Music's role and impact in society

Music in Society

Asking whether society shapes music or whether music shapes society is a bit like asking which came first, the chicken or the egg.

According to the dictionary, music is "The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre" (Music pp). However, there are several other interpretations listed for the term music, perhaps the most intriguing being, "any art over which the Muses presided, especially music, lyric poetry set and sung to music" (Music pp). The dictionary cites that society is "the totality of social relationships among humans," and "a group of humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture" (Society pp). Therefore, it seems that technically it is the 'muses' who influence humans who then bond through music and thus establish culture, however, this may be a little too simplistic and idealistic.

Michael Linton, head of the Division of Music Theory and Composition at Middle Tennessee State University, writes that "There is no piece of music that will itself cause any person to choose virtue over vice if that person does not begin by wanting to be virtuous, just as there is no repertory that will dispose children to hunger and thirst for righteousness" (Linton pp). Linton was responding to Carson Holloway's book "All Shook Up: Music, Passion, and Politics," in which Holloway says believing that music has a "natural power to move the soul can aid or impede not only our quest for a decent social order but also our striving for the goods in which we find our fullest happiness" (Linton pp).

And so the argument goes, Linton says that music cannot influence society and Holloway says that it has a natural power to move the soul.

Linton writes that Holloway's theory is an ancient belief rooted in Plato and Aristole, "Thinking that early training in appropriate music can habituate a youth to a life of moderation and virtue, Plato argues that music should be a fundamental part of a boy's education" (Linton pp). Linton argues that to say that music has natural power means that it must have the same natural power as "fire has the natural power to burn...oil has the natural power to float on water...and streptococcus has the natural power to make us ill" (Linton pp). In other words, it has to affect things with the "same kind of inevitability...it has to affect people in predictable ways regardless of particular circumstances" (Linton pp). However, music, says Linton isn't like that because one listener might hear the opening E-minor chorus of the St. Matthew Passion and become grief stricken, while someone else might become bored, and another might find that piece incomprehensible (Linton pp). According to Linton, listening to a particular kind of music does not throw listeners into a trance any more than heavy metal music turns its listeners into sociopaths (Linton pp).

However, even Linton back-stepped a bit when he revealed that there was one area of life in which music apparently had the ability to affect people's behavior, grocery shopping (Linton pp)! Several studies reveal that faster paced music tends to make American shoppers walk down the aisles more quickly than slower paced music (Linton pp).

Apparently Holloway believes that society can be transformed by the cultivation of the right kind of music, just as Plato believed a return to the older kind of music would be instrumental in reinstating the ancient virtues, while Linton believes this is just not going to happen, period (Linton pp).

Would Woody Guthrie have become a legend had it not been for the social circumstances of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl Era? Would Louis Armstrong have become such a monumental musical figure had he gown up in Pulaski, Tennessee rather than New Orleans? Would the Beatles have produced 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' without the inspiration of previous artists and their own personal quests?