Today I'd like to ramble aimlessly on the topic of music, because let's face it; music is great. If there's one thing that sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom, it's our penchant for creativity. Not everyone is gifted in the way of musical talents, but I'm yet to meet anyone who doesn't appreciate music in some form. So, following on from yesterday's post, I want to remind myself of the wonderous, miraculous artform of music and why it's so important to us. Doesn't seem right to go on about music, without having some to listen to. Here's an early studio demo for Animals by Pink Floyd, so go on, tap the play button before we continue.
I've said before that I feel that you can tell alot about a person from their taste in music, but I've never really thought about how the music we listen to actually shapes who we are. In one of those studies performed by scientists who clearly have too much time on their hands, it was found that participants who were asked to judge someone's personality based upon that persons list of top 10 songs were then able to make fairly accurate predictions about said person's personality. Specifically, the study was looking at five specific traits; openness to experience, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and emotional stability. The participants were all around the age of 18 as well, so these results would probably differ from age group to age group.
In the same fashion as the previously mentioned study, there are plenty of people looking into the both psychological and physiological effects that listening to music can have. Some suggest that music can help boost concentration in some people (I think I fall into that category), others say it can boost creativity or even empathy amongst individuals. Music can be a motivator, or conversely it can be our relaxation. It seems that the impact that music has on almost every single one of us cannot be underestimated. Take this video, that I'm sure many of you will have already seen, of an elderly gentleman (possibly with dementia, I couldn't confirm that) reacting to listening to music from his era. It's truly heartwarming.
In my own experience, music definitely seems to play a major role in helping us carve out our own individual personalities, with cliques at school often sharing similar (if not identical) musical tastes. The music that we listen to during our early teens especially manages to stay with us for the rest of our life, creating a personal imaginary mixtape that evokes strong memories and emotions. Maybe the song playing during your first dance, the album you played on repeat when the world was getting too scary or maybe your parents favourite band. The one thing that seems to be the universal common interest between myself and my friends and family is music.
The technology that we now have has made music become timeless, as we are able to enscribe cylinders, discs and the digital ether with our songs. We can share and listen, compose and create far easier and with such efficiency that it's not a stretch to say that maybe we're about to experience types of music never before possible, who knows. Music is constantly changing and evolving, resulting in new variations or entirely new genres and styles.
I'm so envious of those who have that creative spark and can create music, it leaves me in awe. There's that old saying of "it's not rocket science", but to me any form of science is far easier to understand than music theory. What a gift to have, and for those of you with that gift, share it with the world. We can microanalyse every last detail of music, study the effects on the brain and dopamine levels, but there'll always be that something intangible; the soul of music I guess.
Personally, I don't listen to the lyrics of songs as I do the music as a whole, so I haven't really touched upon that aspect. What are your thoughts on this topic? I'm always curious to hear what you guys have to say, so let me know down in the comments and I'll see you there. If you're a musical fan, definitely go check out 
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Sources:
Cassette Tape image from Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/en/music-cassette-tape-cassette-retro-1285165/)
