Communication Approach To Music - Essay Example

Communication Approach To Music Mostly we think that music or songs are only for the entertainment purpose and don’t play any other role in our life. But the fact is that songs and music have always been important in history, worship, reducing stress, and reinforcing your goals in life .Moreover music has its physical, mental and emotional effects on the mind of the listener. It is an important medium of communication in today’s world and is one of the older mediums as well. Nature provided the crude basis of music with the arrival of life on earth in form of the murmuring water, whistle of the wind, the hiss of flame, rumble of earth and thunder of sky. Additionally songs are also used as alternative mean of communication for children who do not respond adequately to traditional treatment approaches. (Oladimeji May 2007) In paper “Communicating Context Through Music” says,” Music is fundamental to every culture. It is used to serve purposes ranging from entertainment to mood stimulation. Our love for music is evident in our daily lives today as the portable digital music player has found its home in the pockets and handbags of millions of people. This has all been possible because recent advancement in technology has considerably shrunk the size of the gadget since its conception in the early 90s.”1 Physiotherapist throughout the world use music or songs to do therapies and believe that it’s a way of relaxing the mind and body of human being. Not only human beings but birds also use songs as a tool of communication. K.L.Raman, in “Music the powerful medium of communication says that,” music stands as one of the most ethereal of all the fine arts. It does not depend upon any material medium for expression”2 Many researchers have done research to prove the importance of music in human life and succeeded in doing so. Oliver Wendell Holmes says, “Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons.  You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body”. Well apart from bath it has become an effective tool of communication in fact some researchers believe that in early stages of human life music was used more as a tool of communication rather than for enjoyment purpose or pleasure so we can say that early forms of human language were actually developed through music but now it is also fulfilling many functions in different cultures. An important social role that music is playing is in favor of marketers as it helps them in form of jingles to sell their products. Repetition of these jingles on mass media makes them memorable ever after. One of the most memorable jingles was the one on aired in mid-seventies and strange thing about it was that it was an ad of venereal disease but its lyrics were very interesting like: VD — is for everybody not just for the few anyone can share VD with someone nice as you. If you want to know about a culture that is very unfamiliar to you will think first about getting hold of its art and music. From whistling of birds to bells of church, from national anthems to songs of an emotional love story, music is used to convey emotions. In Greek culture music is used to educate people and boys are taught music at the age of six whereas Indian Classical music is one of the oldest musical customs in the history of the world. (Shepherd december,2002), while presenting the review of Tia DeNora’s book, Music in Everyday Life says, “It explores the proposition that music acts powerfully on the body, not just as an external presence, but as a constitutive agent that serves to form and activate the body in particular ways in particular situations”3 Today we can get music for every occasion of our life for almost every social and cultural process whether it is a death, engagement, wedding etc. It might be in form of slow background music just to make musical environment, a national anthem to glorify you to be a particular nationalist, a romantic song to express love or a sad song to express your feeling of being deprived of something or a being lonely. Instead of delivering a whole speech to express their feeling for certain person people prefer to dedicate a song to that specific person. Music has its physical, mental and emotional effects which help in making it a tool of communication. Explaining the effects about impact of music (Worth n.d.) Says, “In order to understand what the basis is of our controversial response towards music, we must initiate with an explanation of how the emotions work. Aristotle stresses in the Rhetoric that each sentiment (in order for it to qualify as an emotion) must be attended by a particular pleasure or pain. This does not imply that each individual feels the same pleasure or the same pain with any particular emotion, but if a feeling is to meet the criteria as an emotion it must be attended by some physiological impression of pleasure or pain”.4 Moreover if we talk about role of music in history we will get many examples were music has played an important role even in very core issues and one of these examples were music has played a key role was the very famous Vietnam war. It was a kind of protest music but was used to convey message so in other words music was used as a tool of communication to bring out emotions of fear or anger in Vietnam War movement. People have used music and lyrics to protest to ban the use of bomb and to glorify the efforts of war as well. I feel like I am fixing to die rag by Joe McDonald was one of the examples of songs sung during Vietnam War to adore army and the lyricist says: “Well, Come On Generals, Let's Move Fast; Your Big Chance Has Come At Last. Now You Can Go out and Get Those Reds 'Cause The Only Good Commie Is the One that’s Dead And You Know That Peace Can Only Be Won When We've Blown 'Em All to Kingdom Come”. It was basically a satirical anthem of the anti war movement. There were many other songs sent through the Fm airwaves to portray the emotions of general public. After that music became more powerful, political and bold too.”What about me” by DinoValente (1970) as an example of such music: “You Poisoned My Sweetwater You Cut Down My Green Trees The Food You Fed My Children Was The Cause Of Their Disease My World Is Slowly Falling Down And The Air's Not Good To Breath And Those Of Us Who Care Enough We Have To Do Something Oooooh What You Gonna Do About Me Oooooh What You Gonna Do About Me” This was the power of this specific medium that not only contains healing power but also had the power to reinforce our goals of life. Sometimes we listen to a particular song and think that this is made for us as it represent our goals of life, dreams or the way I want to live life. It won’t be wrong if we say that songs have become the tool of mass media. History of human world is a strong evidence of the power of songs and one of its example is the freedom of African American or “black people” when they accepted Christianity and started composing songs to preach the particular religion. They also used songs as a medium to express their feelings after getting freedom. These songs contain lyrics like: Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus Steal away, steal away, home I aint got so long to stay here My