Check out some of the protest songs on the virtual ipod. If you can't catch all the lyrics, try googling for them- they're worth hearing.
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Power of Music Can Help Save the World.
I really do believe in the power of music to save the world. I've felt it saving my own life many times. I was listening to an NPR show last Friday - Radio Lab it's called, and the particular topic for the day was how music affects us. Turns out music is perceived both as auditory input and tactile. I'd thought this to be true before, remembering how, when I was a little kid watching a parade go by, the sound of the bass drums being hit was something I could feel as a force against my chest. The vibrating airwaves enter our ears and stimulate a cellular electric charge which causes an amount of the brain chemical dopamine to be released causing the emotional response. When the music is consonant (harmonically even) the dopamine released is in an amount to cause feelings of pleasure, but when dissonant (harmonically uneven) more dopamine is released which causes feelings of displeasure, confusion, even anger in some cases.
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The song, "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends," written and performed by Phil Ochs, is one of my favorites for its commentary on modern apathy. I really like the contrast of the upbeat, rag time sound of the piano against the message of the lyrics: that we are passive observers of all that's wrong in our world. We can no longer identify and respond to reality. The writing of this song may have been prompted by the murder of a woman in NYC. This became a highly reported incident because, well within earshot of a nearby apartment house filled with witnesses, no one responded to the woman's screams for help.
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