Music and Individualism

Every person that has ever lived was an individual. Everyone alive today is primarily an individual. They are themselves, and not another.

A sense of assurance in the self is crucial to the identity that individuals forge for themselves. At the same time, most seek to define themselves as individuals who are members of some group. These groups can either be a factor of one's birth (societal standing, race), or more often, some group or organization they choose to join based on their own interests.

In the modern era, musical tastes and preferences have taken on an increasing importance to individual identity. The explosion of new genres and the further splintering into increasingly specific subgenres has made identification my musical niche remarkably easy.

The truly fascinating thing is that music is used as an instrument to express individuality, even though it is by its very nature a mass experience. All artists want their work to be experienced by many, not just a lone person who "really gets" their entire catalog.

Opinions of musical aesthetics are often the most passionate and divisive of any art, precisely because many feel a strong emotional attachment to whatever their tastes are. The personal attachment derives itself from the idea that music is an expression and a component of individuality.

All artistic endeavours have a uniquely emotional effect on the human psyche, but music is the most common. Individualism can be expressed even in groups, even through self-segregation and identification.

Individualism is more complicated than a solitary man on an island, needing and seeking nobody else.