You know what I really love about music? It's full of secret languages. Some are more literal than others; you have to learn to read notes on a page (for the more classically inclined) and translate that into an action. You have to learn what a conductor is trying to tell you with different movements of his or her hands. I remember on Mr. Rogers he went to see a choir and was talking about how those movements were like a secret language that the musicians could understand. I loved that he described it that way.
Music is also how we say things we don't actually want to say. You can write a song and when you share it, you can say it's from a fictional perspective and people have no choice but to believe you. And what happens in a musical when something important happens? They SING AND DANCE. They go, "This is too IMPORTANT and too BIG to just talk about! I MUST MUSIC ABOUT IT!" Music tells us how to feel when we watch TV shows or movies. Would Gandalf's death be awful without the music? Of course, the actors show us that. But that score is what puts the audience over the edge and lets them fully feel the weight of the loss. When you put a baby to sleep, you don't set it down and say, "Well, 'night then. Love you lots and I look forward to raising you and stuff." You sing a lullaby because that baby doesn't understand the words yet, but it understands that you love it enough to sing it to sleep.
It also does this weird thing where it controls our nervous systems. If you look around an area where music is playing, you will see a lot of head-nodding and foot-jiggling. But for some reason, usually the only people actually up and dancing are the toddlers. They get up and spin and jump around because the music tells them it's okay, and no one has yet suggested to them that dancing in public is embarrassing. They don't have a concept of what it means to be embarrassed (which is why they also do annoying shit like screaming for no particular reason). On so many occasions I've wanted to dance so much, but no one else was dancing so I felt like I couldn't. And that's a sucky feeling because dancing ROCKS. Music invades your ears, takes over your brain and says, "I think moving would be a really excellent thing to do now." Then your body goes, "Yeah, you know what? You're right." And OH, the endorphins!
Seriously though, who ISN'T happy when they're dancing? Sometimes when I'm in a bad mood I'll force myself to dance because I know it'll make me feel better. But barring really bad moods, there are very few times when I don't feel like dancing. It's the best way to fully enjoy music (obviously there are exceptions; no one's going to dance to an aria from Pagliacci) because you're letting the music fill you up and then it just sort of spills back out again. That was supposed to be a cool analogy but it just ended up sounding sort of gross.
Point (if I do, in fact, have one): Music says the things we can't say, and dancing is how you listen and say something back.
An example: The people in the following video are doing it right. They are clearly fun people. And this is the perfect way to start a wedding. Before weddings people are generally nervous and jittery. What better way to get simultaneously relaxed and pumped than to dance? That ensured that the ceremony began with everyone smiling and feeling good and made sure that any little problems remained little, as they should. A wedding is announcing to the world that two awesome people have decided to be awesome together, so I am of the opinion that the event should reflect the personalities of the couple involved. It's like they thought, "What's the best way to express just how we're feeling today? BUST A MOVE." I wonder if I can convince my sister to do something like this when she gets married.
Heaven, I'm in heaven / And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak / And I seem to find the happiness I seek / When we're out together dancing cheek to cheek. -Cheek to Cheek, Fred Astaire
I will do this at my wedding. And we will plant people in the audience so it ends up being a kickass flashmob.
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