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Music has been a huge part of people's lives for many generations and played a big role in shaping a community and its culture. Music allows people to bond on a different level. Listening to music and dancing makes us contact, coordinate, as well as cooperate with others. Contact could be the art of dancing or even coming together for a concert. Dancing together to a song or performing a song requires coordination and cooperation. Music has shaped me into the relaxed person and positive person I am today.
Music changes my mood quickly, lets me explore my imagination and most importantly, connecting with others around me.
Newborns are greatly affected by music, most newborns are put to bed while listening to their parents sing to them. Music has shown to provide comfort and a special connection to the voices of their parents. As a toddler who was raised in Jordan, my parents and grandparents used to sing me Arabic songs to put me to sleep.
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Now, whenever I hear the songs again, it makes me very emotional and homesick. It allows me to reconnect with old memories and emotions. On the other hand, studies have shown that music helps the body build motor skills and work with the brain at the same time. This is also when babies are first exposed to nursery rhymes. This helps infants in their development and learning their language through music. As babies grow older and start to speak, a lot of toddlers start dancing and singing for entertainment.
I recently got the chance to look back at my memories as a kid using photographs and videos, and I noticed a lot of my toys had buttons with different noises allowing me to create my music, such as the drum keyboard. Kindergarten also used music to entertain us, as well as transforming a task into a fun event. My earliest memory is the “The Clean Up” song at the end of every day. According to music educator Paul Borgese:
We should encourage our children as early as possible to listen to and make music. Children can start by listening to their favourite songs and accompanying the music with simple instruments made from household products. They can then advance to playing more complex musical instruments and perhaps even take formal lessons (Gasior 2012).
While listening to this song in kindergarten, my friends and I were able to have fun, sing along, dance, and clean up and put everything back to its designated area. The fact that this was one of my earliest memories shows how much I enjoyed that part of kindergarten. It allowed me to exert my energy and dance freely with my friends, as well as do what I was told.
Adolescence demonstrates us growing into our body during different periods of change. Multiple social, emotional and physical changes make adolescence vulnerable to mental health. Studies have shown that music can boost mood-enhancing chemicals in your brain. This shows that music is used as a coping mechanism and looked at as therapy during dark and hard times. An article written by states:
Music therapy can improve the quality of life for dying patients. Music therapy can foster supportive interactions between patients and loved ones and help patients connect with and express emotions in a less threatening manner than verbal expression. In working with persons who are dying, music may provide a means of transcending patient experiences of physical symptoms and declines. (Gallagher, Huston, Nelson, 2001).
This shows that music can affect people of all ages, whether its infants, teens, seniors, etc. A typical example shown throughout teens is after a breakup, someone might feel very lonely, not wanting to communicate with anyone else around them. Listening to music, lets them communicate with the world nonverbally, and to be alone without feeling lonely.
As Psaltopoulou notices: In a music therapy relationship we can find the “framework” to discover our inner desire to get closer and closer to our truth. Through experiences in this nonverbal communication level, the person who feels alone discovers certain aspects of himself. Improvisation serves as a means to manage and experience emotions in a symbolic, non- verbal level and help the lonely person to find the causes – that are responsible for the current situation in earlier life events. Music is the medium through which man can express emotions, thus music is acting as a cathartic for the man himself while it is helping him to manage and cope with himself (Karapetsas, Psaltopoulou, Laskarakis, 2010).
This is possible because, it reaches out to their deep and untouched emotions, hearing the lyrics to sad songs allows them to understand that, they are not the first person or the last person who will feel this way during a sad time or a breakup. This lets the person connect to artists and lyrics on a different level, making them feel a lot less lonely. From my point of view, music has been a part of my daily routine for many years. I am usually not a morning person and doing something so simple as playing music while getting ready boosts my mood and gets me started on a positive note. Also, music can distract me from real life and capture my imagination. This comes in handy when I am commuting to school and I can listen to my music and be in my own and separate world. This distracts me from reality and makes time go by faster since I am enjoying my time. On the other hand, music also makes me very productive and lets me work with a lot more energy, whether I am cleaning my room, doing the dishes or even writing an essay like right now. One of my weaknesses is getting anxious quickly. I’ve tried to improve myself and work on my anxiety but nothing worked until I started distracting my self with music. Listening to an upbeat song can distract me from my anxiety and escalate my mood very quickly.
