Why are we drawn to Music? (2)

In an earlier blog post, Read here , I underlined the significance of music to society and the connection between humans and music. And also underscored the benefits of music. This post extends the discourse by highlighting the psycho-social, mediatory and political currency of music. These findings are the by-product of an academic venture with a clear departure from the informal and conversational tone utilized in other posts. Enjoy!

The mediatory nature of music and its positioning as a means of intra and inter-cultural exchange can not be over-emphasized. Martin Stokes asserts that it is a “metaphorical representation of worldwide socio-cultural processes comprising an enduring process by and through which people interact within and across cultures” (489). As a conduit of cultural exchange, Russell Potter observes that the cross-pollination which emerges there from, while “richly resonant”, also reveals music as a landscape or site that enables ”the most insistent and potent articulation of race essentialism, class warfare and inter-ethnic struggles” (226).

Music functions as a mediatory tool through its intervention in race relations and decimation of social barriers like it did in the throes of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, when separatism permeated the social landscape and created imaginary ethnic bifurcations between black and white.

Smokey Robinson, singer, songwriter, producer, lead vocalist of The Miracles, and former Vice-President of Detroit’s Motown Records recounts the heavy police presence in suburban Detroit which restricted the movement of black people without cogent reasons in the 1960s and how the establishment and circulation of the Motown music melted racial discord.

Robinson (last.fm)

In his words:

“We’d been going locally for maybe 8,9 months and we started to get letters from the white kids in those areas where it was taboo for you to be in…those letters would be invaluable now, I wish I had saved them…and we started getting letters from those kids saying, “Hey men, we got your music, we LOVE (my emphasis) your music but our parents don’t know we have it, because if they knew…they might make us throw it away”…a year or so later, we were getting letters from their parents. “Hey men, we found out that our kids were listening to your music, so we wanted to know why, so we started listening to the Motown music, we are so glad that they have it. We listen to it now too. We LOVE (my emphasis) your music” (Recording Academy/GRAMMYS, 52:45-53:49).

Music dissolved racial prejudice and fostered inter-racial relationships.

Again Robinson notes:

“We played places where if there were white people in the audience, there’ll be in a section all by themselves and black folks in a section by themselves…totally segregated, and after a while, a year or so.., we go down there, and we see white boys with black girlfriends and black boys with white girlfriends. They all dancing together, and they all mingling…we were breaking down barriers with music. They were trying to legislate…we were doing it with music cause music is the international language. It is the barrier breaker” (Recording Academy/GRAMMYS, 54:21-55:25)

Whereas politics floundered in the attainment of social cohesion, music achieved the goal easily. Here, the words of Nina Simone in her twilight years become salient when she observed that the artist possessed more agencies to actualize societal change because she/he wields greater influence in society than the politician or the educator. In her words, “Art and music especially, speaks to people more than government and education. Why do you think great nations have patronage for their artists?”, she asked (Sullivan 222).

In the last two years of the pandemic, music became more germane and essential to the livelihood of society, at a time when daily living was mired by general waves of uncertainty and movement restrictions. As well as, human sufferings evident through the deterioration of mental health, symptomatic of the imposition of social distancing and virtual communication, etc. The embodied melodic, rhythmic and harmonic elements of music assuaged and sustained society, and evoked lightheartedness amidst chaos, and hope amidst despair. Music transcended the emotions and permeated the nervous system thereby inhibiting stress.

Ariela Kozin (2020) referencing a poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicated deterioration in the general health of the populace. About 45 percent of the respondents felt indisposed due to isolation and anxiety attacks emanating from job losses and deaths, emotional responses analogous to the public’s health response to the Vietnam War and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Kozin argues for music’s efficacy in the rehabilitation of mental health, instead of orthodox therapeutic measures due to a strong sense of connectedness between the listener and music, a unique bond which often exceeds familial relationships, as it is closely cultivated and savoured through devices like a headphone which can be a constant daily accompaniment (Kozin, n.page).

In the same vein, Jason Martineau believes that music expresses through sound, deeply ingrained emotions “when we have no voice, words when we are silent” (Martineau 242). The power of sound and voice facilitates and engraves the agency of the music artist in the minds of the audience.

Furthermore, Kozin quotes Tim Ringgold, a music therapist to the effect that the self-isolation which has marked the era triggers an instinctive urge for social contact, as such the music artist becomes an interface and source of comfort by articulating through music “the most intense experiences and thoughts we've ever had without meeting them”(n.page).

Kozin’s argument finds empirical evidence on social media platforms like YouTube. The platform enables an assessment of music’s value to the public and its significance to the listener in turbulent periods and blissful phases of life.

Through the heartfelt expressions and deep-seated appreciation scribbled in each comment and feedback, music’s impact and meaning to the listener is easily deciphered. The conferment of social meaning to a social element like music becomes contingent on the society. Such meaning is accrued through societal reception and perception which imbues upon it a high measure of significance based on ubiquity and availability as a conduit for emotional and social expressions. Susan McClary points out that the collective belief prevalent in society confers buoyancy “because communities of people invest in them,[and] agree collectively that their signs serve as valid currency” (McClary 111).

