7.03.2007

Non-over-spiritualized, completely non-Jesus-y reasons to love music…


The following are 7 reasons I could think of off the top of my head, why music is pretty much universally loved. As we think about music at Illuminate, we've got to see and be convinced that music can be powerful whether it is in the service of God or not. We didn't want to jump straight into the "Why 'Humble Thyself" is a great song...but only if it starts in D minor and moves intensely into E minor for emotional effect" conversation. Music is powerful outside of religion. Here are my reasons why.

What did I miss? Am I right? Where am I overstating?

1) Hook – This is where the music just sounds right. This could also be called the "Mmmm Bop effect." This happens when you find your unable to get a song out of your head because the chorus is so catchy. If this is done right...if a "hook" is used well, you've got an objectively good song on your hands.

2) Musical Acumen - Just talented, difficult music. This was me listening to Dave Matthew's drummer in college. He's just better than everybody else! That music is good because that music is complex and difficult to play.

3) Sentimentality – This is when music just puts you back “there.” Music has an "Oprah-Spirituality" way of sort of transporting you to another time and another place.

4) Lyrics – When the meaning of words just stand alone...so full of meaning. Sometimes the lyrics alone can carry a whole song into the light. Separate Bob Dylan from his lyrics and you just have a bad vocal and mediocre vocals. But wait,....Bob Dylan is amazing. Why's that?

5) Musicians personality – (How else can you explain In Sync?). Sometimes I can't distinguish between my love for U2 and my love for Bono.

6) Word-Picture – When I try to decipher the meaning of a song that seems to be trying to throw me off the path, I usually try to pay attention to the visual imagery of a song and usually it comes more into focus. Good pictures usually mean good songs.

7) The Perfect Storm – If a song has achieved uber-fame, it has probably combined several of the above-listed categories. All the important songs I know have most or all of these categories. I've listed some below.

Chad Miller’s Celebrity Play List
(My point below, is that ALL the songs listed are good songs. I'm being systematic about why I think so. Some are good because of the hook or the lyrics or the musical acumen. Some are good for all of the above. Here's the list of songs we listened to as examples of each on Sunday. Enjoy.)


A/C D/C – Back in Black (Hook)

Cardigans – Lovefool (Hook)

Aerosmith – Walk this Way (Hook)

Augustana – Boston (Hook)

A/C D/C – You Shook Me All Night Long (Hook)

Aerosmith – Sweet Emotion (Hook)

U2 – Mysterious Ways (Hook)

Beatles – I Want To Hold Your Hand (Hook)

James Taylor – You’ve Got a Friend (Sentimentality)

Guns n’ Roses – Welcome To The Jungle (Sentimentality)
Thomas Newman – American Beauty – Arose (Sentimentality)

Journey – Don’t Stop Believing (Sentimentality)

Beatles – Yesterday (#1 single of all time) (Sentimentality)

(Lyrics)Led Zeppelin – Good Times Bad Times (Musical Acumen)S

Sigur Ros – Svefn-G-Englar (Sentimentality)

Elton John – Tiny Dancer (Sentimentality)

Lynyrd Skynard - Free Bird (Music/Sentimentality)

Bob Dylan – Forever Young (Lyrics)

David Wilcox – Show the Way (Lyrics)

Damien Rice – Cannonball (Word Picture)
Coldplay – Swallowed by the Sea (Word Picture)

U2 – One Step Closer to Knowing (Word Picture)

Nada Surf – Inside of Love (Word Picture)

David Wilcox – How Did You Find Me Here (Word Picture)

Coldplay – A Message (Word Picture)

U2 – Grace (Word Picture)

Coldplay – Till Kingdom Come (Perfect Storm)

Coldplay – Fix You (Perfect Storm)

Beatles – All You Need is Love (Perfect Storm)

John Lennon – Imagine (Perfect Storm)

U2 – With or Without You (Perfect Storm)

U2 – I Still Haven’t Found What I'm Looking For (Perfect Storm)

U2 – Walk On (Perfect Storm)






4 comments:

L said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
L said...

D minor is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.
- Nigel Tufnel

Curt said...

All music is spiritual. Music says something about the world we live in. What is important and what is not. And the music itself enlivens our God-given emotions in a way that few words can.

I suspect that our appreciation for music has something to do with the hard-wiring of our brains. While understanding speech is mostly a left brain activity, the right side of the brain is in charge of understanding prosody, or the rhythm of speech. As you probably know from e-mailing, emotions are poorly communicated in writing. The way we talk, our manner of speaking, determines how we code the words emotionally.

I think music uses these same areas of our brains. The rhythm of music inherently carries with it emotions. And those emotions can draw up past experiences, even those beyond our consciousness. Songs facilitate emotions. A soundtrack in a movie is essentially adding prosody to the actions of the characters. It puts emotions into the plot.

The only thing that I would add to the list is that we love songs that match our state of being but also transcend it. We are a constant hodge-podge of emotions at any one minute. So we can usually listen to an array of different music at any time - rock, rap, oldies, etc - or at least I can. But there are times when we are consumed by one emotion in particular, whether it be sadness, rage, loneliness, or joy, and we must listen to that one album that makes us feel like someone else understands and is right there with us. That's why I say music is spiritual. It's anti-evil. It helps us connect.

Keesa Skywalker said...

Well I haven't been around cuz I've been travelling so I unfortunately don't know how to fit into the conversationg, but I'll pipe in what comes to mind.

I wonder if there should be another category to these 7. I'd call it the Sans-Fantasia effect. I'm a classical musician, so please understand I'm probably taking this whole thing from a different angle :)

I think well-crafted music, (avoiding parallel 5ths, augmented 2nds, and trying to always double the root) coupled with excellent performance, is beautiful even without a story, hence, sans-Fantasia. There's something about certain musical intervals that is objectively lovely.

Do we only know how to listen to stories now? I have a hard time enjoying the beauty of a landscape without putting a story on top of it,such as me riding a horse on a grand adventure. I've tried to not listen to concerts with Fantasia on in my head now and I've enjoyed music a lot more since. I also just returned from a convention where many original compositions were performed, the worst ones were those that tried to paint a picture so strictly, something in that music was obviously missing.

Anyway, is the Sans-fantasia category under the emotions, or is it the intellect, or is it different than either?
As I think about all this I constantly run into a wall when it comes to emotions, how broad of a category is this anyway? BUt I think what's so cool about music, and I'm sure the Prehns know whe else has said this, is that making music includes all of a person, head, heart and hands in the proper order. How lovely.

Anyway, I want to have a band workshop for local high school musicians this year where we can brdige discussion of music into discussion about God and hopefully grace! I hope to think hard on this subject this summer.