Mirror or Manipulator?
Hannah De Los Reyes
Music can be a reflection of our thoughts and an expression of our emotions. We often choose to listen to music that fits and even enhances our mood. For many people today, there seems to be a playlist for every occasion. I recall one example of this when my sister replayed a mix CD of breakup songs over and over while trying to get over her ex-boyfriend. The music seemed to help her express what she was feeling and deal with those emotions.
Yet, I felt that DeNora’s article focused more on music’s ability to change our behavior and affect social order. Her examples illustrated people trying to manipulate others’ behavior in one way or another whether it be getting in the mood for romance, dancing at a party, or purchasing clothing. The article made me wonder just how much of our behavior is affected my music without our knowledge. Would I really have been so willing to spend that extra money had it not been for the insistent music in the background?
While it seems clear to me that music can affect our behavior, I can also see how some people might take this idea to an extreme and respond in fear. People may feel that music’s manipulative power is being exploited and should somehow be controlled. I myself fell towards this argument in my previous writings in this class saying that governments may use music as a tool for propaganda. However, this way of thinking can become a problem if people respond by trying to censor music. For decades, people have feared that music was ‘corrupting the youth.’ Here is one example of a group’s petition to ban rap music: http://www.petitiononline.com/antirap/petition.html. Even though I too question the morality of controlling people through the use of music, it is completely counterintuitive to then try to stop the control of people by controlling what music people can and cannot listen to.
I wonder just how much of our music is a manipulator versus a mirror. Might it be that rap musicians only create this music in the first place as a representative of their life experiences? If that is the case, I think maybe people should be less afraid that music is going to negatively influence their children and more concerned that societal conditions are so poor that children feel the need to create and turn to music that others find violent or offensive.
