The Meaning of Music

Music is not just a beat for people to dance to. It is so many different things wrapped up in every song, every word, and every note. Even when you look up the meaning of music on Dictionary.com, it states it is a noun, and the definition is, "an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color”. So even in the dictionary music has a deeper meaning. Music is intended to have a deeper meaning; it is intended to be more than just a tune or notes on a page. Referring to a song by the artist Pink, which is called Sober, she sings, "The quiet scares me ‘cause it screams the truth." Music is one way in which to fill that empty silence. It is the easy and fun way to fill that silence. Yes, sometimes silence can be good, a very relaxing and peaceful time, but sometimes it can get lonely. Silence can be a dark and scary place, it really shows you just how alone you really are. Music can fix all of that. It can fill the silence with a happy sound, that way you aren't so lonely, but without having somebody else there, without the judgmental comments that may be made, or the judgmental looks that may be given. It can also fill it without the need for socializing. You get that time to just relax and be yourself. It gives you a chance to think. To make all of your decisions, whether hard or not, or it gives you that chance to let your mind wander free to daydream. But it is not just a way to think and feel free for the listeners; it's a way for the song writers and/or singers to also free themselves. Each and every song tells a story, each of which is unique in its own way. They are all different, but they all share something, they all have something in common. But they aren't just similar to each other, sometimes those stories relate to the listeners. To their problems and their life stories, this in turn is another way to help them to not feel so lonely. Their story relates to that of the writer and/or singer, and that makes the listeners feel as if they have a connection to them. So many people feel like an outcast in the world, they feel as if they don't belong in their own life, and music helps with it. Music is a form of expression, for the listener, for the song writer, and for the singer. It is a way for them to express love, hate, pain, happiness, friendships, responsibility, drama, family, problems, fake people, relationships, heartache, failures, stress, goals, and accomplishments; all of the things that make up life, no matter how big or small. Songs are like diaries to some writers. It is a place for them to write down all of the things that they are thinking and feeling. Every song written is like a new entry in their diaries. Each one is different, but the same in a way. If you think about it, it's like a recipe. Every time you make something, it never tastes quite the same, even if you use the same exact ingredients. But sometimes you put something new, or change it just a little, so it's still the same but different. In an online article called Music, Mind, and Meaning, by Marvin Minsky, under the subtitle ‘What Use is Music?’ he states that we use music to “misdirect our understanding of the world.” He then says that because we can’t stop bad thoughts from entering our minds, “We can attempt to turn our minds to other matters, but doing this (some claim) just submerges the bad thoughts. Perhaps the music that some call ‘background’ music can tranquilize by turning under-thoughts from bad to neutral, leaving the surface thoughts free of affect by diverting the unconscious. The structures we assemble in that detached kind of listening might be wholly solipsistic webs of meaning like cross-references that nowhere touch “reality.” In such a self-constructed world, we would need no truth or falsehood, good or evil, pain or joy. Music, in the unpleasant view, would serve as a fine escape from tiresome thoughts.” Then, under the subtitle ‘Composing and Conducting’ he says that listeners will find unanswered questions if they listen too much. In the sense of the song writers and what their goals are with music, what the point to them creating the songs, he states “Composers can have different goals: to calm and soothe, surprise and shock, tell tales, stage scenes, teach new things, or tear down prior arts.” This means that those writers write their songs for the mental well-being of other people. A book called Don’t Laugh at Me by Steve Seskin and Allen Shamblin, is about all the people that are different, or not ‘normal’ by society’s terms. It points out their faults, and the whole book is like a poem. The lines rhyme, making it like a song. Being like a song, it makes the book a little more meaningful. Which then also helps make people realize that everyone is different, yes, but that is what is normal, everyone has some kind of flaw, but everyone should be treated equally. In the book Musical Sound by Pierce, he states, “We don’t know what the significance for musical sound is, except that the process of musical perception can be very complex and can differ from person to person.” In other words, everyone perceives music differently. So to some, it may be a release, or a motivator, or encourager, but to others it may just be a beat to dance to. There are so many ways in which you can perceive music, and nobody is wrong in the way that they do that. Everybody has their own opinion, and they are all entitled to have it.