WP3: Music Speaks

I have never gone a full day without hearing music. If you really think about it, have you?

Music is practically unavoidable. An alarm in the morning; the radio in the car; motivational music for a workout; soundtracks on television. The list goes on and on. If we know how to properly interact with it, music can serve a great purpose in our lives. Music is a means through which people can connect and communicate what might otherwise seem impossible to communicate. Music plays a major role in community building, such as through fandoms. Within communities, music aids in direct communication, whether between the artists and their listeners or between multiple listeners. An essential component of such communication is memory, which music has the ability to store. However, in order to find connection through music, people must have the proper tools to engage with the music in ways that derive meaning.

The ability to find connection and communication in music lies in the capacity of a person to understand their relationship with the various aspects of music. For music to be able to foster community-based connection — such as in a fandom — people must have the ability to not only gain knowledge of a community that they are interested in, but access to it as well. When engaging with a community of interest, one must approach with a mindset that clearly identifies the desire to form connections. To deepen their relationships with others, a member of such a community — or anyone — can use music as a means of direct communication. To achieve this, both participants must actively — not passively — listen to the music, understand the messages and stories portrayed through musical expression, and establish an emotional connection with the musical content. This emotional connection can often be found in the association of music to a memory that the listener has. The ability of a person’s brain to connect music to particular people or places can aid in effective communication, and thereby deepen one’s connections with those around them.

Passions for particular genres or artists can serve as a means for community building if the person has access to communities focused around the same passion. Fandoms seem to be an ever-growing phenomenon. Fandoms often have internet groups that comprise of fans from all over the world: “online community platform is the place where fans gather to enjoy a similar passion, but it is the relationships and discussions held on the site between fans that truly affect an individual and their identity” (Ratka, 2018). In other words, although a passion is what draws people into a fandom, the meaning they get out of it is found in the relationships made that in turn foster a community.

For me, this type of connection came through a fandom for Bethany Mota — a YouTuber who also created some music. I must admit, I don’t think I ever watched a single one of her videos. However, my best friend at the time was obsessed with her and wanted to create an Instagram fan page together. So, despite my lack of (a) knowledge of, or — quite frankly — (b) interest in Bethany Mota, I agreed to do it with her. I don’t think I remember a single thing about Bethany Mota herself, but I do remember the people I connected with through being a part of this online community. To this day, I still follow some of the other page owners with whom I connected on Instagram. My involvement in this fandom has left a lasting impact on me, and it would not have been possible had I not had access to and knowledge of how to navigate the virtual fandom world.

There are various obstacles in the way of engaging in a fandom. A person must not only have knowledge (or the ability to obtain knowledge) that a fandom for their particular passion exists, but the person must also know how to properly access and engage with the platform through which the fandom chooses to exist. Overall, one’s ability to find connections through shared passions in fandoms relies heavily on technological literacy. However, once one is technologically fluent, they have the ability to be immersed in a community of others who share the same passion, finding meaning in fostering connections.

Offline engagement with music exists in a mutualistic symbiotic relationship with online fandom community platforms. This means that each aspect of pursuing involvement in a fandom — both offline and online — compliments the other. In fact, for online forums, “there is an underlying requirement to have experience in engaging with the form offline” (Bennett, 2015). In order to achieve connection, such offline interactions must be approached as experiential learning, meaning “relevant learning objectives need to be specified and the conduct of the experience needs to be monitored” (Gentry, 1990). Perhaps the most universal offline experiences of this type are concerts. Concerts physically bring together people from a plethora of backgrounds who share a common interest in the music. Whether these people are emotionally brought together, though, is a choice. Concert-goers must establish a “learning objective” that aims to foster connections with others. They must continue to “monitor” their progress and efforts on achieving this objective throughout “the experience.” In other words, they must actively seek connection throughout the concert. If the person fails to properly set this objective and monitor its progress, it is likely that they will be deprived of the opportunity to foster connections with others who share the same musical interest during this experience.

