Thursday, January 25, 2007

Music and my humble opinion

I have decided to tackle a subject that is difficult to address. Music. It is an expression of something, whether it is a feeling, a belief, a message, ect. I was listening the radio. First I listened to a "Christian" station that plays only "Christian" music. Then I listened to another station of mostly "secular" songs. I discovered several things from conducting this experiment. Mind you these findings are tinted through my own bias so you must take that into consideration while reading my conclusions.
I found that about 90% of the "Christian" music seemed about the same as far as sounding goes. Meaning it sound about the same. The other 10% stood out slightly because it was a different genre. I found the lyrics fairly consistent and somewhat repetitive. The beat was generally the same with the exceptions of the fast and slow songs. Why would someone want to listen to this music? What is so attractive about it? These were the questions I asked myself as I listened to it.
I found that the "secular" music sounded somewhat the same but there seemed to be a larger variety. I don't listen to that station regularly so I don't know if those songs are repeated on a regular basis, but I believe given my experience of other stations, it is pretty safe to assume that they do repeat those songs. Furthermore I noticed that the whole feel of the music was different than that at the other station. Again, I asked myself, why would someone want to listen to this music? What is so alluring about it?
I also noticed at the Christian station most of the lyrics were about the same subject matter. Hope, peace, forgiveness, love, Jesus, so on and so forth. I noticed a similar trend at the other station. Their lyrics generally consisted of dancing suggestively (putting it mildly), crazy feelings they were having, how each other looked and how that made them feel. They also mentioned love a lot. They used it as a verb just like the Christian station did, however, they never mentioned Jesus that I heard and could make out anyway. The Christian station mentioned hurting and feeling bad and so did the secular station. Both make known their personal problems. Both of them come up with different answers of how to remedy their problems. On the Christian station naturally they made Jesus the answer to everything, His love, His forgiveness, His hope, and all the rest. The secular station never quite concluded their problems. When they did it was a "if you give me your loven' I'll be happy" sort of thing. When the secular station mentioned love it was not a sacrifice or a going out of your own way for someone else kind of thing, it was more along the lines of, if you have sex with me I love you. Or I love you so you should have sex with me. Or have sex with me to hell with the love part. The Christian station never mentions sex that I noticed.
These observations made me wonder, 'what kind of affects does listening to one station or the other have on ones daily attitude'? You have probably heard the saying, you become what you listen to, what you read, and like the people you hang around. I found this discouraging because of the fact that so many people listen to the secular station. I mean really, do people really want all that despair and lust in their lives? On the other hand why listen to the Christian music? Is it that much better, or is it just a form of godliness without the power of God?
My last question, ‘does what you listen to really make a difference’? I believe it does. I believe it changes the way you think about events and situations in one's life even without one consciously knowing it. I believe that is why it is so important to guard to whom and what we are listening. I would go so far as to say it is vitally important. All you actions begin as a thoughts, as mere imaginations. That is a scary thought.
Anyway, I just thought I throw out my observations and hope they make a little sense. Comment if you have some further point you would like to bring forth.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i remember you talking to me about this. i dident relize that you thought about it to such a extent to write this much on it. i'm trying to remember if the things i talked to you about this subject even talked about this subject.

Austininva said...

music is an expression of human feeling, but we also use music as a form of worship, i have more to say , but my ride for work is leaving,
Austin