Final Paper: How Powerful is Music?
Consider these four quotations:
“And it came to pass when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul that David took up a harp and played with his hand; so that Saul was refreshed and was well and the evil spirit departed from him.” Bible, Samuel, Chapter 16, verse 23.
“The sociological significance of music at this time, when regarded from certain aspects, is horrific…We know that in its sinister aspects, jazz is doing a vast amount of harm to young minds and bodies not yet developed to resist evil temptations. Perhaps this is the explanation of America’s enormous crime rate at present.”
Editorial in Etude magazine, 1925
“When I felt badly I asked [the organist] to play Buxtehude’s Passacaglia. Then I would sit in the dusk-filled church completely involved in this unusually intimate self-absorbed music, music that seemed to listen to itself, that comforted me each time and prepared me more and more to heed my own inner voices.” Hermann Hesse, Demian, 1919
“Some rock artists actually seem to encourage teen suicide. Ozzie [sic] Osbourne sings ‘Suicide Solution.’ Blue Oyster [sic] Cult sings ‘Don’t Fear the Reaper.’ AC/DC sings “Shoot to Thrill.” Just last week in Centerpoint, a small Texas town, a young man took his life while listening to the music of AC/DC. He was not the first.” Statement before Congress, Parents Music Resource Center, Rock History Reader, p. 218.
In the mid-1980s the Parents Music Research Center again raised the question of the power of music to affect the behavior of young people, in this instance negatively. A similar concern was raised in 1925 about jazz. But the other two quotes from the Bible and the author Hermann Hesse view the power of music in positive terms, claiming that music refreshes and comforts the spirit. The concern of the members of the PMRC in their testimony to Congress extended to music that was sexually explicit and also to music that expressed the darker thoughts of human existence. It is not uncommon for issues of sexuality and suicide to occur in literature, the theatre, and in the visual arts, but music is often singled out as having an unusual power, affecting behavior either positively or negatively.
Several of the songs we have been studying, and will study, address social, economic, and personal issues through their lyrics: sexuality, gender equality, racial equality, suicide, anarchy, drug use, murder, satanic powers, economic inequity, etc. For your paper, please address the issue of how music affects human behavior—your own and that of other people.
(The two songs chosen are written below) both songs differ with respect to how their sonic features, taken together with their lyrics, affect human behavior—either positively or negatively. Addressing the two songs you choose, your paper should consider these questions (and others of your creation):
What issues do the songs address? Do the musical features of pitch, harmony, rhythm, dynamics and timbre (i.e. distortion or other instrument effects, instrumentation, use of voice i.e. scream/grain/strain) enhance or detract from the message? How does the music do this? Be specific—cite particular features of the music and the times they occur, when appropriate.
How does the music affect you personally? Do you think music has the power to negatively and/or positively change behavior and why? Be specific.
Are there any songs that you have found particularly powerful over the last couple of months (say, since our semester began)? Do you think they affected your own personal behaviors?
Grading: since this is a position paper, you will not be graded on the position you take. The use of outside sources is encouraged, if it strengthens your position. A great to start your search for outside sources is your course material, including the optional readings and listenings.
You will be graded on: a) How well you state and present your position and b) the extent to which you refer to the musical features of the songs you discuss and use musical terms and concepts correctly.
Chosen Songs:
Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, “The Message” (1982)
Prince, “Purple Rain,” (1984)