Lyrics and musical notes provide a pathway for the direct communication between musical artists and their listeners if the latter have the appropriate physiological and mental capabilities. Artists’ songs — even those without lyrics — communicate a message. This message can sometimes be very clear, as through the lyrics of the song. Alternatively, sometimes it can be more vague, as through the actual musical notes and beat of the song. “The inner ear converts sounds into trains of nerve impulses” which allow the listener to derive emotional responses to the musical stimuli (Snyder and Snyder, 2000). However, the listener must not rely solely on this effortless mode of receipt — passive listening will not suffice if the listener wishes to fully receive the messages that are communicated through music. As an obvious starting point, the music cannot just be background noise. The listener must truly listen to — not just hear — the song. Listening involves the intention and attempt to understand the meaning behind what is heard, which leads to the effective receipt of the messages conveyed through music.

Creating and sharing playlists — when there is a mutual understanding of this action’s significance — is an impactful way in which communication can be achieved between multiple music listeners. I took advantage of this particular aspect of music communication recently in my second writing project titled The Soundtrack to My Life. For this project, I made four separate playlists for four of the most meaningful people in my life. Each playlist consisted of songs that (a) are associated with memories I share with the person, (b) accurately reflect my view of our relationship, or © remind me of the person’s personality and soul. The feedback I received was moving — their personal playlist brought each and every one of them to tears. “As a non discursive language, music transcends intellectual, rational thought. . . It communicates human needs and values when words no longer suffice” (Gfeller 2002). It is evident that my playlists successfully communicated a sense of love and appreciation that I was never able to fully describe in words. I am grateful that each of these four people had the ability to understand both the messages conveyed through the songs and the significance of personalized playlists.

Music is a powerful tool that provides the space for self-reflection and insights into personal feelings. As the writer Leo Tolstoy once said, “music is the shorthand for emotion,” meaning abundant amounts of emotion are tightly packed into individual songs (Hunter and Schellenberg, 2010). Music serves as a linguistic sign, which “unites, not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound-image. The latter is not the material sound, a purely physical thing, but the psychological imprint of the sound, the impression that it makes on our senses” (De Saussure, 2011). Each listener’s receptors will process the music in a way that is unique to the individual based on both their biology and prior experiences. Therefore, each listener has the potential to experience a different emotion in response to the same music. However, the listener must have the biological ability to pick up on this linguistic sign in order to experience this kind of emotional response.

An interpretation that involves meaningful emotions requires the ability of the listener to process the song similar to how one would process a story: “through the mediation of personal associations to emotionally compelling events” (Konečni, 2008). In other words, they must feel a connection to the story being told in the song — whether verbally or instrumentally — and link it — whether consciously or subconsciously — to something they care about. Such emotional interactions are tied to each person’s identity: “emotional music we have heard at specific periods of our life is strongly linked to our autobiographical memory and thus is closely involved in forming our view about our own self” (Jäncke, 2008). The remembrance of different points in one’s life in response to hearing music is a crucial aspect of what makes music so powerful.

Music is a keeper of memories. When I was about 8 years old, I ate cake batter frozen yogurt with my dance team as the FroYo shop played the song “Glad You Came” by The Wanted. For years after this moment, each time I heard that song the taste of cake batter frozen yogurt lingered on my tongue. It felt like I was in a time machine. This was due to music’s capability of inducing episodic memory: “episodic memory for musical information is defined by Platel and colleagues as ‘the capacity to recognize a musical excerpt (whether familiar or not) for which the spatiotemporal context surrounding its former encounter (i.e., when, where, and how) can be recalled’” (Jäncke, 2008). This means that music actually does have capabilities similar to that of a time machine — it can immerse a listener in a memory of a previous time they heard a song. This jogging of memory can sometimes reveal memories that have otherwise been inaccessible without the sensory stimulation provided by the music.

