influential music?
May 4, 2003
if you've never believed someone who said that music has influence on you, whether you pay attention to the lyrics or not, you might want to reconsider your stance on it. i received two exit 10 demo CDs a few weeks back, and listened to it exclusively for several days. i wasn't really paying much attention to the lyrics, as i'd normally be doing work while i was listening to the songs. the CDs weren't really packaged in any kind of normal CD packaging, it was just in the white sleeves, so i didn't have the lyrics to the songs.
early one morning, as i was driving out to sheridan, i started singing along to one of the songs. i was pretty amazed that i knew the song, considering the fact that i NEVER tried to learn the lyrics or sing along to the song. it was by pure saturation of the music that i picked up the words. isn't that incredible? it blew me away. i mean think about it, the simple act of listening to a single CD for a few days enabled my brain to store the lyrics of certain songs in it! and it wasn't like a pro-active thing either. it just did it, without me knowing it. i'm guessing that's what psychologists call the sub-conscious. it's there, but you're not aware of it.
so my question is, what kind of music are you exposing yourself to? i'm not trying to start a debate between secular and Christian music. and i'm not condemning those that listen to secular music either, because there's nothing really wrong with it. i have to admit, i've started to listen to more secular music recently, just because i'm trying to broaden my musical 'palette' to include a wider variety of styles. but is it beneficial for me? is it beneficial for you? that's another story. take a look at some of the lyrics of your favourite songs, and consider what the message is saying. now, if you're listening to these same songs over and over again, they'll undoubtedely be in your brain somewhere! maybe you don't realize it, but it's there. do you REALLY want songs that are not beneficial to you, to linger in your mind day in and day out?
to say, you like a song simply for the beat, regardless of whatever the lyrics are, that doesn't cut it. you can't block your mind from processing and digesting the lyrics. it's just not possible. so what do you do? be mindful of what you are listening to, that's all!
"'Everything is permissible for me'--but not everything is beneficial." (1 cor 6:12 [NIV])
Posted by Leo Chan at May 4, 2003 9:41 PM
