Making the most out of music

Music is so universal that you can almost think about it from different perspectives. One purpose that strikes me right away is entertainment. We value music as something that is entertaining. Why do we need entertainment in the first place? Music as a form of entertainment is food to our ears. It is so artistic that it can color the paleness of actions and fill the emptiness of emotions.

So what is music to you, really? There are many definitions that can be found on the Internet but the best so far that I can relate to is from Princeton where music is defined as

“an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner”.

Another good definition taken from Wikipedia is

“an art form consisting of sound and silence. Elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, structure, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture.”

Because people have the need to be entertained, music is often monetized or commercialized to gain profits. You’ve been to a live performance, you bought CDs for your own listening pleasure, you went partying in a rave event and you watched a movie with heart touching film scores in the background. The list goes on and on. It is so often that money is being involved in the examples mentioned.

Music can also be used for therapy purposes and as a form of relaxation. Going through a tedious and tiring daily routine one find it to be very relaxing to listen to music. Of course, different genres of music have different effects on your mind. When you want to relax, you don’t usually listen to an adrenaline pumping music. You are not relaxed if your adrenaline is up with high heart pulse rate.

In the film industry, music is often used to enhance the emotions of viewers when they watch movies. A scene with suspense element can be further improved with music. Without music it makes the movie felt empty and less entertaining to watch. In some cases, a viewer can be bored to the max when music is overpowering what was meant in a specific conversational dialogue for example.

Music reflects your personality, your artistic sense or your complexity of mind on how you see the world. Music is influential and it can even form a unity. People group together for the cause of music. Sometimes in the worse extent, music is used to promote hatred.

Depending on how you see it, music does leave some significant meaning to your well-being. I think it is cool to mix and match by listening to various genres of music. What I mean is to pick a certain genre for a specific purpose. You won’t go for a candle light dinner with a heart throbbing music in the background right?