Music's role in connecting time, place, comfort, and celebration

Music

What music do you associate with childhood? How did/does this music make you feel? How do your choices reflect your childhood experiences?

Music that is associated with childhood has special significance as it not only contributes to the mental development of the child but also reminds one of the happy memories of the childhood. Even the research shows that the music that a child hears has influence on him throughout his life and introducing children to various rhythms can make their experiences positive. (Bilhartz, Bruhn and Olson, 1999) The music that we hear mostly during our childhood is rhymes and lullabies. The one lullaby with which I associate my childhood is "Twinkle Little Star." Its music sounded very sweet and always cheered me up and still brings back memories of the happy days of my childhood. One important part of my childhood involves getting introduced to the stars in the sky. I still remember that when I was a kid, I used to sit on a terrace looking at the beautiful stars while my grandmother sung this rhyme to me. I used to count the twinkling stars and still remember the joy and excitement of doing that. I was really fascinated by them and adored their beauty.

This was also one of the reasons that stars had special place in all of my drawings when I first started my artwork. Also, when we were together with our cousins, we all used to sing this rhyme aloud and tried to jump high and reach the stars with all our innocence. I always wondered about the limits of the dark starry sky and imagined what it would be like to touch the stars. The stanza in the poem "How I wonder what you are" expresses the wonder I felt about the starry sky and the twinkling stars. I also feel that I developed my voice by singing this rhyme. Hence, it helped me develop my listening and communication skills. Although I am an adult now, these stars still appear beautiful to me and I still feel invigorated and soothed after hearing this music.

2. What music do you associate with adolescence? Was this music a way to fit in or rebel?

The music that I associate with my adolescence is Michael Jackson's music which incorporated wide variety of genres but was basically a pop music. This music reminds me of my care free days of hanging out with my friends when I was in high school. I also remember sitting in my room for hours playing every song on an album. Pop music benefitted me in a variety of ways. On one hand, it enabled me to express my anger, fury and grief that are important aspect of that age while on the other hand; it helped me soothe my regressive moods. It also helped me shelter my distress and encouraged my freedom of speech. I consider Michael Jackson more of a mentor whose heart touching songs impacted me right from his first album "Off the Wall" to his last album "Dangerous."

Pop music in adolescence is the essential part of youth culture. It is a music that compounds the desires and feelings of many youngsters. Such music is also marked by the fantasies of the youngsters which include learning the musical instruments and improvising the new music. I also remember buying my first guitar at this stage and teaching myself how to play it. At the adolescence stage, youngsters get to learn about the music via their fellow students and friends. Hence, this music was more of a way to fit in with the other groups as listening to Michael Jackson was way of acceptance by the other people as the person who had not listened to his songs was looked upon as an outcast.

What music do you associate with comfort? How do these songs help you deal with disappointment or stress?

Sometimes when you are down and lonely, your only mean of comfort is music. Research also indicates that music helped in reducing pain and distracting people from unpleasant thoughts and feelings. Music is also a low-cost therapy that improves mood and decreases anxiety. (Kemper and Denhuer, 2005) Hence, when I also want to comfort myself as, I listen to the songs by Sade. For me, her music is like a medicine as it is tailored to my needs and quickly eases my stress. This music has helped me escape despair and have comforted me when I felt restlessness and agitation. There was also a time when I also started suffering from insomnia. At that time, I started listening to her songs and this helped a lot in relieving my stress and overcoming my sleeplessness.

The lyrics such as "Turn my angry sword against my heart/and let me free" in her song "Bring me home" give me a relaxing feeling. Her song "every word" depicts the innocence of the human spirit and portrays the betrayal that is faced by the humans. The way she sings "Take up your love and come to me" in her song "Flow" provides me with an emotional support and reduces my stress by distracting my thoughts to a place where there was no distress. I feel it has helped me a lot in easing my emotional distress and agitation and provided me with the psychological support. Moreover, her album "Soldier of Love" has proved to be mystical summons to me with a collection of slow and pensive songs.

4. What music do you associate with happiness? Why?

Life nowadays is full of anxiety and stress but the music adds flavor to this distasteful life. Music has the tendency to bring the positive emotions in people. Research indicates that happiness is one of the major emotions that are associated with music. (Wells and Hanaken, 1991) But the music that is according to one's own taste brings the pleasant emotions to that person. Such music lifts up the bad mood and brings back the happy memories sometimes associated with that music. The music that brings happiness to me is the R&B and hip hop music. Such music not only releases my stress but also increase my positive emotions that increase the happiness. It helps my mind to get relaxed by removing boredom that I sometimes feel and make me feel that life is exciting and dynamic.