I want to start by saying Hello world! Ok, now that I got that out of the way on to my blog.
Music is a beautiful thing. It can evoke such emotion in a person. If you are happy and you hear your favorite song it can make to happier. If you are down it can cheer you up. It can make to feel love and anger both separately and at the same time. Music can encourage you and expose you to many new things. It is powerful.
I believe that music plays an important role in our world. It can bring us together. For instance, look at the new We are the World song that was recently released for Haiti. It is beautiful and artiest from all back grounds came together to sing it for a good cause. This song gives us the feelings of hope, sadness, happiness, and devastation all in one. When people listen to it they feel the need to get out there and help. It brings the devastation and the need for more help right to you. It will bring people to action just by hearing it. One song will give the world a chance to help and be a part of something bigger. This one song will inspires change in people all over the world.
Music can be positive. However, it also has a very negative side. Today’s music, for the most part, does not give us hope or joy. Instead it glorifies violence and self destruction. It puts women down and it has lost most of its positive motivation. It also carries many negative stereo types. Sometimes music can instill hate in people.
I believe that music has and will continue to influence me personally and as well as the world. It can bring us together or help to tear us apart. Music is a great outlet for me. I have favorite song to cheer me up when I am sad, I have songs I like to sing too. I also have songs I listen to for inspiration. I believe that there is a song for any occasion.
The last thing I will say about music is I think we need to take the time to really analyze what we are exposing our children too. A couple weeks back I was watching my friends’ 8 year old daughter and she had her IPod with her. All of the sudden she was singing her heart out to “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick” and then “You’re a Jerk” was the next song. I know as an adult I am guilty of not keeping all bad lyrics form my kids but I do limit what they can listen to. I do want to add that we did have about two weeks of my friend’s daughter calling everyone a jerk.
I expect that the theme of music will help me to better understand and appreciate music. I mostly listen to what is popular and on the radio. So I am hoping that the theme of music will help to broaden my exposure to music. I hope that we will look at many different styles and many different cultures during our theme. Through broadening my musical exposure I hope to gain a greater appreciation for all music.
I’d have to say I’m with you on music being a destructive force in our country. It seems a lot of people relate to music and use it as an escape. If what you escape to promotes a counterproductive message, it’s going to affect your outlook on life and society. I often wonder how many people would be in a hurry to own an escalade if it wasn’t in a rap video, or would want pickups if they weren’t in a country video. Not that those things are bad, but if you start promoting other things, you can see how people can be lead with little to no effort. Yikes.
ReplyDeleteYour spot on about the kids too. Sometimes parents just don’t pay attention, and sometimes they just haven’t grown up. When we listen to songs with bad words, we know what we are doing, and we deal with it. When you have kids though, I would think a change in your music is called for. I don’t have kids, so I can’t say for sure, but you listen to what some of these kids are saying, and, wow. I would have to have a long talk to them if they were my kids. We use to just get a belt on the butt, don’t know if that is legal any more, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea for the kids who don’t learn from the talking (I was one of those kids, I still need beat every now and then).