Everything has rhythm and harmony. All matter and energy - and probably even gravity and time itself - obey the elegant inner workings of waves and particles in a rhythmic and harmonious eternal dance. As succinctly as can be defined by a biologist, life is the continuously harmonic and rhythmic electrochemical process within organisms. Breath, for example, is the most obvious example of rhythm and harmony in our lives: we stop breathing, we exhale for the last time, it's over.

Most philosophers will not object, at least not fundamentally, that the psyche (mind, personality, soul, spirit, consciousness, or whatever other name suits you, dear reader) is a being with rhythm and harmony as basic characteristics. The well-known Asian symbols for eternally balanced-opposing forces yin and yang also stand for rhythmic harmony. Music, by standard definition, is the rhythmic and harmonious combination of sound. Therefore it should be not hard to understand why human beings have historically been attracted to music. Some musical compositions (anthems) are considered venerable, even sacred, as are the flags and other symbols that represent the spirit of institutions and nations. Recent anthropological research strongly suggests that music actually even precedes the spoken language.

Music can have a substantial effect on us because it is so akin to our fundamental essence; it can influence our actions, thoughts and feelings - all that we are. Music can have such a powerful effect on us that it can be reasonably compared to psychoactive substances. It can induce people to do stupid things; stealing for example (nothing is free), or dancing sans any talent whatsoever, looking both very brave and very stupid. If music is so like a drug –a powerful drug at that – perhaps it should come with some warnings. Well, the music industry, under pressure by law, must put on some music some kind of label with some kind of warning, such as "explicit lyrics" or "might turn your kids into psychopaths" or even "might make people explode" which, for some clientele, the very curious and adventurous (read: most adolescents) is like a 90% discount price sticker.

I must note that I will not alienate anyone because of musical taste. It's far too personal and subjective a field. In fact, I've always held the opinion that even if there emanates a music seemingly pertaining to some kind of ritual sacrifice or any equivalently sordid, puerile or vulgar brooding, it is better than no music at all. If your music of choice is the kind that could release the raging lunatic that everyone denies having, but lurks inside so many, I don't personally care. Caveat emptor, pal.

I have only two big wishes about people and music. The first: that everyone falls in love with music, so that it's everywhere, and all musicians can prosper and earn a decent living, and so that everyday classics continue to be born, surviving natural selection, passing the ultimate test of quality - the test of time. Like the works of Bach, Hayden, Chopin, and Mozart – still around and very much alive – so it will be with the work of Zappa, Lennon, Hendrix, and Coltrane: millions of classics, never really aging, never really gone. And when everything fuses in the parallax of history, people will realize that music and religion, record shops and churchouses, live music venues and temples, are the similar in terms of choice: in essence, just a matter of entertainment, and nothing to go nuts about. And there definitely stands room for tolerance, and for some more respect, and hopefully for a scintilla of peace.

But of course, for this to happen, people must stay in love with music; it cannot be just a youngster's fad. It has to stay, growing and developing within its host, who will then in turn continue feeding the music industry. The main reason people fall out of love with music is that they cannot enjoy it as much anymore, and this mostly because of moderate to severe and irreversible hearing loss. Music is pointless to the hearing impaired. To save the music, first we must save the audience.

As such, my second desire is that everyone take more care of their sense of hearing. This is, for me, a sort of a mini-crusade I inherited from my father, a humble salesman by profession and a lifelong music lover. My kids, now adults and also music lovers, have mostly intact hearing, thanks mostly to my dad's carried over advice.

Everybody blames earphones and "excessive volume" as the main culprit of "the hearing loss epidemic," but there is more, it's not that simple. Given: sudden, explosive sound pressure levels will indeed cause instant, catastrophic and irreversible ear trauma. Victims of war or industrial accidents, and anyone exposed directly in front of rock concert main speakers (be it because of passing out or just plain ignorance) will be rendered partially or completely deaf in a single, isolated incident.

Anyone can protect their ears with earplugs in advance notice of exposition to dangerous sound pressure levels. Even just a rolled piece of paper napkin makes an excellent sound attenuator. Practice makes perfect, and improvisation is a sign of genius; I once saw a guy in a concert wearing cigarette filters. Smart kid. In addition to extreme loudness, watch out for gross distortion, aka "clipping." When subject to clipping, hearing loss creeps on the victim, surreptitiously, gradually and without warning, well below the threshold of pain. Very poor recordings and/or very bad quality earphones or buds compromise intelligibility; they make it harder to understand the lyrics or discern the expression of individual instruments in a performance, and so naturally the victim raises the playback volume, which in turn increases distortion further, and sadly too often to levels damaging to the ear. For those who fall in this tragic spiral, first to go are the the higher frequencies, the sublime caressing of ride and hi-hats by drummers, then the altos in guitars, then vocalist's high registers. Image, localization, the ambience of music, much of it's soul is lost, all that can be heard is the backbeat of toms, kick-drums and bass, and the low fundamentals of the rest - just a bland, lumpy and disgustingly cold sonic gravy.

There is a community of so-called "golden ears" who have been around since the advent of hi-fi in the late 50's, later to rename themselves audiophiles: mostly older and well-heeled individuals who financed, via their very expensive purchasing, all of the great advances in today's home and pro audio electronics, by means of "trickle-down" economics and supply/demand. We owe them our thanks. Some audiophiles went berserk on the search of the holy grail: the perfect reproduction, at home, of live performances. Many have achieved astoundingly close levels; I have heard recordings in some private homes that raised goosebumps, but often on tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment. However, thanks to the market explosion spearheaded by our deep-pocketed friends, very high quality audio products can now be acquired cheap if you do your homework and follow some simple rules (to be discussed on another day).

For the moment, consider this: today's excellent components deliver extremely low distortion, monster power, and with prudent use, outstanding durability, for relatively little money – no longer a month's pay for very decent sound in most cases. If your financial situation is in the initial stages of self-indulgence, just get very good headphones (normally for around a hundred bucks), get a good mp3 player and avoid bad recordings. Most portable players today are very safe if you drive them within their not-so-modest limits, sounding immensely better than top-notch portables of a generation ago, which, adjusting for inflation, costed ten times as much.

Listen carefully (now this has a new meaning), enjoy every day with your lifetime, romance with music, expand your musical frontiers, be curious, expect wonder, feed your spirit, and peace with you, friends.

Written by Antonio Capo Martir