Life is a movie, find your soundtrack, & we are all storytellers. Or finding motivation in music and movies.

 
 
 

1/ I have loved music and movies for as long as I can remember. I have listened to Pearl Jam’s first 3 albums (Ten, Vs, Vitalogy) countless times, and remember watching Citizen Kane, Yi Yi, & Casablanca as a teenager and even then realizing that they were special films.

Music has helped dampen life’s lows and amplified life's highs. One of my favorite music quotes is: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

"According to Nietzsche, music was inherently Dionysian — a means through which listeners could forget their personhood and become connected to forces larger than themselves." - https://lnkd.in/gc3KFr3P

I’ve been thinking more about music lately for a few reasons:
- I watched a number of shows and movies over Thanksgiving break that made me realize just how much better movies & shows are when they seamlessly integrate music

- Evaluating my own music engagement as I reviewed my Spotify Wrapped

-Realizing that life has its own soundtrack & we are all storytellers first and foremost to ourselves, and also to others

- Musicians are some of the most effective storytellers because they combine narration with music. This partially explains why I spent a good portion of time on MTV as a teenager. #preinternet

2/ Over Thanksgiving break and the past few days, I watched the following shows and movies:

- Super Pumped
- We Crashed (only the first 2 episodes)
- Almost Famous
- Devotion (more about that movie in a future post but it’s excellent)

Btw, I’m a big fan of the following movies: Gattaca, Platoon, Wall Street, Heat, & Grosse Pointe Blank.

A few observations on these shows and movies:
- The first two are shows about startups

- While the content of the startup shows are solid, their soundtracks elevate the episodes

3/ Super Pumped uses Pearl Jam’s (PJ) songs masterfully. Episode 3 ends with PJ’s Corduroy, and it is so fitting as it’s a fantastic defiance song. The final episode ends with PJ’s Yellow Ledbetter combined with a beautiful scene of San Francisco on the hill that I frequently run on.

4/ We Crashed introduced me to a new artist: Christopher Nicholas Bangs. His music is a bit Postal Service-y meets Explosions in the Sky. The song Selling an Experience and An Entrepreneur are some of the best ones in the show.

Listen here: https://lnkd.in/gYqA8-3c 

5/ My call to action (CTA) questions/notes:
- What are some of your favorite movies w/great music?

- What did you think of Super Pumped and We Crashed? When the
FTX startup movie comes out I hope it has a great soundtrack too! :)

- Who are some artists, bands, or songs I should listen to?

- Imho Linkedin should also have Linkedin Wrapped

#music #movies #motivation #soundtrack #startup #entrepreneur #startups #linkedin

 
Tim Hsia