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Music Makes Our Lives Magical and
Meaningful
REF: https://musicmagic.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/music-in-society/
Music and society have always been intimately related. Music reflects and creates social conditions
– including the factors that either facilitate or impede social change. The development of recording
techniques in the latter half of the 20th century has revolutionized the extent to which most
people have access to music. All kinds of music are available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the
touch of a switch. The down side of this easy availability of music in the Western world is that
there is a tendency for it to be taken for granted.
This article has been written as the result of a world wide literature review of authoritative articles
which address the Power of Music (as defined by this study). The website for this report seems to
be out-of-service; but the sponsoring organization can be found at thePerforming Rights Society for
New Music.
This
report
is
also
available
in
hard
copy
format
from
the
main
author:
David Francis, The Performing Right Society, 29 – 33 Berners Street, London, W1T 3AB
Music is a very powerful medium and in some societies there have been attempts to control its use.
It is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which goes
beyond words, enables meanings to be shared, and promotes the development and maintenance of
individual, group, cultural and national identities. It is powerful at the individual level because it
can induce multiple responses – physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and
behavioral. Few other stimuli have effects on such a wide range of human functions. The brain’s
multiple processing of music can make it difficult to predict the particular effects of any piece of
music on any individual.
The power of music to act therapeutically has long been recognized. Therapy can involve listening
to or actively making music. Increasingly it may involve both. Music can be effective in conjunction
with other interventions in promoting relaxation, alleviating anxiety and pain in medicine and
dentistry, and promoting well-being through the production of particular endorphins. Its
therapeutic uses have been explored extensively with particular groups of patients, the elderly,
those with brain damage, and those with persistent pain. It has also been used to promote
appropriate behavior in vulnerable groups and enhance the quality of life of those who cannot be
helped medically.
Music can play an important part in human development in the early years stimulating foetuses and
infants in such a way as to promote their wellbeing. Early interactions between mother and child
have an essentially musical quality which assists in the development of communication skills.
Listening to music or being involved in making it does not seem to directly affect intelligence,
although active involvement in music making may enhance self-esteem and promote the
development of a range of social and transferable skills. Listening to quiet, relaxing background
music can improve performance on a range of academic tasks, while exciting music may interfere.
Memorisation can be particularly affected. Adults are able to mediate the effects of interference
through the adoption of coping strategies.
The increased availability of music seems to be encouraging people to use music to manipulate
their own moods, reduce stress, alleviate boredom while undertaking tedious or repetitive tasks,
and create environments appropriate for particular kinds of social occasion. In short, music is being
used by individuals to enhance the quality of their lives.
In parallel with this, there is a large industry concerned with the effects of music on workers and
consumers. Music can influence our purchasing behavior in subtle ways in a range of environments.
It can assist our ability to remember product names and enhance the product through association
with liked music. When consumers are actively involved in making a decision about buying a
product, music is likely to play a more peripheral role. The evidence outlined above indicates the
extent to which music pervades our everyday lives and influences our behavior. This demand for
music is likely to continue to increase. To support our appetite for music, the music industries in
the developed world constitute a major element of the economies of many countries. They are in
danger of losing their skilled work force in the future because of the extent to which music is taken
for granted.
Much of the research into the effects of music on intellectual and personal development,
concentration, anxiety, pain reduction, and behavior in a range of settings has tended to ignore the
possible effects of cognition at the individual level. This is an important omission. Such research as
there is suggests that our thinking about music has a powerful impact on our responses to it. If we
wish to understand how music affects our lives we have to take account of the experiences of the
individual. The evidence suggests that many people have already discovered that music is good for
them. Now we need to develop an understanding of exactly why and in what circumstances.
This will require a multi-disciplinary approach to take account of the many factors which may be
important. These may include, the society or culture to which the individual belongs, sub-group
membership, individual characteristics including gender, age, prior experiences of music, current
mood, whether the music is self or other selected and the extent to which music is considered
important in the individual’s life. To explore these issues a wide range of methodologies will need
to be adopted which are capable of exploring the individual’s subjective experiences of music while
also taking account of those responses of which they are unaware.
There is also a need for more systematic investigation of the ways that music can impact on groups
of people in social settings. To date, research has tended to focus on commercial and work
environments. The way that music may affect behavior in public places has been neglected. Such
research, for instance, might explore whether particular types of music might stimulate orderly
exits from large public functions, reduce the incidence of disorder in particular settings, increase
tolerance when people have to queue for relatively long periods of time or engender feelings of
well being and safety in public places.
