Music

[Faiien]

I've been pondering this question for a long time now but I've been too lazy to actually post it. What i wanna know is:
Why do you guys think music is such an important part of our society?

Basically anything on TV has some sort of background music associated with it. Movies have music to add to the dramatization and the overall tone and mood of the movie. We've even learned to manipulate music into a learning tool for children and adults alike. Cant remember your ABCs? put it into song form and sing it repeatedly. Cant remember all names for the bones in your body? But it into song form and repeat.

Even the most mundane and boring tasks seem better with the help of music. For example, I used to walk home everyday from school. This walk was about an hour long and I am not gonna lie, it was pretty tough. It wasn't so much physically straining but more mentally straining. I love to talk and if nobodies around I'll often talk to myself...weird i know...but when i was walking home w/o music and only the sound of traffic to accompany me, the walk seemed to take FOREVER. So about a month later, I decide i couldn't do it anymore, so i walked into my local Frys and bought a Psp and loaded it with music. The next day when I' am walking home it seems as though it took half the time(it really took the same time XD) and I was actually enjoying the walk. I don't know why but music seems to be my magic carpet that whisks me over the hot desert.

So why do you guys think music is so important in our society? And where do you think music is going(evolution of music so to speak)? Share any personal stories if you wish!

[Prozerran]

Well. Let me see here. I'm a graduate student in Music, so let me chime in here. Great topic, btw.

Music as we know it actually developed in the Middle Ages in, ironically enough, what we now call the Middle East. To make a long story very short, the Arabians had the skill, but they didn't know how to reproduce it in some theoretical form. So, after some conflicts with Greece, the Arabians and the Greeks came to some form of agreement, including bringing music to the Greeks, where the intellectual elite put together a very basic form of modality. In simplest terms, you can think of major and minor scales.

Then as the Midieval period in music begins, we find that this modality reached Spain and spread along very secretive groups of the Catholic Church. It is likely that when the Arabians began warring with Spain, the result was a resolution of sorts and more exchange of ideas between the two cultures. Regardless, knowing where it comes from is interesting enough. If you really put it all together, we have a lot to thank the historical cultures of the middle east for what we currently have in terms of music today. Pretty ironic when you consider we're at war in the middle east.

Since 850, music has developed in societies across the world in many different ways. It is interesting to mark the correlation of technological advancement with musical productivity. The interest in manipulating sound is obviously one reason. As it became more elitist among social circles of the upper class from about the 1600s to about the 1800s, becoming more prominent in secular areas and less exclusive to sacred masses and other church functions, music became a societal identifier.

Literally speaking, symposiums and other gatherings among composers from different countries (mostly speaking of France, England, Italy, and Germany) were often rife with everything from applause to controversy. As you enter the Classical period of music, you see a philosophical preference for a pursuit of perfection begin to take hold. Once music became more refined with composers like Haydn and Mozart, you see music become more and more elite. Essentially, take Hollywood in the U.S. today, and you'll find that Music has some great parallels in both attitude and prevalence.

Music tradition and well-grounded study into its history have also contributed a great deal, and interestingly enough, the study of music really didn't begin to become a formal career-based pursuit until the turn of the century between 1800 and 1900. That's not to say there weren't great studies into music early on (Fux and Riemann are the big ones), but music's popularity continues to benefit from the interest generated by studies into the theories and history of music. Popular music as you know it today actually comes from a minimalist tradition that began in the late 1800's.

The mood you feel when watching a film, for instance, has to do with the pulsation in the music you listen to as well as the melodic and harmonic material that is specifically used to qualify what you're seeing on the screen. The pulsation gives you a sense of real time, time generated from what you see, not time as you experience it outside the theater. Many think music they hear today is complicated. Remarkably, it is some of the least complicated music to understand. That is why it is so effective, because even though you don't know the terminology or the methods for putting it together, your mind can digest it easily as relevant information contributing to the experience. T.V. advertising, programming, movie soundtracks, popular artists... they all use a very fundamental form of organization and composition. Just think, in any song, you will always have a verse and a refrain, another verse, a bridge, then a refrain. This may vary slightly from artist to artist, but it is simply the result of what most people can ably and enjoyably digest. Think of it like the musical form of Fast Food. It's not far off from it.

If you ever get bored with what you're listening to on your long walks, drives, or whatever, there are some very interesting contemporary classic works from the 20th Century you might enjoy. Check out Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. Wagner's Tristan und Isolde is another, more popular work (probably the most popular opera ever written). It's four hours long, but I recommend listening to the first five minutes of it, just to hear the most amazing use of tension and release ever written.

And even if you don't care for the more complex works of music, it's all good. That's what's great about music, that there's SO MUCH out there you'll never find yourself wanting for something no one's done. There's something out there for just about ANYONE.

[Icarus]

Music, as opposed to other forms of art, is much more entrancing and naturally captivating. Any simple beat will give you some impulse, big or small, to move your body in accordance to the beat, whether it be a simple tapping of your feet or flailing your arms through the air in parallel patterns (See: MC Hammer). For the audience, music is the easier art.

