Is Music Important? Why?

[Silent Protagonist]

I am often surprised by how important music is to people. To me music is just something I listen to in the car to keep myself awake or the background noise in a movie or game used to set the tone. But it seems to many people the music they prefer to listen to is a major cornerstone of their identity. People who feel that whatever music they listen to is a major moving force that defines entire generations. I just don't see it. I can find music and songs I like in pretty much any genre but many seem to strongly self identify as liking one or a handful of genres to the exclusion of others and of course those others and those who listen to them are crap.

I have seen a few of you on the escapist describe your music tastes in the past so could you explain why you find the music you listen to or even just music in general to be important and even a defining aspect of your identity. Are there others like me who simply do not get what the big deal is with music? Discuss

 

[Euryalus]

If you've never felt "it" for a lack of a better word, then I'm not sure I can describe it.

It's that moment in the song where you're not just humming along or jamming, but you actively stop and just... Listen. It can only really be vocalized by a "woah" followed by a smile.

People a lot smarter than me have tried to explain exactly what that moment is, but without having experienced it I'm sure they'd just be empty words :/

If you want to, try just sitting back and actively listening to something. Don't go in expecting it to good or bad, just listen...

Wow... I sound like such a pretentious asshole XD

Some people just really like music okay XD

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Meh, music is no more or less important than any other form of entertainment (and that's all it is, a form of entertainment, anyone who tells you otherwise is an asshole).

Some people geek out over movies, or anime, or comic books, and for some it's music. It's really just that simple.

 

[Weaver]

Music makes me feel things I like feeling.

 

[Fiz_The_Toaster]

You used a word that pretty much sums up how you use music, background.

Yes, some of it is for background purposes since I would imagine you (not you OP, the general 'you') just want to have something on in the background so that it kills the silence in the room. Now I can't speak anyone other than myself, but for me, music is a huge damn deal and it even influenced what I want to do for a living. I love music.

It's a type of escape for some people, there's a song that encapsulates a person's emotions at a given time, and there are people that really susceptive to a "feel" of a song. There are songs that grab people and move them to some kinda of emotion, and I've many stories by bands that have said that their music has saved lives of their fans.

In a general sense, music is important because it's very universal, and hits a creative side of a person where they might want to create their own. It's kind of like asking why art is important, for a creative person it's a way to express one's self and their way of doing it is through music or art.

That's best I got, so I hope that makes some sort of sense.

 

[Total LOLige]

The same reason people like looking at the colourful mess created by a mad man or the scrawlings of an alcoholic poet, it provokes an emotional response or some kind of connection. Most people like to feel things and music can make people feel shit, you know. It gives people a sense of identity because these emotions are personal to them.

Spoiler: Angriest song in existence

"And in the eyes of the Jackal I say ka-boom!"

 

[lacktheknack]

How does one explain color to the blind? :/

I'd recommend reading "Musicophilia" by Oliver Sacks, as it has several examples of music affecting the brain in utterly spectacular ways. Music has been used to bring the paralyzed to life (see "Awakenings", also by Oliver Sacks), music can massively lighten one's mood, music can add visceral feeling to any scene, music can create feelings that aren't caused by anything else.

...unless you don't "get it", in which case, I'm back to explaining color to the blind.

I'm far more interested in how you don't get any visceral feedback, myself. That's much rarer, and may be indicative of a mental hang-up or syndrome.

My feelings about your inability to "get" what music is to me can be summed up thusly:

<youtube=ZVvjXJentik>

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Like all arts, music describes reality. But you have to be interested in the aspect of reality it is describing first, in order to like it. If you aren't, then you can still enjoy it aesthetically but it won't be meaningful to you in any other way than as entertaining background noise.

 

[Adventurer2626]

I think the subject of the importance of music for most people, including myself, is the elephant in the room so big that most don't even compute it as an elephant. It's a part of the grey, bulbous wall that we've always taken for granted. Music is here, music is there, music is everywhere! Let's enjoy the drowning immersion! I feel bad for people that don't like music at all because it's bloody everywhere and in everything we make. Hell, one could even make the argument that music can be abused and become addictive. It can damage your hearing if you're exposed to high enough volume for a prolonged period. Gives us humans enough time and we'll misuse anything. That being said its existence in society apparently isn't a big thing for most and we kind of like it. You're not "right" or "wrong" for liking or disliking or being ambivalent of it. It's just a taste. Some got it, some don't. There's components that usually dictate and affect that taste if you want to delve into it. Some people love having their ear drums vibrated or pierced. Some like a soft caress. Some want to groove endlessly until the electric juice is gone. Some dig satire, sarcasm and rebellion. Some like comfort, happiness and hearing about the good things in life. Or you crush on the artist. Hence why some pop phenomenons even exist. It's all taste brother.

