Mr. McMusics

I really like music.

I listen to music pretty much whenever I have the opportunity and certain kinds of music can get me rather excited. In part I probably inherited my love for it from my dad who listens to music even more than I do. A lot of my exposure to different bands and genres has come from riding in the car with him as he listens to CD's or playlists he's made. My dad also listens to a pretty wide variety of music and that's probably part of the reason my own tastes vary across a pretty wide spectrum. I can't really say I'm a fan of any particular genre because I have managed to find songs that I both enjoy and abhor in almost every field of music I've been exposed to. Even those genres that I by and large avoid and dislike tend to have a couple of gems hidden amongst the terrible noise that claims to be music.

The thing about music is that, at least for me, it usually gets absorbed without actually being analyzed or thought about too carefully. That may not seem like that big of deal, and maybe it isn't in some ways. I certainly didn't think it was for the longest time. The only problem with just mindlessly listening to music or jamming to a song because it seems kind of catchy and fun is that music is actually a pretty powerful and influential tool that conveys quite a bit of emotion and information even without being accompanied by lyrics.

I know a lot of people who are greatly involved in doing things with music and most of them have talked about how they find music to be a great way for them to express themselves. Music really is, if you think about it, another language. It doesn't really have its own alphabet or culture attached to it, but it is a way of communicating information from one person to another. Additionally, music is incredibly good at getting its message across without us ever really being aware of it. Certain styles of music cause us to react, even unconsciously it seems, in particular ways. Music can excite us or calm us down, and it can play with our moods and emotions like they're puppets on strings. Music is often used to set the mood in movies or at parties of other special occasions and many times it will just be there, almost unnoticed, in the background without us truly being aware of its presents but still having an impact on our minds and emotions as long as we are in hearing distance.

Music in general is a huge part of our society. There are lot of different and varying tastes in music across the country, but it really seems like most people spend a fair amount of their time listening to the stuff. Many stores and restaurants have music playing on the radio in the background which means that even if you don't spend a lot of time listening to music on your own you are probably getting some exposure somewhere. Even if you don't follow the musical trends of our country very closely you can often take a pretty safe stab at what's popular after spending an hour or two listening to the radio where the same half a dozen songs seem to be played in a loop almost continuously.

If you consider how much music people listen to, that music is a language conveying some kind of message and/or emotion, and that music is as incredibly moving and influential as it is then it seems like it would be a good idea to ask what kind of message the music we, as a culture, are listening to is conveying. The music current music industry of any age can help define a generation and set the tone for the majority of the people growing up and living within that age. I hear a lot about 60's, 70's, and 80's era music as though the music that people listened to during those decades helped to shape what kind of society and culture young people made up during that time. When music appears to have that much power over a generation it seems like it would probably be a good idea to know what it is trying to get across to us.

Because I am a terribly bias and opinionated individual, let's start by looking at the music of Taylor Swift. I am no expect on Miss Swift (thank goodness) but I have gotten the impression that she is, at least currently, one of the most popular country singers about and that a very large number of young women in our country listen to her stuff quite frequently and think she is pretty amazing.

Now, on a basic level I actually think Taylor Swift isn't that bad of a musician. She doesn't have a bad voice and I won't deny that, as much as I hate getting them stuck in my head, a lot of her songs are pretty catchy. What I'm looking at though is the kind of message that her songs are delivering to her listeners. I haven't listened to every song she has ever written and song, but I hear a lot of the more popular ones through the radio or when my sister is listening to music and I've got to say that the stuff Miss Swift typically sings about is rather frustrating to me.

The vast majority of her songs seem to be doing one of two things. They are either A) looking at incredibly shallow relationships founded on hyped up emotions without any real grounding or B) bashing the male sex and talking about lame guys are. Maybe I'm just being petty, but those don't really seem like the kinds of mentalities that should be getting enforced in people's minds. No, I do not think that emotions have no place in relationships, and yes, I will admit that there a lot of pretty crummy guys out there but love needs to be founded on a great deal more than just teenage emotions going off the hook and there are guys out there that are actually pretty darn awesome if you bother to look for them and hold them to high enough expectations.

It isn't just Taylor Swift though that is giving off this kind of message. The vast majority of what I hear coming from female artists these days, and to be fair there is probably a lot of it that I don't hear, is all about terrible guys being totally jerks and "love" founded on adrenaline, hormones, and a desire to live in the moment. Maybe this kind of a music is popular because it is a reflection of our young adult and teenage culture these days, but I actually think that that instead of simply resulting from our society they are actually helping to influence it. If young people are regularly listening to music encouraging sexual relationships outside of wedlock and getting deep into relationships with people based on feelings more than anything else then that is going to influence how they view relationships and how they conduct their own lives. I often hear musicians like Taylor Swift described as great role models for young girls and when I can only bang my head on the desk because the stuff I hear her singing about is not the kind of stuff I would want a sister or daughter of mine carrying out in real life.

Let's not be sexist though. Let's look at some of the absolutely terrible stuff that guys sing and listen to as well shall we? Since we talked about Taylor Swift and she sings country let's take a look at what a lot of popular male country singers' songs are about. Well... hmmm... let's see. That ones about shallow relationships based on the appearance of a woman. That one is about alcohol. That one is simultaneously about alcohol and inappropriate activities with numerous women. Yeah, that one belittles women as well... oh and it mentions alcohol. This one talks about women leaving... and so do about a million others.

