I’ve thought a lot about music and it’s qualities/effects on us. Most of my thinking, of course, is based on my own reactions to it. And I think my thoughts would reflect a lot of professional research that I’m not familiar with, but I’ll share some things anyway.
Music has the ability to affect our thoughts and feelings. A few examples:
A good friend of mine liked emo and heavy rock music. He listened to it often, and, over time, his thought pattern changed to be more subdued, less sure of himself, darker, at times suicidal. Now all of it can’t be attributed to the music, but it had a lot to do with it.
Another friend always listened to rap music to ‘pump up’ before volleyball games. I wasn’t a fan of rap, but I go the same ‘pump up’ effect from classical movie soundtracks with fast bass-heavy rhythms.
Other thoughts: music can pull our minds from clean, pure thoughts. THink of how songs with romantic overtones lead us to think of love, explicit songs bring those words to our minds more often, songs glorifying sex make us think more about it, etc.
How long does it take you to memorize a song’s lyrics? Three or four times? And how long do you remember them? Years? Decades?
What would you do if you had to listen to the music you currently listened to forever? Would you change what you listened to? Would you choose to put good things in you head or forever be drowned in mediocre or worse musical themes?
It’s something to think about.
The conclusion is, watch it. What you listen to affects you for a long time. Choose wisely.