the power of music

Music is a powerful thing. Knowing myself, and many of my colleagues, musicians are emotional people. Put the two together and it can be dangerous. I could be watching some stupid commercial about a refrigerators, and because the music in the background is some nostalgic song, I'll suddenly be sad. I know that this effect isn't exclusive to just musicians, but I would bet it affects them more easily. Its just something built into the system.

Music on its own is powerful, but combine it with a visual aid of some sort, whether it be a movie, pictures, a commercial, TV show, or maybe even just a plain old music video, it becomes extremely powerful. Were you ever in some assembly as a kid, maybe at the end of the year in middle school or high school, and they showed a slide show of pictures from the past year? More than likely they played some sort of music...and it probably made all the difference. It probably made you feel sad, nostalgic, maybe even angry, powerful, whatever. Take away the music, and its just a bunch of stupid pictures that people are going to make fun of. Come to think of it, the music probably kept people quiet. Take for instance a movie or TV show. Have you ever re-watched a powerful scene with the sound muted? It loses almost all impact. Or have you ever watched a scene, whether it was some love scene, heart breaking moment, or action packed footage, and for some reason it seemed like it lacked some sort of punch? Was it missing music? Maybe it was just that the music didn't fit the scene? Music is powerful and can make a huge difference. I've noticed the music selections for television series seem to be more and more "thought out." They're more comprehensive. They seem to fit the mood as well, rather than sometimes just fitting the lyrics. A lot of them are using copyrighted music, which means they're probably paying royalties...meaning, they think its worth paying money to use the song. In the past, gaps or scenes might be filled in with some C rate show ditty written by some composer in five minutes who needed a few bucks.

It works on the flip side as well. You may have heard some song or piece a million times, but it never really made much impact on you. Then you heard that song while watching some video, movie, commercial, whatever. Suddenly that song has new meaning, especially when you listen to it by itself. You hear that song in a new light because its now attached to some visual, scene, or scenario and its impact is multiplied.

People link songs to things. Its like smell, but maybe not as powerful. When people hear a song, they think of a time, place, situation, scenario, feeling, and it brings them back. This is probably why movie music is often liked by people...its attached to something. I think it would behoove the classical world to start looking into commissioning new works (or maybe old works) with some sort of visual aid, whether they be mini movies, pictures, art, animations, etc. After all, who didn't like Fantasia? I would say the only caveat is that you might end up associated something that perhaps wasn't necessarily intended to be linked to the music, i.e. whales with Pines of Rome in Fantasia 2000. Pines of Rome is somewhat of a programmatic piece, with a mild storyline behind it...so maybe they're Roman whales, I don't know. Regardless, there's no harm done, its still a great idea, and its pretty cool and powerful either way. It certainly adds another dimension.