What first drew me into this article were the explanations of how various individuals have used music to provoke angry images and thoughts in others. While I have never considered the fact that classical music could be used to drive teens out of a subway station, I especially would not have assumed that the U.S. army has used music as an interrogation technique. Reading this reminded me of the movie and book, “A Clockwork Orange”, and how frightening it is to see something we base our lives around as a form of torture. During this book/movie, music is played during scenes of violence and conditions a murderer to become sick whenever he thinks of becoming violent or sexual in any form. Also, anytime he heard a certain symphony he would experience deep turmoil. I find myself that I do not find these real life or fictional techniques tasteful, since I generally don’t associate music as having a negative connotation. I agreed with Frith when he stated that this goes against what we are taught from day one of our profession, that music is a inherently good thing. I believe it also goes against everything we stand and fight for in relation to music therapy. As therapists we are trying to use music to promote wellness through music. However, these real life and fictional stories use music to promote negative characteristics in people, which I find unfortunate and sad. I do not like to see or think about such a beautiful tool’s power manipulated negatively.
Frith presents another interesting concept in his writing, that music often has the power to make people cross. While we do not put much thought into it, music does seem to have a quality that can drive people to anger. Even in ancient music, certain modes were believed to promote poor conduct and unhealthy lifestyles. Frith presents a bill that was presented to the Parliament called Pipedown. Reading about these angry individuals who believed it was their right to have silence in public places made something clear to me: these people did not like the majority of the music that was being played. While there are some people who dislike music, I have found this to be very rare. I am sure if the supporters of this bill had their favorite artists playing in malls and restaurants every day they would not complain. This bill was not about a personal invasion of privacy; It was about a group of individuals who did not identify and relate to a certain genre of music. I do not think this bill presents a valid argument, since noises of all kinds can be offensive to people. We have all been in situations in which we have rather not have heard a certain conversation and the subject matter within it. However, just because this bothers us we can’t propose a bill for public silence. A popular quote arose in my mind when reading this argument:
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Though this could easily have been written by someone in our modern day, it was written by Socrates. Ever since ancient times, people have had trouble relating to generations and styles that are different from their own. In terms of music, however, even people in the same generation can enjoy completely oppositional styles and genres. Best friends and family can find one another’s music inferior to theirs. Frith presents an idea that I agree with, the idea that the music’s style and genre is not actually what provokes certain peoples’ anger with music- it’s the idea of identity and what music your being relates to.
An interesting concept I have learned through psychology is that when we dislike certain qualities in someone, it is because those qualities actually exist inside of us and our unconscious is trying to fight them. I believe this can be related to dislike of certain genres or styles of music. On these terms, we should try not to jump to conclusions and say to someone, “Can you turn this off? I really hate this song.” Instead, we can use this dislike as a learning tool for our personal growth and examine why we (and our clients) associate negativity with certain styles of music.
I believe that Frith presents a very intriguing and thought provoking article. I do agree with the two authors before me, however, when they state they wish that he would have delved further into relating the concept of musical hatred into music therapy. He also did not present reasons for why the human connects on a deeper level with certain styles of music, and what this process entails. I would have enjoyed to hear him state some more of his opinions on this subject.
What first drew me into this article were the explanations of how various individuals have used music to provoke angry images and thoughts in others. While I have never considered the fact that classical music could be used to drive teens out of a subway station, I especially would not have assumed that the U.S. army has used music as an interrogation technique. Reading this reminded me of the movie and book, “A Clockwork Orange”, and how frightening it is to see something we base our lives around as a form of torture. During this book/movie, music is played during scenes of violence and conditions a murderer to become sick whenever he thinks of becoming violent or sexual in any form. Also, anytime he heard a certain symphony he would experience deep turmoil. I find myself that I do not find these real life or fictional techniques tasteful, since I generally don’t associate music as having a negative connotation. I agreed with Frith when he stated that this goes against what we are taught from day one of our profession, that music is a inherently good thing. I believe it also goes against everything we stand and fight for in relation to music therapy. As therapists we are trying to use music to promote wellness through music. However, these real life and fictional stories use music to promote negative characteristics in people, which I find unfortunate and sad. I do not like to see or think about such a beautiful tool’s power manipulated negatively.
Frith presents another interesting concept in his writing, that music often has the power to make people cross. While we do not put much thought into it, music does seem to have a quality that can drive people to anger. Even in ancient music, certain modes were believed to promote poor conduct and unhealthy lifestyles. Frith presents a bill that was presented to the Parliament called Pipedown. Reading about these angry individuals who believed it was their right to have silence in public places made something clear to me: these people did not like the majority of the music that was being played. While there are some people who dislike music, I have found this to be very rare. I am sure if the supporters of this bill had their favorite artists playing in malls and restaurants every day they would not complain. This bill was not about a personal invasion of privacy; It was about a group of individuals who did not identify and relate to a certain genre of music. I do not think this bill presents a valid argument, since noises of all kinds can be offensive to people. We have all been in situations in which we have rather not have heard a certain conversation and the subject matter within it. However, just because this bothers us we can’t propose a bill for public silence. A popular quote arose in my mind when reading this argument:
“Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”
Though this could easily have been written by someone in our modern day, it was written by Socrates. Ever since ancient times, people have had trouble relating to generations and styles that are different from their own. In terms of music, however, even people in the same generation can enjoy completely oppositional styles and genres. Best friends and family can find one another’s music inferior to theirs. Frith presents an idea that I agree with, the idea that the music’s style and genre is not actually what provokes certain peoples’ anger with music- it’s the idea of identity and what music your being relates to.
An interesting concept I have learned through psychology is that when we dislike certain qualities in someone, it is because those qualities actually exist inside of us and our unconscious is trying to fight them. I believe this can be related to dislike of certain genres or styles of music. On these terms, we should try not to jump to conclusions and say to someone, “Can you turn this off? I really hate this song.” Instead, we can use this dislike as a learning tool for our personal growth and examine why we (and our clients) associate negativity with certain styles of music.
I believe that Frith presents a very intriguing and thought provoking article. I do agree with the two authors before me, however, when they state they wish that he would have delved further into relating the concept of musical hatred into music therapy. He also did not present reasons for why the human connects on a deeper level with certain styles of music, and what this process entails. I would have enjoyed to hear him state some more of his opinions on this subject.