When’s the last time you paid attention to the lyrics of the music you listen to? If you’re like me, often the beat, melody, ‘sing-along-ability’ of songs stand out first. Several years ago, I was listening to the car radio and a song from the 1960s came on, “Lightening is Striking Again” sung by Lou Christie. After the first verse and chorus was over, I realized what this song is actually about: a young man telling his pure girlfriend that he is going to cheat on her and he wants her to stay virginal for when he wants to settle down in the future. Yipes!
Music reflects and feeds the culture, in positive and negative ways. Some people complain about angry, violent, sexually explicit lyrics. It mirrors what we see in the media and it’s not always pretty. It also feeds into the culture. Is it inspiring us to create a better world? Is it keeping us stuck in hopelessness? Is it neutral?
I’m a fan of musical diversity. We all know that one style or genre is not better than another; it’s a matter of preference. Still, we can be conscious of what we allow into our minds if some music, some songs create disharmony that has no where to go except to feed anger, fear, violence, hate, misogyny, racism, judgment, despair, and depression. On the other hand, disharmony that moves us out of being mired in a psychological state that is both familiar and a source of stress can be an effective precursor to enacting personal and social change.
Because music moves us emotionally, we can appreciate it consciously to filter out messages we don’t want to absorb or let messages in that we want to keep. It’s all about awareness.
