Seeing Sounds

Recently I learnt about a rare phenomenon called Synesthesia where a person can mix certain senses, one of these can be 'seeing sounds'.

One of my favorite band/ producers N.E.R.D recently explored this by naming their third album 'Seeing Sounds' (which is how I learnt about it and the origin of this blog entry) so it is ironic that one of the shows that I watch and enjoy, Heroes also explored this phenomenon as well. One of the new characters in the show can actually see sounds. Everything is connected indeed.

Well for me, it is nowhere near as crazy (thankfully). I choose this title mainly because the music I picked this month for my blog are forever linked with images and when I hear these songs, I see associated images.

For example, Original Sin by Taylor Dayne. I am a massive fan of Taylor. The girl can sing and after I watched the movie 'The Shadow' starring Alec Baldwin (and enjoyed it) I was treated to this epic ballad in the ending credits. It stuck with me forever and even a couple years later I was still interested in the song. Thanks to YT I was able to find it and saw the accompanying music video for the first time. The music video reminded me of many scenes from the movie and reminded me again why I liked the movie. It was way ahead of it's time, a superhero flick with a dark hero who sticks to the shadows *cough* Batman Begins. Oh and Pennelope Ann Miller was one of my favorite actress back in those days. Well now I listen to this song I can't get images of the video or the film out of my mind. They are forever married together and does the job of a good music video.

It is ironic then that the other two songs are not memorable because of their music videos. No, these songs are forever etched in my mind because of a show called 'So You Think You Can Dance'. This show (Judgesss as me and my wife like to call it thanks to the way UK host Cat Deeley says judges) has been helped me find a lot of music to enjoy over the last 3 seasons I have watched the show. Because of the show I found a love for Adele's Hometown Glory but at the same time I also find appreciation for other songs I already know, like Closer by Ne-Yo, Alone by Heart and so many more. It is quite a show and because of these memorable routines, the songs become associated with the images, the dances.

Hence the inclusion of 'If It Kills Me'. This song was used during a routine in last season and featured the winner of the show Jannine. In a passionate and emotional performance all done to the beat of the song, I grew to enjoy the song. It was later this same year when another performer danced to the same song, that me and my wife realized we really liked this song and it has now become one of our favorite current songs. Now also ironic is the fact that the performer Jason Mraz has never been on my radar as a artist I liked. He had a couple cute songs but nothing really shouted at me until this song and now I think I might listen to a couple of his other tracks and see if has any other gems like 'If It Kills Me'.

Another song we discovered due to a routine on 'Judgesss' was 'Gravity' by Sara Bareilles. Again Sara really wasn't on my radar. I knew of her but I was not really a fan. This song changed that through and it was all thanks to another routine. This one was by Kapuno and Kayla. Now me and wife both admitted we weren't big fans of the performer Kayla but she did perform her booty off for this performance and it has stuck with us as one of our favorite performances from the whole season. So this song and routine not only made us ignore the fact that Kayla was a brillant but boring performer but also made me enjoy an artist I previous ignored. Also ironic is unlike 'Original Sin' I don't associated Gravity with it's music video (which actually exists) but more with this routine.

Such is the power of 'Seeing Sounds' and 'Judgesss'.

pP