“Oh be careful little ears what you hear, oh be careful little ears what you hear. For our Father up above is looking down with love, oh be careful little words what you hear”
Lost in the depths of depression, a young girl once again found herself in tears. She went to her ipod to turn on some music, her favourite screamo bands, they were her escape. She sat there, alone, miserable about herself, once again considering taking her own life to ease the pain. She cut because it was tangible pain, something beyond an abstract emotion. She felt as if every breath she took was a waste of oxygen. There seemed to be no way out. She was fettered by her fear. She knew every note, every chord, every word of every song, they were her comfort. The songs she surrounded herself with were only the ones that resonated with her pain.
That girl was me. For over a year, I battled depression, cutting, and suicidal thoughts. Music is a powerful tool. It has the power to affect ones emotions, to bend them, merely by how the brain responds to the patterns, tones, and literal notes of the music, as well as the words. Today, I would like to look at the way music effects people, psychologically and emotionally, good and bad and what the Bible has to say about it, and with that persuade you to put a much higher consideration into the music you listen to.
I am a classically trained violinist. I have been studying music for nearly 8 years, studying music theory for just as long, and have been in Florida’s premier youth orchestra for 2. With that in mind, last summer, I decided to run a series of musical experiments, just for fun. I gathered many genres and listened to each individually for about a week with astounding results. The clearest examples of what I intend to communicate today are in the genres of soft rock, subculture punk rock and heavy metal, those being some fairly drastic extremes.
In the first few weeks of my experiment, I listened to bands with a soft rock, almost folkish feel to them. Emotionally I was content while absorbing this sort of music exclusively. I transposed the songs I liked best to find without great surprise a tendency toward major key tonality which has been shown to bring fourth generally happy emotions in people because of the way the brain responds to the harmonic major chords (according to an Oxford study in 2006). I determined for myself that these bands, and music like them that follow a basic structure and maintain a major key tonality make me happy, and when I am downcast, I ought to listen to this sort of music.
I moved next wordless string quartets. Why a quartet? No particular reason. I just like the sound of the quartet above that of a soloist. I broke this week into three parts. I focused on Classical quartets in the first third of the week, bringing about a creative, gentle, musical mood in me. The next two days were entirely the Stylized Folk quartets for their swingy, homely feel. I had to dance to them. Again, not happy music, but this music causes me to be happy for it resonates with my soul. It is my very favourite go-to music. The third portion of the week was the Electric, nearly Metal. It was punkish. It made me feel slightly angsty, moody, temperamental. I hate how much I loved it. It was in a major key for the most part, but with many accidentals, which has been shown in the same Oxford study to have a quietly unsettling affect of the brain and emotions.
After that, I went to punk rock. I quickly realized that these bands, from their lyrics to their notes encourages a rebellious attitude in me. In this case however, it was the lyrics just as much if not more than the notes. As much as I like those bands for face value, I decided I should keep myself at listening to only a very little bit at a time to prevent a rebellious attitude from overtaking me.
I broke my trip to the genre of metal into three weeks. Christian metal, heavy metal and screamo.
The first week I listened to bands known for being ‘christian family friendly’. I really, really liked the lyrics. The music itself clashed to some extent to the lyrics. The music, once transposed turned out to follow the same patterns as the punk rock, and on its own brought about similar results. But with the lyrics, it kinda evened out to confusion in the mind of a musician and angst to the mind of a teenager.
The next week I spent listening to bands with a heavier sound and less friendly lyrics. These songs were primarily in a minor key, which has been shown by various studies, to be slightly depressing, morose and harmful to ones emotions and mind. I realized this shortly after I started listening to it. I slowly became addicted to this sort of music, and also grew depressed. Slowly, I found my joy disappearing and my hope fading, apparently without great cause. Only now that I have researched, do I realize it was the literal notes, and harmonies that caused me to be so morose and lifeless. I saw a significantly stronger effect to the like in the next week.
