The Origin of Music Meds By Mel

August 30th, 2020 by Melissa Landrin

How does one even begin to put words to the meaning of something as significant as music in your life?  Do you start from the beginning when you were a child?  Do you ramble on about the songs playing from the radio in Mom or Dad’s cars?  The songs you loved to turn up to 11?  Your first concert.  The bands you’ve seen more times than you can count.  The memories that go along with countless songs?  The songs that got you through every little moment in your life?  The songs you have to turn off the second they pop up on shuffle or on the radio.  You know, the ones where you think, damn, I need to erase that one from my phone, yet you never get around to it.  Because let’s be honest, even those songs that you’d like to forget - they’re a part of you and your past.  Songs that make you smile, songs that make you cry, songs that make you think/reminisce.  Songs you play when you’re happy, sad, mad, pissed off, in need of encouragement.  The list goes on and on.

Sure, I could sit here and go into personal detail for all of those categories or reasons why music is such an important part of my world.  The thing is, music is an important part of our world.  It’s there for us through everything, whether you like it or not.  The world would be a completely different place without music.  I’m sure while you were reading that first paragraph, you were thinking of your own first concert or the song you play when you’ve had a bad day.  You were probably thinking about the songs you and your best friend sang along to in the car on your way to school.  Or the song that was playing during your first kiss.  The song you blasted in your room as you cried into your pillow after your first heartbreak.  We’ve all been there.  That’s the power of music.  

Eight years ago, I made the decision to start writing music reviews for the indie music website called, Indie Music Reviewer.  I’ve always loved music.  It’s a passion of mine.  Singing it, listening to it, live music.  Everything about it.  I had even started my own music blog before I discovered IMR.  Once I started writing for IMR, my love for music grew even more (something I didn’t think was possible).  I found myself dissecting every moment of every song that I was reviewing.  Most of the artists I reviewed, I really enjoyed.  There were even some that I didn’t enjoy as much, but I never wrote a bad review.  I learned to appreciate all kinds of music.  See, with music, even though you may not like what’s playing, there’s someone out there who does.  It takes all kinds.  So, I taught myself to open up more to styles I may usually not listen to on my own and find the good in every song.  Independent artists deserve that.  They put a lot of time, effort, and passion into their craft, so who am I (or anyone else for that matter) to put down their hard work?

After my stint with IMR, I joined forces with a couple other writers from IMR to create a new music community called Wordkrapht.  For the first time, I was a part of the creative process from the beginning.  All three of us had a deep passion for music and introducing these artists to a larger audience.  Unfortunately, it became difficult to produce content on a regular basis due to our busy work schedules and personal lives, so we decided to go on a hiatus.  

Who knows if we’ll ever get Wordkrapht up and running again, but in the meantime, I realized there was something missing for me personally and that was writing about music and continuing to use my platform to increase exposure for independent musicians all around the world, one review at a time.  I’ve become friends with a lot of the musicians I’ve covered over the years and I’m eager to review their new material along with new artists’ material.

When thinking of a name for this new website, there were a lot of things that came to mind.  Sure, you want to think of something catchy.  Something everyone will remember.  Something unique.  For me, it kept coming back to a phrase I’ve always thought of when it comes to music.  Music is medicine.  I’ve always believed these words to be more true than most I’ve heard in my life.  However, it really hit close to home when I was at a Miranda Lambert concert back in February 2017 in Reading, PA.  Those three words were put up on the big screen before her final song of the night, “Tin Man.”  For those words to be used by an artist who I admire and who has gotten me through so many times in the last 10 years or so, it really hit home.  Since then, “Music is medicine,” has been an even more important phrase to me.  So, when thinking about this website, I wanted to incorporate the idea that music is medicine into the title.  After a lot of thought and bouncing ideas off of family and friends, I decided on Music Meds by Mel.  

Music Meds by Mel will be more than a site for music reviews.  I’ll be sharing playlist ideas, writing columns about music, and hopefully I’ll eventually bring on some guest writers, too.  I’d like to create a music community not only for the artists, but the fans of music, too.