Conversely, one may add that music can also be negatively received and perceived, and as such be deemed socially invalid and meaningless. In societies like the Afghan Taliban, music and the art of musicality is viewed as an impairment deserving censorship. Alex Lubet indicates that within the aforementioned culture, the male conundrum of uncontrollable libido is projected into “the disablement of women, who are largely forbidden to sing”. He notes further that “musicality was punished as a sociopathy, an immutable unacceptable urge” (Lubet 383-4).

Politics is another element of human culture and music positions itself as a veritable tool of political communication, benevolently as protest music highlighting maladies and inequities inherent in societal structures, and malevolently, as a propaganda tool for unscrupulous political actors.

Countercultural movements, for instance, deploy music as a medium of contesting hegemonic statues. Other political engagements can be seen in issues of environmental degradation, gender, racism, etc.

Within countercultural movements, music functions as a tool of activism, a non-violent mechanism for contesting social injustices within diasporic and postcolonial contexts. They often traverse cultural, national or continental boundaries in view of their ideological and lyrical resonance, as well as aesthetic features.

African American music idioms like soul, funk, and jazz mirrored the political protests which festooned the US terrain in the 1960s. Psychedelic rock accompanied the Hippies movement with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix as major signifiers, while disco accompanied the feminist and gay rights movement in the 1970s, and had artists like Sylvester on the front row. 

Sylvester (huffpost.com)

Interestingly, although disco had gay and androgynous DJs within social circuits like Studio 54 as gate-keepers, it expressed solidarity to the cause of women liberation through its strict promotion of female artists within the genre like Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Melba Moore, Grace Jones, Diana Ross, etc, while muting the male voices as a show of resistance to hetero-normative patriarchy, except Barry White who was held “an early disco hero” because of his observation that “a large part of the American public sought nostalgic elegance in reaction to the dirty jeans and back to the earthiness of the sixties and early seventies” (Sullivan 155).

In other words, White validated and endorsed the equanimity and collective group-think which underlined the countercultural movements of the preceding years, an opinion supported by the gay movement. One would add that the anti-gay sentiments which permeated the social landscape at the time led to the the short existence of the disco genre. The genre had become the marker of a lifestyle that society sought to undermine.

Belafonte (jazztimes.com)

In the Caribbean nations, trans-cultural music genres like calypso and reggae emerged as a countercultural expression. According to Campbell, et al (2020), they served the triadic functions of entertainment, “political messenger” and “means of community-building” (182). Calypso was closely associated with the internal politics of its origin, Trinidad and Tobago. It was a means of news dissemination which offered commentaries on the socio-political and economic developments within the community. The sound was closely associated with renowned voices like Mighty Sparrow and Harry Belafonte.

Reggae, on the other hand, emerged as a resistance to imperialism and British colonialism. It embodied pan-Africanist thought and raised consciousness to the massive disenfranchisement and oppression of indigenous peoples around the world. “…Reggae became a transgressive tool for Africa’s younger generation and they instinctively gravitated to the militant lyrics of reggae” (Kaltmeier & Raussert 2). 

Marley (reggaeville.com)

Cliff (last.fm)

In the US, reggae impacted the artistic circles engendering the creation of flattering interpretations. Stevie Wonder transformed Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” from a simple, linear and mono-instrumental piece to a grandiosely ornamented composition. He also deviated briefly from his soulful style to produce a reggae inspired “Master Blaster (Jammin’) in 1980. Eric Clapton also interpreted Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff”, while Bruce Springsteen covered Jimmy Cliff’s “Trapped” in 1984.  

Music’s essentiality in the human society is a discourse that a blog post could hardly do much justice to. Suffice it to say that, a society without musical presence is unfathomable. As that simple song succinctly states: “All things shall perish from under the sky, music alone shall live never to die”.

REFERENCES:

Campbell, Nigel A. (et al). “Popular Music Flows” The Routledge Handbook to the Culture and Media of the Americas, edited by Wilfried Raussert, et al., Taylor & Francis Group. 2020.

Kaltmeier, Olaf and Wilfried Raussert. Sonic Politics - Music and Social Movements in the Americas. Routledge, 2019.  

Kozin, Ariela (2020). Grammy.com, “Why Music May Be More Important Now Than Ever Before” (May 21, 2020)

Lubet, Alex. “Losing…My Religion: Music, Disability, Gender, and Jewish and Islamic Law”. Music and Identity Politics, edited by Ian Biddle. Ashgate, 2012, pp 381-432.

Martineau, Jason. “The Elements of Music”. Quadrivium, edited by Jason Martineau. Bloomsbury, 2010, pp 241-289.

McClary, Susan. “Introduction: A Material Girl in Bluebeard’s Castle”. Music and Identity Politics, edited by Ian Biddle. Ashgate, 2012, pp 93- 132.

Potter, Russell A. “Are You Afraid of the Mix of Black and White?” Hip-Hop and the Spectacular Politics of Race” Music and Identity Politics, edited by Ian Biddle. Ashgate, 2012, pp 221- 248.

Recording Academy/GRAMMYS. “Black Music Collective: Protect Black Music: Preservation, Legacy and Protecting Black Music History”. YouTube, 1 July 2021. youtube.com/watch?v=8AxbLqsPE6Y.

Stokes, Martin. “Music and the Global Order”. Music and Identity Politics, edited by Ian   Biddle. Ashgate, 2012, pp 489-514.

Sullivan, Dennis. Keep on Pushing: Black Power Music from Blues to Hip Hop. Lawrence Hill, 2011.