Music and Its Power

I thought I'd put some of my thoughts about music up online. How well my thoughts on music correlate with reality, I'm not sure, but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on such matters. I might update it and go into more detail sometime.

For many people, music undoubtedly plays a prominent role in their lives. It’s not uncommon in the city to see hundreds of people absorbed in a world of their own while listening to music on their MP3 players as they go about their daily activities. Wherever there are people, there is almost always going to be music.

It is interesting to note that music can be both a force that unites and divides. Crowds gather at concerts to see the same band and everyone stands in close proximity; all simultaneously going through the same experience. It is the common interest in the music being played on stage that brings everyone together and gives them something to relate to each other with. On the other hand, different genres of music that spawn disparate subcultures and their different attitudes, lifestyles and clothes can result in great division and conflict. In some instances it can go beyond just discrimination and unkind words to even physical violence, as observed in the UK where so-called goths and emos have reported being attacked due to their radically different ways of life.

Through musical devices, ideas and emotions may be communicated that would be otherwise inappropriate or inexpressible through normal methods, and it is remarkable how potent such devices can be. Someone may be moved to tears by a mournful violin, or joyfully elevated by the instrumentation or tonality of a piece of music; by adding or subtracting just one note, a composer can change the whole mood of the music.

With all the possible combinations of different aspects of music – tempo, key, time signature, rhythm and countless other things – the scope for musical expression is virtually limitless; however, it is further amplified by the personality or consciousness behind the performance or composition. Give two musicians the same instrument and tell them to play the same chords and you’ll find that each one will sound different in some subtle way. The individual, unique sound of a musician is intimately connected with their state of consciousness and personality. An angry person might bash away at the keys and create a greatly disturbing piece of music, whereas a gentle person might carefully press the keys in a refined manner and relax you.

In the ancient Vedic tradition of India, the sages knew of the power of sound. The chanting of mantras, such as the Hare Kṛṣṇa maha-mantra, well-known in pop culture after it was spread by George Harrison through his music and the movement from which it came, was known to free the mind and influence the consciousness of a living being and awaken dormant perceptions of a higher reality. Congregational singing of mantras with musical accompaniment, much like singing hymns in a church, is still going on today and serves not only to elevate the participants, but bring together people, regardless of their cultural or racial characteristics.

In fact, even a mundane analysis of sound shows how amazingly powerful it is. Sound, as it is understood in the physical sciences, is a vibration of a medium caused by a mechanical disturbance. This vibration may then go on to stimulate the hearing apparatus of a living being which is then affected in some way by hearing and feeling that sound. Considering it in this manner, it does not seem so remarkable. However, it seems like there is a subtler, more powerful aspect to sound, beyond the gross physical level. Consider that some people travel long journeys, many thousands of miles across numerous continents, to see their favourite musicians play live for just a few hours and then come home again the next day, or go through the discomfort of sleeping in a tent through howling wind and torrential rain to stand in front of a stage and have their ears stimulated for a few days. How remarkable is it that music has the power to motivate people to travel people across the globe or forsake the comfort of their own home?

With power also comes responsibility. Not only can music uplift, it can also degrade. The ancients of the East certainly had a clear understanding of the effects of different kinds of music, as shown by their concept of the modes of material nature, which divides the world into three categories – goodness, passion and ignorance – each one affecting the quality of life of the living being in different ways. A simple analysis confirms this. Some music pacifies and uplifts, whereas some music agitates and disturbs.

It is exciting to think that music has the potential to create profound changes, within and without, and bring people together. But it is also worrying to think that the artists that regularly pump out negative or degrading music might be having a detrimental effect on the lives of the listeners. Maybe, in the same vein as the influence food has on the human being, you are what you hear!