{"id":311,"date":"2011-01-18T09:40:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-18T16:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=311"},"modified":"2011-01-18T09:40:40","modified_gmt":"2011-01-18T16:40:40","slug":"questioning-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/?p=311","title":{"rendered":"Questioning Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is it about music that has such an effect on things?\u00a0 Music has been shown to have an effect on many animals and even plants, not too mention, of course, humans.\u00a0 The question that may never be answered is why<\/em> it has an effect.<\/p>\n

It’s not the lyrics.\u00a0 Lyrics can be pleasant, but it’s the harmony given to them which turn them from poetry into something more.\u00a0 Even when a song is done a capella, there is a musical quality in the voice(s) which change the words.\u00a0 Think of barbershop quartets.\u00a0 Four voices singing in harmony produce a musical sound which can be pleasing to hear, more than speech.\u00a0 They can be singing nonsense and still generate emotion.<\/p>\n

Pure music itself deepens the question.\u00a0 At least with lyrics one can say one enjoys the message, assuming the lyrics are in a language the listener understands.\u00a0 But if there are no lyrics, if it’s just somebody strumming or beating on a drum or blowing on a wind instrument…there is still meaning, and it can be very personal.\u00a0 Again, animals and plants have been shown to respond to music, but there is no explanation.\u00a0 Why is that a good drumbeat makes many of us want to move our feet?\u00a0 Why is it a flute makes some people close their eyes and smile?<\/p>\n

I think this will be a mystery forever.\u00a0 There’s nothing wrong with that.\u00a0 I’m listening to music right now and enjoying it, but I could not tell you why.\u00a0 I enjoy a variety of music–right now I have Def Leppard’s Pour Some Sugar On Me<\/em> playing, and I do like classic rock a lot, but I have many more modern artists like Avril Lavigne or Lady Gaga in my playlist as well as a lot of techno.\u00a0 I even have a few country tunes, some classical music (how can one not think of an exhilarating horse ride while listening to the William Tell Overture?) and even a bit of rap.<\/p>\n

I sometimes question my musical choices.\u00a0 Some of it is a bit odd–the theme from Underdog<\/em> is coming up in my list–but I like it anyway.\u00a0 That’s key to the whole question, I think:\u00a0 Music is a very personal thing.\u00a0 I listen to a song and you listen to the same thing but we have different reactions.\u00a0 We may seem<\/em> to react the same, but inside us I am convinced we are hearing things differently.<\/p>\n

So I will continue my music.\u00a0 Avril is up, she’s Losing Grip<\/em> and then Anything But Ordinary<\/em>.\u00a0 Really, that defines music:\u00a0 Anything but ordinary.\u00a0 See you tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it about music that has such an effect on things?\u00a0 Music has been shown to have an effect on many animals and even plants, not too mention, of course, humans.\u00a0 The question that may never be answered is why it has an effect. It’s not the lyrics.\u00a0 Lyrics can be pleasant, but it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":312,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311\/revisions\/312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.shadowkatmandu.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}