The Power of Music

It seems like everything I do involves some kind of music playing in the background, or at least calls for some kind of music in the background. I find this ironic in the fact that I'm not musically talented at all, and that I can barely distinguish the finer things about music than other musically talented people. Even though that's the case, I have to say, I love my music...

This got me thinking about why music has so much influence on the world and people. If you really don't believe that there's any power in music, I think you fail to realize all of the places that music is integrated into. Think of all the great movies that you enjoy, or that commercial that you laugh at everytime. None of that would be possible without the integration of music, or at least it wouldn't be nearly as great as you remembered it to be last.

Me and my brother Tom used to play a lot of stupid games. One of them included the 7 second farting game, but that's another topic for another blog. Another one of the games we played was our own little version of Music Trivia. The point of the game was for one person to think of a song (specifically the lyrics), and then repeat the lyrics to the other person in a natural conversational kind of way. What this meant was taking out all of the musical notes/tones/instruments normally found in the track, and seeing if the other person would still be able to recognize and name the song. After listening to a bunch of songs being converted in this way, it really is surprising how much harder it is to recognize your once loved tracks. I think this illustrates the point that music isn't just about the words, but more of a package deal that needs to be present before its special effect is felt. Think of it this way: if some woman came to you and looked you straight in the eye and started telling you:

Fergilicious definition: Making the boys go loco. They want my treasures, so they get their pleasures from my photo....

Okay, I know, that is a dumb example because it's a retarded song anyway. But you get my point. If you took the lyrics from most of the classic songs that you loved and you just said them to someone, I'm sure it would lose most of its effect. And no, I actually don't know the lyrics to that Fergilicious song, I had to find the video on Youtube so I could hear the lyrics.

Just thinking about the emotional reaction that some music can bring, I think a large part of that has to do with the emotional investment that it requires for performers to sing the songs. Whenever you hear a great slow song or love song, when you hear the person singing, you can really hear the emotion behind the voice and how the singer is exposing themselves to the listener. I almost see it as a needed risk that the singer needs to take to make a really good song. If you don't mean what you sing, then it becomes really hard for people to receive the song and let it speak to them. I think this is why a number of artists write songs about personal experiences, so that they are able to sing about them in a more personal perspective (excluding Weird Al).

All in all, music is a great escape and relief from anything that you need to go through. It knows no boundaries or limits, and can really shake you to your core. There's a reason why censors are so concerned with keeping the airwaves clean of negative influencing music, because it's very apparent that it can have an effect on its listeners. Let it be a sad song to help you reflect about something that's happened in your life, a happy song to celebrate along with, or an upbeat fast song to get your blood pumping, music definitely has a profound and often unrealized effect on its listeners. I am beginning to think that it really is "the language of the soul".