I had a screamo duration aswell. I listened to bands like Eyes Set to Kill, and Slipknot, all classified as ‘Death Metal’. The lyrics in these songs were not only depressing in writing, many were disturbing. I listened to it for like a month. In that time I was going trough a few very emotionally painful trails, with friends and within my family. Between the outside circumstances and the music that was poisoning my spirit, I slowly became reclusive, depresses, lonely, and lifeless. I was distantly aware that this was not good for me, but I persisted, addicted to the music. After only a month, I was cutting and even had suicidal thoughts. I could see no escape, I didn’t really want one either. Thankfully, I had a friend who saw this and told me it was terrible for me, and implored me to lean on God for my hurts, change my music to something uplifting. He knew I was a musician, and knew the effects of music, and the experiment. He pulled me away from my music and habits and pushed me back to God.The notes themselves had depressing tendencies. The notes were having a negative affect on the brain. It is not healthy. Why should the music as a whole be any better? Should this not be a red flag?
A 2008 study preformed by a private psychologist by the name of Jennifer Copley, did a similar study as I did, but to a more controlled degree. She came to the conclusion that certain Key Signatures triggered emotions. An obvious example is found in the musical scores of movies. The composers intentionally use the music to create a desired emotion to enhance the ‘movie experience.’ These composers know the effect of the music and manipulate it accordingly.
Ok, so now we know that some music is good for you, and some music is bad for you. Now how do you determine that without having years of music training? After taking a survey presented by Christian speaker and writer Nancy Leigh DeMoss, one girl was quoted to say, “I don’t really pay attention to the words of music. Once I really start looking at it, and start thinking about what they are saying, I realize that it is not what I want to be listening to. But it’s too late. Its already in my head.” (MeMoss, and Gresh 152) Music sometimes seems the lost innocent of these examples. Many girls and guys alike who took the survey said they “don’t really listen to the music, that the words don’t really matter” like an IV, you may not notice the affects all at once, but they grow clearer and clearer down the road. By the time its apparent that its effects are harmful, its often too late. For me, I was blessed to have a friend who loved me enough to be unable to watch my self-destruction.
Controversial rapper Eminem would not let his young daughters hear any of his music; instead, he remade all of it to be suitable for their ears. He was quoted to say, “I don’t want my daughters exposed to the violence, sex obsession and cussing in my songs.” If he knows what he is writing and will not let his own daughters hear it, should not that be a warning flag to you as well?
Philippians 4:8 says, “What so ever is true, what so ever is honourable, hat so ever is just, what so ever is just, what so ever is pure, what so ever is lovely, what so ever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things,” This verse as as standard, does your music match up? Is it honourable? Is it just? Is it pure? Is it lovely? Is it commendable? Is there excellence? Is it worthy of praise? Does it make you want to glorify God? Does it harm these standards to surround yourself with the media you do? Would you be embarrassed to share it with your parents? Does it create conflict between you and your parents? Is it something you try to hide from others? Does it cause you to seek isolation? Does it cause you to neglect responsibilities? Does it take away from your time with God? Are you unable to go without it for a length of time?
I found these questions all very challenging when I first came across them in Gresh’s book. I found that quite a lot of the music I had become addicted to was dishonouring to myself, and to God. I have since set up for myself strict filters for my music, to the extent that make habit of looking up the lyrics of a song and examining the chord patterns of each song before I put it on my ipod.
I would like to challenge you to take closer inspection at your music. I want you to determine what it does to your emotions. I want you to determine if its good for you. I want you to put your music through the filters I have suggested today. If you struggle with music you think i might be bad for your heart and relationships, I would dare to to ask you to find an accountability partner, someone will tell you when you are out of line with your music, when they think your music is harmful. I encourage you to to remember Philippians 4:8, to surround yourself with pure, true, honourable, just, excellent, commendable, praiseworthy music.
“Oh be careful little ears what you hear, oh be careful little ears what you hear. For our Father up above is looking down with love, oh be careful little words what you hear”
This is wonderful, Hannah! I'm so glad you posted it. It definitely makes me want to re-examine the music I listen to from now on. :)
ReplyDelete