Yeah, there are a number of actually really good country songs that have some pretty awesome content int hem, but there are also a lot of really popular ones that revel in some pretty terrible stuff. I'm not saying alcohol is evil or anything, but writing a song about how fun it is to get hung over and the stupid stuff you did while drunk... eh... not really sure that's sending the best message.

Actually, in light of what guys typically seem to sing out about a lot of what makes it into the girls' songs starts to make a lot of sense. In my last blog post I talked about what it means to be a man and looking at the general array of popular music sung by males these days I find that the traits and qualities I mentioned in that post to be, by and large, sadly lacking.

Ultimately, we live in the freedom of the Gospel to listen to whatever music we want and listening to stuff that may not be quite so virtuous isn't going to necessarily make us all go out and start reenacting the music, but it is foolish to try argue that the music we listen to as individuals and as a society doesn't have some kind of an impact on us and at the very least we should be aware of what the message we are eating up is.

After all, I think I said already, music doesn't just impart a message to us through the lyrics. It also conveys emotions and a kind of mindset through they kind of sound is creates as well. Classical music can communicate just as much, and sometimes significantly more, than a country, pop, or rock song. While it is usually pretty easy to decipher what message is being given through the lyrics of a song (once you stop and think about them) the emotional message from the sound, or feel, of a song tends to be absorbed more unconsciously, at least for me.

For example, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborn is one song that I love to listen to. There is something about that song that can make me go from being totally lethargic and lazy to having the urge to get up and do something energetic. A lot of higher energy pieces of music are like that, and that can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing. When you need to get stuff done listening to music that gets you pumped and excited can be helpful but when you are supposed to be driving the speed limit and Crazy Train instills you and urge to put the pedal to metal then you should probably switch listening to something else.

A lot of rap, and heavy metal type music conveys one very strong emotion: anger. There are times and places when feeling angry is very justified. When our safety or the safety of those we love is threatened, or when an injustice is performed we should be outraged, but anger is an emotion that often abused, misdirected and unfounded. In a lot of angry sounded music the message being told seems to not only include anger but, in many cases, violence and hostility. It commonly feeds of the kind of male weakness I talked about in my last post where guys seem to feel the need to express their authority, dominance, and masculinity by getting even with people and by demonstrating their strength through physical prowess and violence. Like I said in the post where I talk about that mindset, that kind of thinking is not what we want to be finding in men and is something we have to strive to avoid. Music that kind of enhances, feeds, and fuels that way of thinking and those emotions can be incredibly dangerous.

So what's the point I'm try to make here? What am I saying and why am I writing this post?

Essentially I am cautioning any who might read this, and really our society as a whole, to think about what you are listening to, what kind of a message it is giving, and why you are listening to it. Music can't be blamed for the problems of our culture and society but they can definitely play a part in influencing the way we think and act in certain scenarios. The information we absorb through music, books, movies and the like is absorbed one way or another and it is important for us to understand what kinds of information we absorbing when we see or hear it.

You are free to listen to whatever it is you want, and the quality or message of the music you listen to doesn't make you a good or bad person, but it will impact you and shouldn't be mindlessly absorbed. There is also plenty of music out there with great messages and very high quality to them that you could potentially listen to and it might be worth asking yourself why you would listen to something that seems to be supporting or advocating immoral and wrong behavior when you could be listening to something else?

Again, why am I saying this?

I am writing this because I love music. I love to listen to it and I would really love it if I was better at creating it. I've made the poor choice to listen to music with some pretty questionable messages in the past and I did so without consciously realizing or processing what it was I was listening to. There was a stretch of several months a while back where I was in a pretty big funk for a while and was dwelling overly much on kind of depressing things. At the same time I was listening to a lot of pretty pessimistic and depressing music and that music, far from helping my mood, was actually kind of reenforcing the self pitying and bummed out thoughts I was having. At several points during this span of time a very dear friend of mine pointed out that the messages being conveyed in the music I was listening to were perhaps not the best for me to be surrounding myself with, but it was quite a while before I took my friend's advice seriously.

Eventually I actually thought about what they had said at some length and that's when I realized how much the music I had been listening to had been affecting my already pretty black mood. That fact wasn't really what ultimately helped me to get out of my funk, but realizing that I was allowing my musical tastes to actually influence and control my emotions was one of the first steps to getting over what I was spending too much time dwelling on.

I still listen to some music that could be classified as being pretty depressing but I'm able to listen to it more objectively at this point and because I am able to better understand the overall message of the music I am listening to I can hear it without it controlling my thoughts and emotions for me.

I could have written a very similar post about the influence of books or movies or any other message conveying media but I think that music is probably the most powerful of any of those. Mainly I would like to see people being more consciously aware of what they taking in and guarding themselves from allowing the less than virtuous messages within a lot of popular culture to influence their decisions and thinking. After all, we are to live in the world but not of it.

Live in the freedom of the Gospel and listen to the music you enjoy, but understand what you are listening to and be the master of your own emotions and decisions.

Anyhow, I have once again failed to express what I hoped to say as clearly and coherently as I had hoped but that's a glimpse at some of my thoughts and musing for today. Now I'm gonna go listen to some more Mumford & Sons and Imagine Dragons.

Pax