Most music is made and bought by younger people, who are going through all-too familiar cycles of adolescence and early adulthood, which they know how to express only verbally. Judging from popular music today, listeners value the lyrics more than the actual music itself. It's simply not as easy to express the kinds of things that young people are fond of, like puppy love, the gangster way, anger, cheap and casual sex, through visual art or even literature as you can with music.

Music is the most cost effective form of art. You can make it quick, mass produce it quick (that is, if you choose to make CDs as opposed to just distributing it online), bring it anywhere with you, listen to it as many times as you want, requires little to no effort from the listener, and can be advertised almost anywhere. It's truly a lucrative business.

[UMSLdragon]

wtf? you made a new thread?
eh?

Well, so far, in North America, music is somethinge everyone does. No matter the form. Or at least they're bom-barded with it. It seems that music has a way of getting past a part of the brain like no other thing in the world. Music bypasses the consious part and delves straight into the unconsious part and the emotional part. Which would exaplin why certain types of music can emotionally drive people to act a certain way. Which Holly Wood and other filming companies use.

Like screaming rock music could drive you to be wild and crazy, while some other soft music, like say Amazing Grace or Irish Rapsody, would stir the "feel good" emotion and such (wow, it's hard to explain emotions...)

I think music is an important part of society because, it serves as entertainment for whatever you need it for; forgetting something; having a good time with friends for the hell of it; critisizing because that's what you do; to make time pass "faster"; to maybe change an emotional state.

An explination that I can give on how music can potentially make time move faster is because of the beats and rhythms of music. You know that there is 60 seconds in a minute. What if music "changed" that time rhythm or altered you consious "counting" (measuring) of time in your head. Like say, the music had a "speed" of 180... which is fast. (180 beats a min.) It would change how your brain consiously counts time because it's percieving a different speed of time that normal... which would make time feel like it's gone by faster. Same with slow songs, except the other way 'round.

Does that concept make sense, or am I totally out to lunch with the theory?

[Prozerran]

Does that concept make sense, or am I totally out to lunch with the theory?

You're close. Perception is individual for everyone. Some may perceive slow music as slower time and others may perceive slow music as faster time. I suppose it depends on your own understanding of what you're hearing and how you process it.

If you have problems digesting what you're hearing, chances are you're not going to have such a perceptual change in your assessment of passing time. If you're really enjoying the music, you're processing it differently (i.e. your brain isn't having to work as hard to process it). This is one of the reasons why popular music is popular. It's not better music, it's just easier to digest because you're used to it - like fast food. :)

But your theory isn't far off the mark at all. The more critically you listen, the easier music will be to digest later down the road. The faster portions will tend to excite you or uplift you more easily, and the slower portions will tend to relax you or evoke emotions you never thought were possible.

And as a side note for discussion, I propose a question for those of you interested. How many of you visualize some drama or imagery when you listen to music? I imagine most of you do to some degree. If so, then what do you think is the source of this visualization? Is it the music that generates the imagery, or is it a result of the mass media culture we live in today?

[UMSLdragon]

And as a side note for discussion, I propose a question for those of you interested. How many of you visualize some drama or imagery when you listen to music? I imagine most of you do to some degree. If so, then what do you think the source of this visualization? Is it the music that generates the imagery, or is it a result of the mass media culture we live in today?
I do. I love doing it. I get more imaging when I listen to music without lyrics rather than music with lyrics. But there are a few songs - like "Three Wooden Crosses" by Randy Travis - that I visualize the story as the ballad unfolds. But, mostly it's the music that I visualize rather than lyrics.

For me, the source of visualizations would have to do with the medias imput. When I hear a marching snare to a "military" song, well, you know. The example answered it for you :P Something like the ending theme to "Top Gun" is a gooder example of that. Or some Concert Band songs I've played that have a military theme to them. But, they're only military themes because that's what the military plays.

Irish music is Irsigh because the Irish made it. Diddo with Celtic and Scotish (love it, love it! Dueling Chanters FTW) So, I think (there's my bias again... geez) that what people visualize depends on society and ulitmatly, the media and how they percieve it and propose it. :smirk:

[U-238]

Lux is a good song. (that's the long version. the short version isn't as powerful, but it's still good nonetheless) It definitely has that epic feel to it.


And as a side note for discussion, I propose a question for those of you interested. How many of you visualize some drama or imagery when you listen to music? I imagine most of you do to some degree. If so, then what do you think the source of this visualization? Is it the music that generates the imagery, or is it a result of the mass media culture we live in today?

I do it as well. Though it's usually only with pieces that are dramatic and I seldom visualize songs with lyrics.(probably because I'm paying attention more to the lyrics than the actual music itself.)

Personally. I find that I must listen to music in some cases. The main instance I can think of off the top of my head would be working on a 3d project. Every time I open up blender winamp is opened right after it. I just gather my playlist and start working. Soon enough the playlist ends but, by then, I'm already "in the zone" so I don't really notice it. I just find it helps to get there and packs some emotion into whatever I'm working on.