Music and Emotion

       

            Something I find interesting is the way myself and others react to certain music. Our reading for Friday talks about the emotions people feel when they are listening to music. I remember really clearly the first time a song made me cry. I'm not totally sure how old I was but it was Thanksgiving and we were all playing on the Karaoke. One of the songs that came on was Concrete Angel by Martina McBride. 
            I had heard the song before but I had never listened to the words. As I was listening to the song I just started crying. For those of you who don't know the song is about an abused child and the adults in her life, like teachers and neighbors, ignoring the signs that she's being abused and she gets killed.
            In the reading "Hurts So Good" they talk about past concerns that were raised by people on how aggressive music can manipulate people's actions. I agree with this to a certain point.
             I believe Martina McBride wanted that kind of emotional reaction from her listeners, she wanted us to feel something when we listened to her song, did she maybe want us to start paying attention to the people around us more? Probably. I consider this a manipulation. But I think this song only influenced me slightly and not enough to change my beliefs and my morals. Not letting a child get abused was something that was already important to me, obviously. Listening to this song did not change everything I had ever thought, it just made me more aware. I also avoid this song like the plague because it makes me sad though.
             Saying that two young men committed suicide because they listened to metal music is similar to saying that I would only tell people that a child was being abused because I listened to Concrete Angel. I already have the capacity in myself to tell someone when I believe a child is being abused, I don't need a song to convince me to do that. I don't believe that people's actions are controlled or influenced so much by a song that they commit crimes, it's something that was already there.