Music in Relation to Violence - Case Study Example

Analysis of Music in Relation to Violence of of This paper examines the relationship between violence and music. It evaluates three major songs which have links to violence and attempts to identify how they support people in perpetrating various forms of violence. The first song, Gloomy Sunday by Billie Holiday examines how people internalize violence through music. It looks at the whole idea of suicide and how it relates to music, particularly country music. The second song, Onward Christian Soldiers, a popular Christian hymnal is examined in relation to its ability to get masses to indulge in violence under the guise of religious purity. Thirdly, the paper examines Morgen Die Ganze Welte a popular Nazi anthem used in World War 2. It looks at how violence perpetrated under nationalistic banners can be traced to music and how this affects the human mind. Finally, the paper examines the concepts of Rollo May that links violence with art forms which include music. Rollo Mays book Power and Innocence is discussed to find the true linkages between violence and music. Keywords: Rollo May, Power, Violence, Music, Nazism, Suicide. Background A lot of people have been cited for linking violence with music. However it is not really clear how these two concepts and ideas interact. Although there are numerous approaches in trying to find out about this, there is the need to draw into empirical research and historical facts to identify the correlation. The main concern of this paper is thus to identify the relationship between music and violence in both the communal context and the individual context. It is therefore necessary to examine the collective tendencies for violence within states and amongst states and how it relates to music. Also, it is worthy to identify the way individuals internalize these differences and attempt to find the role art and music can play in inciting this. Also, the best and most realistic means of studying this subject will include the examination of real-life situations and studies to confirm or reject assertions and theories on this situation. This paper therefore seeks to examine the actual link between violence and music. It will try to find out what the root course of violence in the community and amongst individuals is. The paper will then proceed to study real life situations and studies that have shown or rejected the dominant theories that will be identified. Internalization of Violence – The Case of Gloomy Sunday The song, Gloomy Sunday comes with very elaborate words and statements that suggest that the singer is in a very melancholic mood. The song seem to reflect a lonely singer who is very much at the verge of ending it all in life. The singer seem to question certain aspects of life and appears to be hinting on crossing over to the afterlife. The first verse of the song goes like this: Sunday is gloomy My hours are slumberless Dearest the shadows I live with are numberless Little white flowers Will never awaken you Not where the black coach Of sorrow has taken you Angels have no thought Of ever returning you Would they be angry If I thought of joining you Gloomy Sunday This clearly shows that the singer is in a situation of serious problems and challenges. The singer has very strong feeling of restlessness and is uncertain of the future. The singer seem to have absolutely no reason to live and this is likely to lead to a good proposition of ending it all. A listener who might have a similar lifestyle will see the reflection and portrait of this trend in his or her life. This is because such a listener might have his or her life being replayed to him through this song. And with so much in common with the singer, such a person might also choose to internalize these words and react by also ending it all as the song suggests. “Not where the black coach of sorrow has taken you” seem to be a portion of Billie Holidays song which presents the situation in a very sad and pensive manner. The listener, might be questioning the afterlife and thus, the portion on angels might take a listener to the verge of suicide. And thus, in a lonely setting and with little connection to other people, an individual might end up committing suicide just after listening to this. The second stanza of Gloomy Sunday goes like this: Gloomy is Sunday With shadows I spend it all My heart and I Have decided to end it all Soon therell be candles And prayers that are said I know Let them not weep Let them know that Im glad to go Death is no dream For in death Im caressing you With the last breath of my soul Ill be blessin you Gloomy Sunday This stanza shows another clear indication of a person who has gotten to the end of the road. Typically, a gambler who has lost everything and a person who has lost his job might find so much solace in this section. This section prepares a troubled human mind for a link with other people and also provide some kind of justification to connected persons he might be leaving behind in this world. This song can therefore stimulate the completion of a persons suicide not and also prepare such a persons mind for the transition to the next world. The last stanza adds up to the whole twist: Dreaming I was only dreaming I wake and I find you asleep In the deep of my heart Dear Darling I hope That my dream never haunted you My heart is tellin you How much I wanted you Gloomy Sunday This stanza is a catalyst for illusion. This stanza can blur a persons vision about life and make him see the present life as a shadow of the next. Thus, failures in this world can be justified by this verse as a pretext to a real life to come in the afterlife. This song, and other forms of blues, country music and soul music can become the catalyst for suicide. Snipes & Macguire (1995 p327) state that Steck and Gundlach identified a strong correlation between country music and suicide in 1992 after they studied White populations in 49 metropolitan areas in America. Although Snipes and Macguire question some aspects of their study, the study reveals that there is a positive relationship between country music airtime and White suicide rates. They identified