The Power of Music

I am a huge fan of music. I enjoy it immensely. I have had an appreciation for music since I was a little kid, growing up in a house where there was music playing regularly and dance parties to the oldies station or Dad's LP's were a regular occurrence. We would move the furniture out of the center of the living room and groove our little feet to the likes of George Benson, Linda Rondstadt, The Doors, Michael Jackson, etc etc etc. Classical music was also a big hit at our house, we'd listen to various albums (on audiotape, no less) while on road trips all over the country. I grew up with an appreciation for various types of music, and my range of music taste only expanded through high school and college as I began to add contemporary groups like Collective Soul, Matchbox Twenty, 3 Doors Down, Goo Goo Dolls, Creed, and U2 to my favorites. I would listen to music whenever I had a chance. Like my cousin-in-law (is that actually a term) John once said, "Music is Chris' anti-drug".

At the end of my freshman year in college a friend gave me a copy of the Gladiator soundtrack to borrow. I promptly copied it and played it over and over all through finals. At that point in time, listening to the powerful movement of the wordless music, I began to really realize the power that music has over the human heart and mind. In a very real way, music can help us stay in or move out of emotional states. If we're upset many of us will either listen to angry music to stay upset, or listen to uplifting music to help lift us back up. If we're feeling happy we're probably going to listen to something that will keep us happy. I like to listen to high-energy, hard-driving music while I'm running, as it keeps my adrenaline flowing and prevents me from hearing my own loud breathing. I'm sure many of you have similar habits.

I had a fascinating revelation while sitting in my Human Physiology class last fall. My professor was talking about the auditory nerves and the fact that science can explain how we can hear, but it cannot explain the "musical experience". This really gave me pause. We have established scientific explanations for our ability to receive, process, and interpret the meaning of soundwaves as they hit our eardrum, travel through the olfactory nerve, and are recognized as sound by the corresponding area of our brain. What we can't explain is how our brain manages to translate sound into emotions of all kinds. I know that when I hear a particularly moving song I am unable to resist the sensory flood that it produces; I am unashamed to say that I cry at hearing Ave Maria, get chills when listening to the Hallelujah Chorus, and am hypnotized by the sound of Ravel's Bolero. There is no scientific explanation for music's affect on the brain, its ability to stimulate an emotional/hormonal response in our bodies, or the total experience that music manifests. With nothing else to explain it, I thank God for the gift of music and the link it gives us to the divine.