 

[LAGG]

Music makes be more productive and also helps to workout harder.
If that's not important, nothing else is.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

Music has saved my life on multiple occasions. When I was younger I was terribly depressed and introverted. I was suicidal on several occasions and music especially metal brought me out of my bleakness. It showed me that other people felt the same way as I did and that I wasn't alone. It encapsulated my feelings and allowed me to express them in a way that released a lot of the pressure in my head. I love music and it is a huge part of my life, I listen to at least 8-10 hours of music daily between my commute to work and my work day. I can work better while listening to good music that gets my heart racing and it helps to streamline my emotions. I feel at home at a concert in the midst of other people who share the same passion and feelings. Concerts are the only time I can stand to be in a crowd as we are all linked together by the music. It is a way to transfer emotions and ideas in a way that most people can understand. There is no real way to show someone something if they are not interested or open to the medium. I don't really get fashion and many forms of style that a lot of people love and feel passionately about, it just isn't my thing. So you can describe to me why something works or doesn't and how the lines emphasize or hide things and I will be like yes I can see your feelings and interest without seeing what it is exactly that you love.

 

[sth1729]

I suppose I listen to music to try and lose myself in emotion. It's a bit like reading through a book you just couldn't put down, and then finishing it and sitting there just letting the experience of it all just wash over you. Like a game that has made you care and empathize with the struggles and successes of it's characters. A painting that brings to mind an endless story without a single word.

Music gives us context for emotion, the right music with the right emotional state pushes us to our absolute emotional extremes.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Like many others, music for me conveys emotion, and can even contribute to a change of feeling or mood.

I used to have an anger problem. I am so happy and chilled all the time that when something built up and up and pissed me off I would see red and lose control. As part of my learning to control this I had an iPod with chillout, and powerful epic music to distract and calm me if I felt the control slipping away. Now I can control myself fully, thanks to the properties of music!

I find no better pleasure than finding and listening to a new track that reflects the mood I am in, I have a 160gig iPod now, which isn't enough for all my music anymore!

 

[Hieronymusgoa]

There are songs which fill me with hope (Dead can Dance "Enigma of the Absolute"), stuff that makes me cry (Annie Lennox "Love song for a vampire"), stuff which makes me catalyse anger and wrath (countless stuff from Metal and EBM... Front Line Assembly "Surface Patterns", Poupee Fabrikk "Destruktor", Leather Strip "Adrenalin Rush" and so on) and of course stuff which underlines the atmosphere in games. The music of Ornstein&Smough in Dark Souls, the OST of Mass Effect, the sad song of Sylvana Windrunner in WoW....
I just "go" for music, in movies it's the same. It triggers stuff. That's why I listen to so much different stuff. There is so much emotion and messages and everything in music.

 

[Levitas1234]

The same reason people like looking at the colourful mess created by a mad man or the scrawlings of an alcoholic poet, it provokes an emotional response or some kind of connection. Most people like to feel things and music can make people feel shit, you know. It gives people a sense of identity because these emotions are personal to them.

Spoiler: Angriest song in existence

"And in the eyes of the Jackal I say ka-boom!"

Now how much weed do you smoke? A half baked sudden realization about a song is not the deep complex feeling in the soul that the dudes talking about man.

So many young people need to open their minds to the world rather than just be like "meh i only listen to music in the car when im getting to work, it really means nothing" lets see how you get through rush hour with out it, music has a lot of power, if you don't believe me, try working general labour.

 

[Galletea]

If you've never felt "it" for a lack of a better word, then I'm not sure I can describe it.

It's that moment in the song where you're not just humming along or jamming, but you actively stop and just... Listen. It can only really be vocalized by a "woah" followed by a smile.

Wow... I sound like such a pretentious asshole XD

Some people just really like music okay XD

I call those moments 'musigasms' since once you know it's there you build up to it and then when it arrives, it is really satisfying.

Music has always defined generations, as people have always written what they are feeling, making generations of youths listen and agree with their message. Music can be an escape, an inspiration, it can be nostalgic. It is important to many people because they relate in some way to what they hear, this can be agreeing with a message or applying it to their own lives, or it can simply be an appreciation of the music, where just hearing it makes them smile, or the beat makes them walk that little bit faster.

But some people just aren't into music, I guess.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

It's distinctly...primal, at it's core.

Every culture, since we developed the means to do so, has created instruments or, simply vocalized and created percussion with rhythm. It's an innate human thing that crosses cultural and language barriers, conveying emotion.

I'd deem it pretty important if we just stopped there.

 

[piinyouri]

It's important to me, because it makes me feel things.

And feeling anything for me these days is a rare commodity.

 

[ShipofFools]

We need less thinking and more feeling, and music is all about feeling.

 

[Evonisia]

Like all entertainment things, music makes you feel things. Of course while it's probably not important, I couldn't imagine living in a world with no music.

Even songs and music I hate I would miss because even if negative, music has the power to effect mood, probably in a way that no other entertainment thing can do.