Music Moves

I’ve been hearing over the past week that the Grammy’s are today (Feb 13th), and enjoying NPR’s recapping of some lesser known artists who have been nominated for less listened to categories. Janelle Monet’s “Tightrope” for example, is a great song that’s been nominated for Best Urban/Alternative Performance, yet the only place you’ll hear it here in town is at the end of that Target Commercial where the little girl brings her father breakfast in bed (or at Grand Cities Idol in April!). Another lesser known artist, Ray LaMontagne, cracked the “Best Song” category with Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and other big names with his gentle ballad “Beg, Steal, or Borrow,” but that’s not a tune you’ll hear on XL93 either. Yet those types of songs (the ones that don’t make Ryan Seacrests’ top 40) are the ones that tend to resonate with me most. Why is that? What is it that draws us to certain types of music?  And what is it that makes those top 40 become top 40 songs? And how can Music Therapy harness the power of the music that motivates us to promote positive change?

What draws us to certain types of music?

The answer to that question is as varied as there are styles of music and people who enjoy them.  Whenever I lead a lyric analysis discussion at one of my sites, I always ask participants 3 questions to start things off:  What did you like about the song, what didn’t you like, and what “stuck out” to you.  I’d encourage any of my readers here to do the same thing with your favorite song – what is it you like/don’t like?  Is it the lyrics, the style of music?  Is it the artist his/herself?  Many people feel they can’t enjoy an artist if they know things about them personally that they don’t find appealing, and vice versa (“Sting practices yoga?  Me too!” etc.).  For me, it’s a combination of both the lyrics and the music, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on any one thing that instantly does it for me – it depends on my mood.  My playlists contain everything from the songs linked above to Opera and Rob Zombie.  What “sticks out” to me might vary with each song, but whatever it is, I know it when I hear it, and it makes me run to my Rhapsody playlist and hit “Add!”

How does music corral the masses?  How does a top 40 song become a top 40 song?

I mentioned before that some artists rise in popularity due to who they are.  The scandal that followed Michael Jackson all his life is part of what kept his career going – people wanted to see what he would do next.  Lady Gaga sparks the same kind of morbid curiosity (“If she wore a dress made out of meat in public, what does she do in private?”  I wouldn’t want to know).  But even their behavior and our strange attraction to it, is born out of the music.  A book I’ve got marked on my “to read” list is The Triumph of Music:  The Rise and Fall of Composers, Musicians, and Their Art by Tim Blanning.  You can read a review of the book here. What drew me to the subject matter, and what I think greatly answers the question of how music moves a culture was in the final line of that review:

“Although not always in step, music, society, and politics…march in the same direction”

There was a time when artists were strictly bound to the rules of society.  Over time, their urge to stretch their creative muscles and the capabilities of technology to expand with them created an ability to question and even inspire the changing of rules and societal norms.  Think of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, the Vietnam War, how much of role music played in those times.  Musicians were regarded as political activists, and Music as a political and social tool.  It still holds that power today, even if it is just encouraging us to “Evacuate the Dance Floor” (not sure why that Cascada song just popped into my head but there you go).  Actually I’ve been finding a lot of “Self Preservation” types of songs out there lately – in this day and age, Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress disorders are real and crippling conditions – many of the top songs on the radio today, like Eminem’s “Not Afraid,” Katy Perry’s “Firework,” and Bruno Mars’ “Just the way you are” deal with facing those core issues of self worth and overcoming adversity, and people are drawn to that.  Those are the kinds of changes in perspective our society is craving right now, and it shows in our national music trends.

How can Music Therapy use our emotional connection with music to enact positive change?

It starts before a single note even sounds with the therapeutic relationship.  I finally got a chance last week to see “The King’s Speech,” starring Colin Firth in a Golden Globe winning (and Oscar Nominated) role as King George the VI of England, who ruled during World War II.  He possessed a severe stutter and sought the aid of Lionel Lowe (played by Geoffrey Rush) to correct his “mechanical problem with speech.”  From the moment they meet, Lowe asks the King some very personal questions (“how did you come to stutter?  When do you stutter most?”)  and the King initially refused to answer them, insisting they had nothing to do with his “mechanical” problem – but they did.  The King stuttered most under extreme stress and around particular people – his “mechanical” problem was born out of personal ones.  Through the disclosure of that information and the relationship that bloomed out of the trust between Lowe and the King (not to mention some great ties to Music Therapy, among them singing and dancing to bypass stuttering roadblocks!), a great change became possible.

Complete trust and open disclosure must exist between a therapist and a client if any change is to take place.

So, we Music Therapists do more than just push play on an Ipod or strum a few chords here and there on our guitars, we are trained in Counseling and Psychology as well.  After the establishment of a relationship with our clients through assessment of their abilities and needs, we apply music and techniques that have meaning to them based on the information and understanding we’ve acquired between us to achieve the goals they need reach.  We can harness a love of music to address emotional expression and social interplay, or we can use the love of a particular composer or artist to look at that musician’s life and discuss what we can glean for our own lives from looking at their life and music.  Every individual’s session contents will be different.

Now, music itself does do some pretty amazing things.  A recent study in Nature Neuroscience discovered that while listening to music we enjoy, our brains release Dopamine, the “feel-good” chemical released after we sleep, eat, or engage in other rewarding activities.  This means music is actually a reward for your brain. How cool is that?  The more actively you’re engaged in the music, the greater the reward will be – hence the reason you’re always hearing me encourage live music making or participation.  This past weekend I was involved with two large-scale events involving active music making that I mentioned in my last post- in the week leading up to them I’ve fought a lingering cough from a cold I keep thinking is over (but it never is!), along with a full week of work that left me feeling pretty drained before I picked up that first drum at the Firehall on Friday.  But after each song, and after each dance on Saturday at 12 Houses, no matter how my body had felt before I started engaging in the music, I felt infinitely better afterwards.  My husband was with me at both events and even he commented on how my demeanor changed from start to finish.  My brain was releasing “feel-good” chemicals, and all I had to do was play, sing, and dance.

Now the process of treatment in Music Therapy can get much more in-depth, as you’ve seen in past posts and I will continue to happily share in future posts (my brain has been so full of fun information to share it’s often tough to prioritize just which facet I’ll share next, there are so many!) but until then I encourage you to check our MT in ND page for up to the minute events in Music Therapy that you can take advantage of Statewide.  If there isn’t an event near you, just find a concert or CD featuring a band you really enjoy, watch the Grammy’s tonight, invite some friends to share the experience with you and sing or tap along with the performers.  For where there is active engagement, in music, and with the people you love, there is reward.