Decoding Music Lovers

Do you really need to understand the lyrics to enjoy music?

Music lovers can broadly be categorized into 3 groups:

One who feels the emotion of the music without giving heed to its lyrics.
One who likes the music because of its lyrics.
One who enjoys the emotion along with the lyrics.

Music has been shown to have a cathartic effect on most people. When people feel sad they listen to sad songs to find an outlet for their emotions. Similarly, when they feel frustrated they listen to hard rock music to let the mind process the negative emotion. Likewise, people listen to other varieties of music to soothe the turmoil in their minds.

“Only when one is at extreme peace with himself that he doesn’t need music. In most of the practical scenarios, music does have a comforting effect on the individual.”

Without giving heed to lyrics

People who are very emotional or those who are going through turmoil in their minds do not need to understand the lyrics. The emotions are so strong that the only thing that they expect from the music is to process their overflowing emotions. When one deeply gets involved in feeling the music, the emotions are processed and get a channeled outlet.

“People who belong to this category can listen to songs of any language”

There was a time when I too belonged to this category and would listen to Sufi or sad songs. I didn’t pay heed to the lyrics and that opened door to listen to songs from Saudi Arabia or some other countries as well. All these songs were able to serve my purpose and that was to process my emotional turmoil.

Like music only due to its lyrics

People belonging to this category actually think more from their brains than hearts. But they still have a heart otherwise they would be interested in music at all. While listening to music they will decode each statement and process it. Most people in this category listen to happy songs. Even if they listen to Sufi songs, they will not be fully associated with the emotion of the song and would try to find the meaning of each statement.

“The very ability to find pleasure in decoding the meaning means that the person does not have much emotion to process”

Enjoys emotion along with lyrics

I would say that people who can enjoy the emotion along with lyrics are having a good balance in life. They use their brain and heart in equal proportion and are most likely to traverse through life in a more balanced way. Their emotional side will help them form bonds with people around them and make various kinds of relationships while their thinking ability would enable them to make a good career in fields such as IT or medicine.

“People belonging to this category have the more varied interest and can listen to Sufi or even happy songs”

While listening to Sufi songs they can relate to the emotion while also processing the lyrics and while listening to happy songs they can do the same. They are the most versatile.

“People who enjoy emotion, as well as lyrics, also make up for a good singer themselves”

They have the required emotion to sing a song while having the ability to remember lyrics. They may not excel in extreme Sufi songs but would do well in most of the other genres. These people are the life of any social occasion.

How to enjoy emotion as well as lyrics?

It may have become clear that those who enjoy emotion, as well as the lyrics, are the most balanced people. So how do we get there?

The turmoil in the mind of the people can be soothed by applying the process of catharsis and refinement of the inner child. All past incidents associated with fear should be addressed by the process of catharsis and later false beliefs should be replaced with better beliefs. Being able to internalize better beliefs shall enable the person to calm the turmoil in the mind and reach a state where he can enjoy the emotion associated with the music along with decoding the lyrics.

For people who mostly think with their brains, the process is slightly more difficult. These people may not have turmoil in their minds and that they are hardwired to be devoid of emotions. Such people should try to form bonds with people, get involved in romantic relationships, etc. Forming social bonds will increase their ability to process emotions and they may become a more balanced person.

Conclusion

A song has both emotion and lyrics associated with it. People who enjoy only either of them have something to work upon. By applying the process of catharsis and refinement of the inner child a person who only enjoys emotion can start to enjoy the lyrics while those who only enjoy the lyrics can get involved in appreciating emotion by forming various kinds of social bonds. Then there are those people who are beyond all these categories. They are the ones who are at complete peace with themselves and for them, silence is the best music.

One just evolves from being in one category of music lovers to the next till he reaches the state of enjoying only the silence. Traversing this path is full of work involving self-growth and my best wishes are for them.