Music Matters

By: Professor Raymond L. Hall

Us older folk know you can’t stop the music!

It’s everywhere! It’s virtually constant. Music is a part of just about every aspect of our lives in ways that few other things are:

• It may constitute a wakeup call in the morning 
• It plays in the background in the work place
• It whispers in restaurants 
• It serves as a shopping companion in the mall. 

The genre of music played in each of the above is carefully selected. It is no accident, for example, that malls employ a blend of music that appeal to a variety of demographics, ranging from teens to the elderly. Perhaps most importantly, the home is the repository of people’s favorite music and can be summoned to entertain at any time, from waking up to it in the morning until retiring at night. 

In all cases, music’s role is to provide a healthy form of distraction in the promotion of serenity to help us navigate the sometime bumpy pathways we encounter in everyday life.

There is more to music than what we hear. I mean the sound of music is only one aspect of its wider and deeper and universal essence. Music reaches into the deep recesses of our beings in ways that few other forces can. By itself or combined with words, music can transform our moods from sad to happy, transport us to a different time in our lives, and carry us back and forth from one corner of the globe to another — all without moving from where the music is playing. All these things it can do, but we still don’t know much about the existence of musical ability in the brain, only that it resides there.

Why, then, does music play such a pervasive role in the lives of humans?

The simple answer: Music is an innate human attribute.

Let’s consider music with another innate human attribute: Language. Language is an innate human endowment, like music, that is located in the brain. Just about everything else about it remains a mystery. Despite scientific inquiries in the biological and psychological sciences geared to understand and explain them, definitive knowledge of the exact origins and nature of music and language have yet to emerge. Theories abound. But, ultimately, the mystery remains; nobody really knows; we’re still in the in dark. 

The paucity of definitive scientific knowledge aside, the most important aspect of music and language is that they possess uncanny potential for transcending differences and conflict in the human family, many of which are very, very deep seated. Unfortunately, conflict — within and among human groups — remains a curse in the human species. Fortunately, both music and language are capable of transcending differences by connecting, as opposed to dividing, members of the human race. 

As an innate human property, music is expressed differently in as many ways as there are human groups. People everywhere internalize the musical genre into which they are born, but like language, they are not limited to a particular music milieu. In fact, once becoming aware, people readily take to the music of other cultures and societies. It’s a rarity today when people anywhere in the world do not include musical genres different from that of their own culture or society; music, like language, readily crosses boundaries to bring us together rather than keep us apart.

It’s fascinating, for example, that people get caught up in an opera performed in a language they don’t understand. It’s a beautiful thing when musicians from different countries and cultures gather to perform concerts. It bodes well for human unity when ordinary people travel to different parts of the world and seek out indigenous music. It stokes the fires of hope when they take part in singing in a language different from their own. These things happen because what music does nearly everywhere is to capture the essential nature what being human is all about. 

Take the following genres: Rap. Rock. Pop. Blues. Country. Jazz — these are just a few of the musical genres describing essentially American music. But they have migrated to virtually every nook and cranny on the planet. The reverse is also true: Almost every musical genre found around the globe is present in the United States.

Music is a powerful, often transformative phenomenon. It unites us, highlights our similarities, reaches into the deep recesses of our beings in ways that few other forces can. The sound of music is only a small part of the wide and deep aspect of its universal essence. We understand better that music enhances the lyrical expression of emotions, ideas, aspirations and hope that calm our individual souls and may do the same for others as well.

Take Blues and Country music in the United States. Both tend to generally describe the ups and downs, travails and triumphs — rejected love, new love, poverty, unemployment — of many Americans, all characterized through the medium of music. 

The take away message here is clear: Music is often employed to help transcend human differences and conflict by conveying messages, subliminal and otherwise, that other mediums cannot. Music can help summon up the courage to accentuate commonalities, not differences.

Think about this: Every social movement employs protest songs and music to unify constituents and express its aspirations for social change. “We Shall Overcome” the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, did just that in the United Stats. And, numerous social movements throughout the world have employed that same anthem ever since.

Sooner or later, music works its magic.