Music is very malleable and is constantly shaping a culture. Mass culture goes hand in hand with popular culture. Experiencing different music cultures opened my eyes and mind. Howard concludes: “Contemporary ethnomusicological research yields an unequivocal response to the question of whether musical structure is similar across cultures. The answer is… that similarities are rare and unsystematic.” (Howard, Angus, Welch,1994.) I was able to experience the difference in music and culture by constantly traveling the world, I had the opportunity to travel to beautiful countries such as Jamaica, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, London, etc. Being on vacation shows you a lot about a culture, but living in two different countries thought your lifetime, teaches you a lot more since you’re experiencing first hand, which makes you a part of the community you’re living in. Growing up in Jordan, located in the Middle East and being exposed to Arabic music on daily bases shaped me into the person I am today. A great Lebanese artist named Fairouz was highly appreciated in my community. Her beautiful voice allowed us to start our morning very calmly and positively. I remember driving to school and hearing her songs playing on the radio. As I arrived at school, I would also hear her music playing on the speakers util the bell rang. Fairouz has such a unique voice that she used to go around the world to perform and people would buy tickets to her concerts to listen to her perform, even though they might not understand Arabic or her lyrics. This shows how music is a tool that bring people closer together and it is used as entertainment for many years. Music allows people to gather, have a drink and socialize. In the past, pubs were the primary mean of entertainment. Popular Culture: A User's Guide states: “the expansion of the media industry did not diminish people’s appetites for more sensual kinds of entertainment. The pub remained a cornerstone of popular recreation, forming a basis for new entertainment such as the music hall” (O’Brien & Szeman 55). To this day people still gather around to listen to music, of all ages. It is common for us to gather in clubs, concerts, and festivals. Those events can brings thousands of people together in the same hall enjoying the same genre of music. “Contemporary popular culture is consumer culture... there are forms of consumption that are socially or physically necessary such as food, clothing... and there are forms of voluntary consumption, specifically what we refer to as entertainment” (O’Brien & Szeman 159). Communities begin to come together and share the love for specific music. This allows them to act somewhat similar. As a hip-hop/rap fan, I notice that I start to dress the same as other hip-hop/rap fans, letting streetwear clothing become a trend in our generation. Going to different artist’s concerts such as Kendrick Lamar and Travis Scott made me realize how similar we act, dress, and talk. As a 19-year-old girl, I like having friends who have similar taste in music, to accompany me in different experiences. It has been an easy task for mutual things I have with other teenagers around me because, the more people who share an interest in a certain genre, the more popular it becomes, meaning more individuals will continue to “consume” it. Being in the same room as your favourite artists, your friends, and thousands of other people who have the same appreciation for that specific artist, makes you feel included in your community. On the other hand, listening to music using headphones makes you feel distant to your favourite artist, you can connect with their lyrics on a mental and emotional level. But seeing them live almost gives you a different feeling and connection. When I go to concerts I always promise my self to take a few pictures and videos for memories, and after that; I like to put my phone away and enjoy the experience in person. Moving onto the best part of the concert which is the mosh-pit, letting us let go, dance, huddle, scream and sing on top of your lungs with thousands of other people, and all of us knowing every word of every song, makes me feel like I belong. For that reason, being involved in a community with similar interests makes me and everyone realize, that even though we work hard and have a lot of stress, we can all come together and put that aside. It allows us to let go and have and enjoy our time, together.
Music is a crucial part of a person’s creative development and it has shaped me incredibly and positively, creating the laid back person I am today. The different music I have been exposed to throughout my life have had different effects on me, whether it was calming me down, putting me into a positive or productive mindset, and bringing me closer to the people around me. Life without music is like a morning with no chirping birds, a canvas with no colour, and food without taste. Music is an emotional satisfaction that connects us to ourselves and the world around us.
The Power of Music Therapy. (2024, Jan 25). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-power-of-music-therapy-essay
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