lord He calls me, He call me by the thunder The trumpet sounds within my soul I aint got so long to stay here Many Africans accepted Christianity after hearing such effective lyrics. People remember the freedom of African Americans because of these songs so directly or indirectly these songs also played an important role in analyzing the history of African Americans as well. Music is no longer used for entertainment purpose only but a sort of infotainment that portrays our thoughts, ideologies, religion and needs in some cases as well. Robert Wyatt has also composed lyrics on mass media as a tool of communication which says: And as history slips out of view bated breath for the nine o'clock news reassembled right before your very eyes: innuendo rumor and lies Endless fun and games steal a headline, name some names we're so proud that our press feel so free to manipulate them you and me And as each campaign begins to absolve us of our sins I see freedom sold by the yard it's so easy why make it hard? May be these lyrics are not that important for us but after some time when the forms of communication will take a new shape then people will know about the history of mass mediums through such lyrics and they will become the source of information for coming cohorts. Good lyrics along with fine music make song effective enough to reach somewhere deep in our souls. This powerful medium has its impact on every gender of society as Faber & Faber, in “the importance of music to girls” says, “For the misfits, there will always be music. As the sound track to basement parties, late-night drives, and solitary rituals of self-pity, the right music gives context and momentum to the bewildering process of growing up”5 Every culture of the world has cultural songs that represent their culture and ideologies. The purpose of composing such songs is to let the historians of coming generation know about the particular culture and indirectly a message that the particular culture doesn’t want itself to be forgotten from minds of the people. Cultural genocide is one of such cultural songs and following are its lyrics: you family's lived here for generations but you can't afford it no more we're making room for the corporations got no room for the poor rent is up, so you are out, we fall deaf to all your cries this use to be your neighborhood now you've been gentrified what's really at the stake ain't real estate you're talking about people's lives rip the heart from a community their culture surely dies they call it progress but who moves ahead? Though music began with oral tradition but now musical performance have also become of significance importance. A singer or band performing on a stage can hold the whole audience by his vocals and instruments. Very few musicians have succeeded to compose good music which contains some positive message. Michael Jackson is one of the names among singers who enjoyed crest of success and a mammoth fan following through out the world. He represented black people and had used songs as a tool of communication. Fortunately his communication medium was so effective that people still listen to his songs with the same passion when the singer is no more. He made public cry in his musical appearances and go nuts to touch or hug him. His fans started committing suicide after his tragic death and all this became possible just because of his power of music and musical performances. It could be said that music is the language of mankind as it could be understood even if a person don’t know the particular language. Any one unfamiliar of a particular language can guess the genre of song by its music and this actually is the expressive power of music. Music can be generalized into two categories that are: (1) phonetic and (2) conceptual music and historical and cultural generalization can be done on same context as well that result in conceptual and auditory generalizations. Musician on the whole plays an important role in society. He is the one who entertains us with his magical connotations, as an itinerant performer, plays a role of mediator between us and the one who is unseen, sometimes he is a healer to our unseen wounds and moreover sometime listening to a particular song or lyric we feel that the singer know us very well and is just saying what I feel about particular thing. Music and musician plays an important in bringing social change so we can say that they are social agent as it reflects a culture so he can change the false notions of a culture by showing it a mirror. the people who control the wealth 'cause of their actions people end up dead they only care about themselves playing god, who goes? who stays? Who are you to decide? They call it progress but it is a cultural genocide gentrified, genocide For us these lyrics are representative of our current situation but its history for coming generations. Music is an art and everyone is fully aware of its universal appeal irrespective of language, caste or dogma. Keats says about such art: “Forever warm and still to be enjoyed Forever panting and forever young” All these facts prove that music was and is used as a tool of communication and is a powerful medium of communication as well. Today the songs or lyrics that are dedicated to represent cultures, religions or ideologies will be used by historians of tomorrow to analyze the history. Many young artists of today use music as a way to reinforce the mutual goal of today’s young generation and boost up their morals to do what they should do and majority of these songs are liked by masses. The cultural and social processes no doubt have played an important role in forming music as a form of communication. Today we miss music in social gathering if it is not played and had develop a sense that keeps on reminding us that we have a better source of expression now in its fine form. This is the reason why girls start searching for songs to make their song list for upcoming event on which they can enjoy. Along with TV, radio, internet, publications and other forms of communication song is also a communication medium which is much older than all the mentioned forms. Researchers, historians and media people have accepted music as a communication medium and so did many of common people. No wonder the way this medium is progressing; it could become one of the most popular medium of communication among masses sooner or later. References Faber & Faber, “the importance of music to girls” Selected edition: Paperback; ISBN: 9780571230297; Published: 14.08.2008 K.L.Raman, “Music the powerful medium of communication”, Tamilnadu Eyal Isai Nataka Man dram, Madras Matt Jones and Steve Jones. The music is the message. interactions, 13(4):24–27, 2006. Richard Parncutt. Psychoacoustics and music perception. Music psychology – das neue Handbuch, 2004. Shepherd, John. "Action, Criticism & Theory for Music Education." Mayday group (Thomas A. Regelski), december,2002: 18. WOODS, BRET D. "The history and development of an underground genre." 2007. BIBLIOGRAPHY \l 1033 Worth, Sarah E. "Music, Emotion and Language: Using Music to Communicate." Aesthetics and Philosophy of Arts (Furman University). Oladimeji, Patrick. "Communicating Context Through Music." May 2007: 42. Read More