Personal Essay Example: Music Experience

I attended a Guns N' Roses concert with my sister on July 27. 2017 at The Dome at America's Center St Louis, and it was mind-blowing. We had VIP tickets, so we were in the area right in front of the stage. The sight would be phenomenal. They had big screens and huge speakers, and I knew the sound would be crazy.

The concert began late, but when it did, my senses went into overdrive. It is a total understatement to say I was excited. The noise at the concert was too loud with decibels to the point of pain. I almost wished I was not too close to them. That is what made it fun anyway. After the concert, my ears were ringing all the way home. The music was great. Seeing your favorite band perform live with their voices going through the microphone without the song in the background was amazing. The crowd would sing with them, and it was fantastic. I was screaming so loud when they played my favorite song I thought I was going to faint. At the back people were fighting for a glimpse of their favorite band.

The ground moved with the beat of each song, and the pulsations went right through me each time. People were jumping up and down to the rhythm of the song just like the act was doing. Everyone was doing their own thing, and the crowd was in sync with the each other. Since the concert was packed, you had to move with the bunch of rock enthusiasts. You could not walk around freely. We were over ten thousand rock enthusiasts, and the crowd was spectacular. They had many piercings all over their faces and so many tattoos which are synonymous with rock fans. The smell of smoke from the cigars being lit all around was overpowering. After the concert, I promised myself I was never going to miss a show happening close to me ever.

Rock music is defined by rhythm, the vocals, and the instruments. The musicians had their electric guitars, drums, and a bass guitar. The vocals were harmonized, and the rhythm was crazy. The bass drums would echo all the way to the street and ring through your chest. The guitar was aggressive and the backbeats amazing. The vocals were fantastic, and the band would syncopate their music to get the crowd excited. Guns N' Roses music had steady backbeat, and it revolved around their guitars.

The Altamont Speedway Free Festival was held at the Altamont Speedway in the US. It was held in the spirit of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair that had been held in August and was a staggering success. It was organized by the Rolling Stones who were planning to cap their tour of the US. The concert was held in 1969 and brought together counterculture artists on the same stage. It has an estimated attendance of 300,000 people. The genres represented were rock, jazz, Latin rock, and folk-rock. This concert was organized to be one of the best in history.

However, the concert was a disaster. All the lined up acts did not perform that day. The cause of the altercation was the Hell's Angels, which was a motorcycle gang that was hired as security for the event. They had been paid with beer worth $500. Four people died and that day and many others injured. One was stabbed to death, another drowned due to LSD, and the other two were victims of a hit-and-run. According to the Rolling Stones who were the event organizers, the problem started with drunken Hell Angels who became aggressive causing the crowd to become rowdy. The most notable was the deaths of Meredith Hunter, making the concert go up in history as "the day music died" and "the darkest day in rock history."

The concert I attended had a significant attendance as well though not as many as 300,000 like The Altamont concert. It has been organized for close to a year since the band had a tour in the US and the show was one of their main events. It was held and funded adequately. The Altamont concert was hosted a few days into the event. The venue was settled on two days before the event. The Guns N' Roses concert, on the other hand, was full of love and life. Everyone looked happy, and the band was entertaining. All the acts of the day performed, and Guns N' Roses who were the final act made the concert amazing.

The similarity between the concerts is the great lineup of acts and the presence of drugs. People were passing out all over the place. By the time the show was coming to a close, most of the crowd was either seated or passed out. The Altamont concert is remembered for its violence. On the other hand, I and thousands of Guns N' Roses fans will remember our show for the awesome fun we had.

Works Cited

Anon, (2017). [online] Retrieved from: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/the-rolling -stone-disaster-at-altamont-let-it-bleed-19700121

setlist.fm. (2017). Guns N Roses Setlist at The Dome at America's Center, St. Louis. [online] Retrieved from: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/guns-n-roses/2017/the-dome-at-americas-center-st-louis-mo-6be5fed2.html