One’s ability to associate memories of people with certain music deepens their relationships with those around them. Being at college and away from many of the most important people in my life for the first time, I have noticed that my capability to connect people to songs has prompted me to remain more connected with those I love from home. When I hear songs that remind me of these people, I reach out to them. Send them the song. Tell these people that I am thinking about them. My association of people with music has allowed me to maintain relationships with people with whom I otherwise may not have been in contact.

My personal ability to connect music with memories of people allows me to connect more thoroughly with those around me. For example, a boy named Nate was one of my close friends in high school. The song “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz reminds me of second grade when this was his favorite song. I had learned all the words because my young heart beat for him. Each and every memory I have of him contributes to the dynamics of our relationship and how I view him. This holds true for anyone. Memories are what allow us to build upon previously established relationships. If someone is able to associate music with memories they share with others, this allows them to develop a more elaborate story of the people in their lives, and therefore a deeper connection.

People develop stronger relationships with the places around them when they are able to associate places with certain music. In The Soundtrack to my Life, I made two playlists dedicated to two important places in my life — The William Penn Charter School, the school I attended from kindergarten through 12th grade graduation, and Camp Canadensis, the camp I attended for a mere two summers when I was in middle school. Certain songs such as Hard to Handle by the Black Crowes, My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, and the entire soundtrack of Legally Blonde the Musical have the ability to transport me back in time 7 years to Canadensis’ Pocono Mountain campgrounds. My emotional connection with music was at its strongest during the two summers I spent at camp. Therefore, hearing these songs not only brings me back to the place, but the emotions I have associated with this particular place and its accompanying music. Listening today to the songs I associate with camp reminds me of how far I have come as a person. When music takes a person back to a specific place and time, it allows the person to reflect on their memories and their personal growth. It contributes to the storylines of our lives and our perspectives as our own narrators. The association of music with memories is less of a skill than can be easily learned, and more of a cognitive skill often formed during human development.

Music is a medium for connection and a tool through which people can communicate in ways beyond typical language usage. It helps connect people with those who share similar interests or passions, such as through fandoms. It provides a means through which people can have shared experiences, such as attending a concert. Music can further establish these connections by serving as a means of direct communication. It can clearly communicate a message between the artist and their listeners, as well as between listeners as they share music by sending each other songs or creating playlists for one another. This sharing of music between listeners helps deepen their relationships, as does music’s association in one’s memory with the people in their life. When listeners associate songs with people or places, it allows them to have deepened connections with the world around them. It provides greater significance to these aspects of people’s lives. Additionally, music deepens our connections with our own selves as it aids in our autobiographical memories and the perceptions we have of our own selves.

Music can only serve these purposes in our lives if we have the proper skill sets to be able to engage with music in meaningful ways. While the association of music with memory is a difficult — perhaps sometimes impossible — skill to learn if not already acquired, the rest of the music-engagement skills discussed above are easily obtainable. I urge each and every one of you to reflect: are you engaging with music in all the various ways that have been covered above? If not, how can you learn to? The ability to engage with music in each of these ways enhances life by strengthening our abilities to communicate and therefore connect with others. At the end of the day, that is what life is about: connection.

Works Cited

Bennett, R. J. (2015). Live concerts and fan identity in the age of the Internet. The digital evolution of live music, 3–15.

De Saussure, F. (2011). Course in general linguistics. Columbia University Press.

Gentry, J. W. (1990). What is experiential learning. Guide to business gaming and experiential learning, 9, 20.

Gfeller, K. E. (2002). Music as communication.

Jäncke, L. (2008). Music, memory and emotion. Journal of biology, 7(6), 1–5.

Konečni, V. J. (2008). Does music induce emotion? A theoretical and methodological analysis. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 2(2), 115.

Ratka, A. (2018). Exploring identities in online music fandoms: How identities formed in online fan communities affect real life identities.

Snyder, B., & Snyder, R. (2000). Music and memory: An introduction. MIT press.

Hunter, P. G., & Schellenberg, E. G. (2010). Music and emotion. In Music perception (pp. 129–164). Springer, New York, NY.