A Defence of Musical Preference
on Oct 26 in Philosophy by adminThere are people who think that music consumes will and corrupts clarity. They seem to be of the persuasion that merely listening to anything hard, fast, and not wrote between 1678 AD/CE and 1854 AD/CE dooms one to be a will less witless pawn of some cosmic evil.
I could not possibly dissent more.
To begin with, if you are basing your life philosophy off of an artistic expression which opens only the smallest window into human experience and reality then you have a preexisting problem you need to address.
Beyond this however, as Rumi pointed out, music can be of four combinations:
1. Good lyrics/Good sound
2. Bad lyrics/Bad sound
3. Bad lyrics/Good sound
4. Good lyrics/ Bad sound
Thus, when someone shares a song with you there is no reason to assume that they are giving you a treatise on their world view. They could like it for any number of reasons. To simplify it to the point where a song is an absolute revelation of someone’s total inner world is ignorant.
Not only this, but due to the subjective nature of music that which is wrong for one may not be wrong for another. Indeed, I am convinced that there is not a sound that has been made or ever could be made which are evil. Sounds are inanimate things without wills; evil – however you choose to classify it – can only be committed by things capable of understanding and response. Thus, if you are evil inside then all that you hear will be shaded in the same way and will perpetuate your current state. However, if you are pure inside then all you hear will be shaded in that way and will perpetuate your current state.
Further still, I think that people forget that between the hearing of any sound – indeed the receiving of any external stimulus – and one’s individual acts is a window of deliberation and choice. There is no magic in any sonic creation to force your will into doing that which is against your nature. Rather, it is the meaning in the song, how you interpret that meaning, and how you choose relate to the world and others after that which matters.
Once one learns how to control mind and understands the reasons for things they are no longer mere victims of cause and effect.
Yet we still have not said it all, for music is art and as art it is to be studied and considered. Just as painters paint colors on a canvas, so do musicians paint sounds onto the tapestry of silence. If the sound is angry, heavy, happy, or entrancing ask why.
Some good questions are:
Why has the artist taken the time to make this song?
What factors in their life, society, and the world at large could make them feel or think in this way?
How does this piece shed light on the human experience?
Can I relate to it as an individual? How and why?
What feeling does this convey?
Is this the feeling the artist intended or is this just my reaction?
Did the artist intend anything?
If you do these things then you can find a joy in music which you don’t even agree with conceptually.
I love Otep, Static-X, Slip-Knot, Tool, The Doors, Alice in Chains, and countless other heavy, heady, or hard bands, but I don’t agree with them on many philosophical points. Nevertheless, I have felt their rage, power, and pain. Further, I admire their courage to show these things to the world.
We all tend to hide our pain and true feelings because we think this is the best way forward, but we are mistaken. If nobody ever shows you who they are, if we never admit the world to be what it is, then how can we know anyone or make anything better?
I can appreciate those I do not agree with, and by understanding how they acquired such views I learn how similar they are tome and discover how to respect them.
When I was a fundamental religionist I was told that all rock was ‘evil’, and for the longest time I just took people’s word for it. However, when I mustered the courage to test the truth of the claim I could find evil nowhere. People confuse dark and heavy, with evil and corrupt.
I listen to a great many heavy and dark things because these things reflect a part of the world and my reactions to it at times. To hide from such things is to hide from reality, as long as one is in hiding they cannot explore, and not exploring they will never know a thing.
Nevertheless, there are many bands which I just find distasteful because I think they are idiots without anything useful to say to anyone or because their sound is awful, and this category of music is not limited to any style; everything from Bluegrass to Techno has good and bad – wise and foolish.
Also, when I was fundamental I heard all the time that metal music caused suicide and other negative things, now however I am sure this is incorrect.
First of all it is a confusion of cause and effect. People say, “Oh, they started listening to that ‘devil’ music and then their life fell apart.” However, all my studies and conversations with people indicate to me that people seek out things that match their internal world and attitudes. Thus, in the case above instead of the music making their life fall apart their life was already falling apart and they found music which exemplified their pain and frustration. Again I say, fix your mind and all will be fixed.
Secondly, the idea that music causes suicide or other ills is wrong because it is a hasty generalization. Merely because one person who listened to metal music killed someone or did violence doesn’t mean that all those who listen to metal do this. Jim Jones was a Christian minister who hijacked peoples’ minds with religion and took their money to make his twisted dreams a reality. Shall I then use him to typify all Christian ministers? I say no. Such is just ‘cherry picking’ or finding information which matches/proves your preexisting ideas rather than being circumspect and looking at all the data to find what ideas are true.
For every ‘metal head’ that has killed them-self there are a dozen who haven’t, and for every dozen peaceful religious practitioners there is a zealot or fool; think about suicide bombers or the guy who was shooting abortion doctors because they weren’t respecting life.
For every mood there is a song, and I think that by listening to music one can vent anger safely, enhance beauty, face and move beyond grief, or discover and tap into power. To limit your-self to one type of sonic experience is to rob your-self of many therapeutic and ennobling joys.
However, if something is distasteful to you that is fine, don’t do it. Just be aware that you are the only one subject to your conscience and that it’s authority stops where your skin meets the air.
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