Recently, a friend of mine was putting together a lesson plan and asked me to comment on the following questions.  While they are very broad subjects, I’ve tried to touch on the base of each one.  Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts.  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll turn each topic into a post of its own.  Each subject has plenty to write about!

1: How does music affect a person?

Music is just as powerful as smells, sights, and the sensation of touch.  I might even go so far as to say that music is more powerful than the other senses in terms of emotions.  It has the ability to affect our mood  When we have emotional ties to a situation, our brain will associate whatever we were listening to with that emotion. This is why certain songs conjure up feelings of sadness (a song that was on the radio when your girlfriend broke up with you or when your dog died), feelings of happiness (the very next song you heard when you found out that you got first place in something), or just simple reminiscing (songs that you used to listen to when you were younger or lived in a different place).  Music also has the ability to affect us in conjunction with our sense of sight.  If you’re watching a movie, music plays just as important a role as what you’re seeing on screen. It helps take you up and bring you down with the mood of the actors. It can evoke feelings of sadness that the actors are feeling or make you anxious along with them.  Or it helps build suspense and puts you on the edge of your seat. The sounds attached to the screen are powerful tools that build dynamics and ensure that your emotions are going in the direction the filmmakers intended.  Music is powerful!

2: What are some brief issues when downloading music illegally?

By “sharing” files and then propagating those to even more people (without paying), you are literally stealing from the artists, labels, and management companies. Sure, nobody wants the major labels to make any more money than they already are without justly compensating their artists, but the bottom line is that it’s stealing. Period. The artists don’t always make much money as it is, but by using online services (or even swapping external hard drives), we are cheapening the music. We are saying to the artists that their music isn’t worth our 99 cents. We pay $1.50 for a bottle of water, but we won’t pay $1 for a song that we really, truly appreciate? There is something very wrong with this. Pay for the music you consume. Get rid of the illegal music that you’ve traded online or borrowed other peoples CDs. It’s hard, but it’s the right thing to do. If you were a painter, you wouldn’t paint for free and pass out your artwork to thousands of people without expecting even $1 for it. Come on, people. You’d hate it if it happened to you, yet it happens every day. Do something about it.  Don’t help the industry crumble even more; the major labels are taking care of that.  We need to help compensate the artists with what they deserve so that after the industry has evolved into its next form, the artists will still be there.

3: Do we spend too much time listening to music?

I don’t believe so. You can listen to music while driving, working, studying, working out, sleeping, and eating. It helps to pass the time, and often encourages creative thought. At the same time, music can be mathematical and highly structured.  This is one reason that so many people in so many different walks of life appreciate it.  It’s a common bond between us.  It helps break the ice in conversation.  But with all things, one can consume too much.  It becomes too much when we replace conversation with human beings with music.

These are my quick thoughts on the three questions my friend presented me.  I hope they spark some interest in you as they did me!

Cheers,

Josh Walker