Power of Music In Uncertain Times
Music plays on our emotions
Music is the divine way to tell beautiful, poetic things to the heart.
Pablo Casals
Think of your favorite song. Perhaps it’s from one of your favorite albums, or a tune that reminds you of your first love, or something that makes you want to dance with abandon. Music can transport you to places in your personal history, evoking memories and emotions in ways that spoken word or visual art may not. Do you remember the first album you bought, or song your downloaded? What’s your favorite concert? What was ‘your song’ with that special person in your life.
Music is personal. It is also the universal language.
Let’s face it, for many of us music is as essential as breathing. It’s on our radios, our smart phones through Pandora and Spotify, on commercial for everything from cars to pharmaceuticals, on film soundtracks, piped into retail stores to encourage purchasing whilst listening to a demographically-appropriate playlist. In my own fiction writing I often create playlists to help me get into the mindset of certain characters and construct scenes.
Music soothes the savage breast. It comforts, it provides ambience. And it’s good for you, especially in stressful times like these.
The science behind music
Music helps us to tackle social distancing.
That’s not just my opinion. There’s validation from the National Institute of Health. The NIH funded scientists are investigating how music can influence us, body and mind. They hope to harness the power of music to develop treatments for people with conditions like stroke and autism. Other studies show listening to music can reduce pain, and even the need for medications. Music definitely heals the heart, by reducing blood pressure, heart rate and anxiety. It can lessen depression.
Find more benefits about music here.
According to a study at the University of California, Davis, listening to music and participating in musical activities stimulates the brain and body. It helps synchronize people in an activity we can all do together at the same time. You see it at an audience in enthralled with Puccini, or at a stadium full of fans rocking out to Arcade Fire.
Putting aside the science music is as old as time and fundamental to our lives. We sing, dance, snap fingers, clap hands, stomp feet to rhythm and melody we compose and hear.
For some, music provides focus and motivation for tasks like housework, or a long run. The right song can snap you out of the echo chamber of self-defeating thoughts, or stoke the fires of imagination to innovate and create.
Music helps us find ourselves, and like art and literature can provoke and change thoughts and feelings. When we’re down, we put on a piece of music, and maybe shake a booty to Lizzo’s ‘Truth Hurts.’ A gentle lullaby like Jame’s Taylor’s ‘Sweet Baby James’ can lull us to sleep, and if not eliminate, then alleviate stress.
As human beings, we experience the range of emotions. Music can reflect those feelings and provides the means to continue to connect and express those feelings. We find hope and catharsis. At best, music can be an escape, or at least a relief from the stress of life.
It creates ambiance and enhances whatever the experience. What is a party without music? Think of how films and plays use music to further their stories. A sports event without ‘We are the Champions,’ or a Red Sox game that no longer includes ‘Sweet Caroline’ during the eighth inning? Impossible!
Music Unites Us
Concerts, festivals, sporting events. We join together to enjoy music, whether essential or incidental to the occasion. Music creates an infectious atmosphere that brings us a sense of joy and belonging. Even as we struggle with the isolation and uncertainty in the time of Covid19, people meet from across their apartments or front porches to share a song. It’s an endorphin-inducing activity that stokes unity and good will.
The poet Elizabeth Bishop wrote this sonnet almost 100 years ago.
I am in need of music that would flow
Over my fretful, feeling fingertips,
Over my bitter-tainted, trembling lips,
With melody, deep, clear, and liquid-slow.
Oh, for the healing swaying, old and low,
Of some song sung to rest the tired dead,
A song to fall like water on my head,
And over quivering limbs, dream flushed to glow!
Global events -- inequality, poverty, violence, as well as our personal losses and disappointments can cause us to be resentful, callous and cynical. Music is the salve to ease our anxiety, reflect our own feelings, so we can better express them – to understand both ourselves and others better, so we feel less lonely knowing we are sharing a beautiful language, which like so many other beautiful things needs no other reason to exist than the pleasure it provides.
Other articles of interest
Importance of Introduction to Music at an Early Stage: Little Mozart