that country music works with other things like divorce, poverty and gun availability to lead people to commit suicide. Stack & Gundlach (1994) debunk the notion that suicide is personal and cannot be studied as a group. In fact they state that suicide group types can be identified and these groups have different links to music. They therefore state that certain genres of music aid certain social groups to commit suicide. This shows that music can cause the human mind to take some violent decisions which could be fatal. It is thus conclusive that music causes the internalization of violence. And this internalization can be so extreme that a person can cause damage to his own self. This implies that music can also cause people to cause violence to other people. Collective Religious Action & Music – Onward Christian Soldiers Arthur Sullivan composed Onward Christian Soldiers in 1871. The song is as follows: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle see His banners go! Refrain: Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before. This song is the personification of the duties of a Christian in relation to the commandments of the religious order. This is because it creates an impression in the mind of the singer and hearer that they have a duty and responsibility in relation to the Christian Faith and ideals. It is therefore a popular tune that numerous Christian marches use in their appeals. This song played a major role in the 1905 Philadelphia marches against what the people considered to be an immoral government and arrogant corporate entities (Hendricks, 1994 p249). Hendricks argues that militant Christian songs like this have been used to motivate grassroot activism in America for the past 100 years. He identifies that most of these civil rights movements see themselves as moralists who have to use their collective power to fight injustices and immorality through songs like this. Through this, these groups of people are able to exert their power and get people to change in favor of a more progressive society. In the Philadelphia marches which lasted between 1904 and 1906, the activists were able to demand better transparency, prohibition and prevent government and arrogant corporate entities from exploiting Americans (Hendricks, 1994 p250). On the other side of the Atlantic, the protestant marches of Northern Ireland are fueled and supported by music. According to Radford, bands in Northern Ireland are organized according sectarian divisions and they are used to call upon groups of people to protest and demand rights of different groups of people (2001 p37). Thus, a tune like Onward Christian Soldiers is a strong tool for the resistance and call for change in different part of the world. Although these marches might not be negative in themselves, they can and have proven to be violent at certain points in time (eg in Northern Ireland). This is because it sparks up a sense of militancy which inspires people to do whatever they can to assert themselves through aggressive means Music can therefore me seen as a means of collectivism. This kind of collectivism could be religious and non-religious. Elsewhere in other violent nationalist struggles, music has been employed as a popular tool to stir up various forms of popular uprisings. Music and Nationalist Aggression in Nazi Germany – Morgen Die Ganze Welte The first stanza of Morgen Die Ganze Welte is translated by Ebermayer (1966 p32) as follows: The rotten bones are trembling Of the World before the War [First World War] We have smashed this terror For us a great victory. This song shows a strong connection between the ideology of Nazi Germany and the German nation. Music and other art forms were strongly controlled by Joseph Goebbels ministry for propaganda (Ebermayer, 1966 p2). Although the world bedeviled the Nazi party after World War 2, ONiell identifies that there was a strong judicial impartiality that existed between the Nazi party and the German Army (1966 p2). However, popular psychological tools including music were used to move the army from an independent public institution to a Nazi controlled unit of the state. Hitler maintained the bureaucratic model that worked excellently in the civil service (Schoenbaum, 1967 p16). Popular sentiments were stirred up through various tools like music and literature to get the whole Germany to support the idea of fighting the world to regain German glory (Hillgrupber, 1967 p41). Thus, the embodiment of this violence was depicted in several art forms including music. The main chorus of Morgen Die Ganze Welte states that: We will continue to march Even if everything shatters Because today Germany hears us And tomorrow the whole world This shows that the German people were resolute and this song strengthened that resolution and made the German army stronger. Thus music was the embodiment and a motivator of the violence that followed the Nazi expansion drive. Morgen Die Ganze Welte therefore shows the collective and individual connection of the German people to the idea of conquering Europe and then the world. Power, Violence & Music In the book Power and Innocence Rollo May provides important insights into the concept of war, nations and individuals. As the title suggests, it examines how people can move from one point of innocence through power into another point of violence, anarchy and public chaos through war and other communal strives. The book provides landmark theories and concepts on how this happens and why power is often abused to cause people to go into wars and other forms of communal uprisings. Rollo May makes a famous and emphatic statement in the early parts of the book that “... violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness” (May, 1972 p23). He claims that violence has its basis in impotence and apathy (May, 1972 p23). This is because violence comes out of a gap that is created by these two ideas and perpetrators of violence act opportunistically to cause other people to follow suit. May raises a remarkable diagnosis for violence. He states that in cases where people cause violence it is often “... the individuals struggle to establish and protect