, the taste of the food, the music, the sexuality; Brazilians are very comfortable in their sexuality.
Music, in Mexico, just wasn’t working out. So, I fell into acting and I just fell in love with it. It was amazing! It was a great safe place to just vent.
A great song is a great song, whether it’s on vinyl or CD or cassette or reel to reel or mp3. Then again, that might be an overly optimistic view, but I do think that great music will transcend the medium in which it is delivered.
God told me, ‘I gave you the music, Al. Sing the music I gave you – all the music.’ So I did.
Doom is a classic supervillain, akin to the Phantom of the Opera. It’s not about revenge so much as, like, ‘I’m back – now watch this!’ It all boils down to the music. The mask is a slight theme for people to enjoy, and it adds mystery.
I was at the Apollo Theater all the time, skipping school, and I worked in a barbershop. That’s how I started with doo-wop. Now I’ve come full circle. I did all kinds of music. I used to work on Broadway and Tin Pan Alley.
Music, the greatest good that mortals know and all of heaven we have hear below.
Through literacy you can begin to see the universe. Through music you can reach anybody. Between the two there is you, unstoppable.
It’s so wonderful… if your whole day is rotten, once they start the music, it seems to melt away.
Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.
That’s the miracle of music. No one can reinterpret a Picasso, but a song can be remixed and covered and interpreted in an infinite number of ways. It’s a living thing.
I feel like people either love me or hate me, which is good, because that was the point of what I do. The point of M.I.A. is to be – it’s either to be loved or hated. At least you evoke that much of a strong opinion about music.
