Positive affects music has on American culture

Grant Nichols
Aug 31, 2018 · 3 min read

“Keep in mind when brothas start flexing the verbal skills, it always reflects what’s going on politically, socially, and economically.” — Musician Davey D

Every culture in every single part of the world has produced music and art. Even when basic survival would seem to be all that mattered, people created music. Why? This age-old question still lacks real answers, but there are clues. Brain studies show us that when we make and listen to music, dopamine is released in the reward center of the brain, the same chemicals released during basic survival needs such as eating and procreating. It has also been verified that music simultaneously activates more parts of the human brain than any other activity.

Here is an example of how music not only entertains and stimulates our minds, but it also helps the mentally challenged learn rotary skills, social skills, etc.

Music therapy also helps with veterans, PTSD victims, pain management, autism, and Patients suffering with Alzheimer.

Some decision makers are only swayed by research, logic, and numbers. Of course, we need to be able to support what we believe with facts that can stand up to scrutiny, but we can’t let that be the end of the conversation.

Besides the health benefits of music, it also is a representation of how current events affect our culture and people. Music is a tool for self expression and can be seen as a kind of civil disobedience or protest.

This is Sam Cooke’s, “A Change is Gonna Come”. Published in 1964, it addresses a lot of issues addressed in the civil rights movements. Some of the lyrics were inspired by an incident where Cooke and his friends were arrested for disturbing the peace after they were denied room at a motel in Louisiana. The lyrics, “I go to the movie and I go downtown and somebody keep telling me don’t hang around,” speak boldly about segregation.

A lot of people think music, especially hip-hop, has a negative influence on our culture. Salome Thomas El, a principal of an elementary and middle school in inner city Philadelphia, said he knows all rappers are not negative because some are doing positive things. His issue is they do not rap about those positive things.

But there are people rapping about positive things or at the very least addressing important societal issues. Soul music (like “A Change is Gonna Come”) was grafted into the political movements during the civil rights era and hip-hop is capable in some of the same ways to be “grafted onto some of the new power politics in the early 21st century” said Murray Forman, professor of media studies at Northeastern University in Boston.

“Same Love,” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (feat. Mary Lambert), is a nod towards gay rights. Lambert was raised in the church and grew up knowing she was gay, feeling sorrowful over her inability to change and frequently apologized to God in the song and in her own life for being a sinner. In an interview with Same Same, Macklemore said, “‘Same Love’ was a song that I wanted to write for a long time but I didn’t know exactly how to address the issue. I knew I wanted to write a song about gay rights and homophobia within the hip-hop community and the world.” He says that it wasn’t just the issue of marriage equality that fueled the song but also the flagrant use of “gay” as a derogatory term.

The culture of a place is well represented in their music by the genre and in the instrument being used. If this is the case the music being released today reflects American culture no matter how ugly or phallic it is. Forman said he is skeptical of reports that say rap and hip-hop are negative. He said there are other factors that play a role as well, such as a broken home, psychological problems or economic depression.

This wave of profane music rolling in ultimately does not cause our society to become rotten. Our society was rotten to begin with and it is not our job to scrutinize the people expressing themselves in this rotten society. It is our job to scrutinize our culture and environment we have created that made artists feel the need to release such controversial songs.

Ultimately, Music does not shape our culture.. our culture, shapes our music.

Grant Nichols

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— some people feel the rain . others just get wet —

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