his self-esteem.” (1972, p31).This statement holds true because most people who cause violence or lead violence seem to either have an interest to protect or seek to establish a certain interest or control over certain things. And this plays a significant role in most conflict situations. Conflicts are almost always perpetrated by people who seek a certain interest and are not prepared to give it up. This therefore lead to strife and other disagreements which sometimes leads to violence. May states that “physical courage... seems to hinge on whether the individual can feel he is fighting for other as well as himself” (1972 p176). This shows that people feel the need to expand their scope of power through collective actions which involve members of the society. In Chapter 11, Humanity of the Rebel, May examines the differences between revolution and rebellions. He does a lot of work that critically examines how people prompt change in the society and this includes the idea of how violence and art intersect with these two dimensions. May states that a rebel opposes authority or restraints. In other words a rebel is not interested in the institutional structures that exists. A rebel is against the established customs or traditions that dominates a given society. A rebel seeks internal change and has a temperamental attitude that seeks to use some kind of force or violence to make this happen. In other words, a rebel has an inner satisfaction through the prompting and pursuance of change. On the other hand, a revolution seeks an external political change. A revolution seeks to overthrow one regime and replace it with another regime. It is not really about which regime was better, a revolution is just about a change in regime. May links the word revolution with its root, revolve which encompasses changes in position where one position changes and another replaces that position. May also argues that civilization brings with it an inherent level of rebellion. This is because society is dynamic and there is the need for change to occur at regular intervals. May also identifies that art and violence are components of rebellions and revolutions. This is because rebels see new ways in the nature of life and they have to prompt change. This sometimes require some level of violence. Art in itself is some kind of expression of a persons inherent nature. And since we are all different people, there is inevitably going to be different views and opinions that each rebel will bring to the fore which will challenge existing institutional and authoritative structures dominant in the society. However, a true rebel will never be satisfied with his conquests and exploits. This therefore means that a rebel will continue to look for new adversaries to conquer. Artists always have an insatiable desire to present their subjective view of the world. This makes artists rebels. Music, being an art form can also be seen as a form of rebellion. This is because the musician has that desire to bring new ideas and new concepts. In the wider sense, music can interact with violence in two ways. First of all, musicians as artists can be seen as an artform that can and has been used as a vehicle for social change and this can potentially prompt some kind of violence in its own right. Secondly, musicians can be seen as accessories to violent leaders and movements. This is because in the quest to create a revolution or a rebellion, music can be used as a strong tool for the embodiment of ideas and philosophies either voluntarily or involuntarily. Paulu states that over 50,000 phonograph records were used in psychological warfare during World War II (1949 p25). This shows that psychological warfare has a strong correlation with music and the type of song people listen to. This can therefore mean that warfare can sometimes be translated into a battle of ideas and this can be won only through numerous means of communication including music (Condrad, 2010 p22). Conclusions Some kinds of music help in the internalization of violence and leads to suicide. There is a correlation between the airtime of some genres of music like country music and increases in suicide rates. Music enhances collectivism and this has been used in the past to support nationalistic violence. Rollo May identifies that rebellions and revolutions have a strong correlation with artforms. And one of the popular forms this takes is through music. Music was used as a tool for psychological warfare. Conrad B. (2010) Contemporary and Historical Contexts in Popular Music: Theory & Implementation of an Intermediate Level Course American Association of Teachers of German Vol. 43, No. 1. Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3530636 Ebermayer E. (1966) Und Morgen Die Ganze Welt: Erinnerungen an Deutschland Dunkle Zeit Bayreuth: Hestia Heindrichs T. (1994) “Onward Christian Soldiers”: Philadelphias Revival of 1905 The Pennsylvania Magazine of History & Biography Vol CXVIII No. 3 (July 1994) pp249 – 267 Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20092876 Hillgruber, A. (1967) Staatsmanner und Diplomaten Bei Hitler: Vertrauliche Aufzeichmungem uber Unterredunge mit Vertretem des Auslandes 1939 – 1941 Frankfurt Am Main: Bernard & Graefe Verlage fur Wehrwesen May, R. (1972) Power and Innocence: A Search for the Sources of Violence New York: WW Norton ONeill R. J. (1966) The German Army & The Nazi Part 1933 – 1939 London: Cassell Radford K. (2001) Drum Rolls & Gender Roles in Protestant marching Bands in Belfast British Journal of Ethnicmusicology Vol. 10/1 2001 pp37 – 59 Schoenbaum D. (1967) Hitlers Social Revolution: Class & Status in Nazi Germany 1933 – 1939 London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson Snipes J. B & Macguire E. R. (1995) Country Music, Suicide & Spuriousness Social Forces Vol. 74, No 1. (Sep. 1995) pp327 – 329. Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580635 Stack, S. & Gundlach J. (1994) Psychological versus Sociological Perspectives on Suicide: A Reply to Mauk, Taylor, White, and Allen Social Forces Vol 72, No. 4 (Jun. 1994) pp 1257 – 1261 Retrieved: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2580304 Read More