14 March

Music has always been my first love, but at the same time it has a dark side I think that isn’t noticed as much, and which put me off doing it for a living. Music is territorial. In birds it’s very obvious, that their songs mark territory, that’s the main reason they sing. But human music is exactly the same, it defines territory and identity, that’s its main function. Pick on a person’s favourite band or act and see how much passion you provoke. It’s that territorial baggage which can be nasty in music, and not much noticed. On top of that music defines territory by generating refrains - rhythmic patterns of melody and tempo. Those can get ‘stuck in your head’ very easily, and you don’t even notice it happening. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, although there’s an obsessive-compulsive, addictive aspect of this process which can be exhausting after a while, advertisers use it all the time but all songs are just as able to become these loops in your head. Militaries throughout history have used these loops to generate discipline.