The Power of Music – Susan Hallam
o
All kinds of music are now available to most people, 24 hours a day, at the touch of a switch.
o
Music is a very powerful medium. In some societies this is recognized and attempts are made
to control music by those in power.
o
Music is powerful at the level of the social group because it facilitates communication which
goes beyond words, induces shared emotional reactions and supports the development of
group identity
o
Music is powerful at the individual level because it can induce multiple responses –
physiological, movement, mood, emotional, cognitive and behavioral.
o
The brain’s multiple processing of music makes it difficult to predict the particular effect of
any piece of music on any individual.
o
Music has powerful therapeutic effects which can be achieved through listening or active
music making.
o
Music can promote relaxation, alleviate anxiety and pain, promote appropriate behavior in
vulnerable groups and enhance the quality of life of those who are beyond medical help.
o
Music can play an important part in enhancing human development in the early years.
o
Active involvement in music making in children may increase self-esteem and promote the
development of a range of social and transferable skills.
o
People can use music in their lives to manipulate their moods, alleviate the boredom of
tedious tasks, and create environments appropriate for particular social events.
o
The easy availability of music in everyday life is encouraging individuals to use music to
optimise their sense of well-being.
o
Music can influence our behavior in ways which are beyond our conscious awareness.
Knowledge of these effects can be used to manipulate our work and purchasing behavior.
o
The easy availability of music means that it tends to be taken for granted. This can lead to
neglect in considering how the infrastructure supporting music and musicians is resourced,
maintained and developed.
Music in our everyday lives
Never before in the history of humanity have so many different kinds of music been so easily
available to so many people. The development of the electronic media in the latter part of the
20th Century revolutionized access to and use of music in our everyday lives. We can turn on the
radio, play a CD or tape, or listen to music on video or TV with very little effort. This has not
always been the case. Prior to these developments, music was only accessible for most people if
they made it themselves or attended particular religious or social events. The effects of these
changes have been dramatic. It is now possible for us to use music to manipulate personal moods,
arousal and feelings, and create environments which may manipulate the ways that other people
feel and behave. Individuals can and do use music as an aid to relaxation, to overcome powerful
emotions, to generate the right mood for going to a party, to stimulate concentration, in short, to
promote their well being. It has become a tool to be used to enhance our self presentation and
promote our development.
The down side to the easy availability of music is that there is a tendency for it to be taken for
granted. At the same time as music is becoming a more integral part of every day life, the place of
music in formal education world wide is consistently being questioned. Music already plays an
important role in promoting human well being. As the positive benefits of music are increasingly
demonstrated in health, psychology and other fields demand will increase. If this is to be met
society will need appropriately educated musicians.
The extent to which people listen to music
Probably, the most significant development in music in the last century was the development of the
technology which enabled the recording of sound. This has made music easily accessible to
everyone. As a result of this music has become a major industry world wide.
In the USA and the UK music is amongst the top economic generators of income. There are
currently 13,159 radio stations in the USA. The average American is exposed to more than 1600
commercial messages in each 24 hour period through one type of media or another. Most of these
advertisements are accompanied by music. In the UK, in 1998, the British Phonographic Industry
annual trade figures indicated that sales of music reached an all time high of £1,118 million. Album
sales exceeded 210 million units. In 1997, total domestic spending on music in the UK was valued at
£3.7 billion. Gross overseas earnings were valued at £1,332 million compared with payments of
£813m. Net earnings were estimated at £519m. The domestic music industry also had a value of
£3.2 billion with the equivalent of 130,00 full time jobs.In 1999, the UK was ranked 3rd with only
the USA and Japan higher in relation to world music sales. Music is of major importance to the UK’s
economic health.
In 1993, 98.5% of teenagers in the USA claimed to listen to music. In the region of 70% of students
report listening to music while studying. This degree of exposure and the evidence indicating the
importance of music in adolescents’ lives suggests that its influence may be very powerful. But it is
not only adolescents who listen to and enjoy music, a recent US survey of musical tastes indicated
that 75% of mature citizens listened to music for at least one hour everyday. Their preferred music
was classical, show tunes and country music. In the UK, recent figures suggest that in the order of
11.3 million people listen regularly to BBC Radio 1, 10 million to BBC Radio 2, 6.2 million to Classic
FM and 1.9 million to Radio 3. In addition there are over 300 commercial stations and almost 40
BBC local stations which spend a considerable amount of air time playing music.
People not only listen to music, they actively take part in making it. In 1993, in the USA, 62 million
people said that they sang or played a musical instrument. In the UK millions of people sing or play
instruments for the love of it. In 1999, 49% of children took instrumental music lessons. The
decision to learn an instrument was generally theirs, although teachers were influential in the
process, more so than parents. Approximately half of the children who played had a friend or
family member who also played an instrument. Estimates of adults playing an instrument have
varied between 24-30%. The instruments most likely to be played by children are the recorder,
electronic keyboard or piano. Piano is the main instrument for adults. The main reason children
gave for learning a particular instrument was liking the sound, although friendships were important
in some cases.
These figures suggest that music has become an integral part of our everyday lives in a way which
would have been unthinkable 100 years ago. Further, we not only listen to music, we make it. This
is reflected in the setting up of a development agency for participatory music making in the
community called Sound Sense. This acts as a source of information and provides opportunities for
the exchange of ideas in relation to all aspects of community music.