I remember reading an article a few years back by a guy who said that when he gets writer’s block, he listens to music to restart his creativity.
I’ve tried to remember that, since I get writer’s block at least once a week, usually about the time I have to write a column. I’m just not sure which music to listen to.
I hadn’t heard that solution to the bane of all writers, but I did know that music has many effects on the human brain. Music isn’t designed just to harass the teenagers’ parents, you know.
Several years ago researchers discovered that listening to certain kinds of classical music before a test helped students think more clearly. Mozart’s music was recommended, and I can see why. His music has a linear, almost mathematical progression that leads the mind logically from point A to point B.
That’s where my geometry teacher said I was supposed to be going, by the way, on those proofs we had to do. Too bad that teacher wasn’t piping in Mozart while I was getting lost between points A and B and failing the test.
Music has other good effects on the human brain.
Shakespeare, or some other elderly guy who lived way back before cellphones, said, “Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast.” It also soothes savage two year olds who need a nap.
If you want your children to be thinkers, give them piano lessons, which are more effective than computer lessons for developing critical thinking. The kids are producing music, which leads from A to B mentally, and strengthening hand-eye coordination, which also helps the brain.
Music stirs the emotions in good ways too. Who can listen to “I’m Proud to Be an American” and not run right out to his local military recruiter’s office and sign up to fight terrorism?
And who can hear “Old Shep” and not lie right down and cry his eyes out, resulting in that emotional cleansing that comes from a good boohoo?
Music also determines our expectations in films. Without the music in the background, we literally wouldn’t know how to perceive what we are seeing, and we wouldn’t know what to prepare for.
The type of music that introduces a film scene tells us whether to be happy or sad or tense about the upcoming situation. It tells us when Bubba is going to have a good day. Or it tells us that something creepy and crawly is going to ooze out from under the barn door and grab the beautiful but stupid girl who has just told her boyfriend to let her off at the barn instead of her front door so she can say goodnight to Spot the Pony. Boyfriend drives off, fog begins to swirl ominously around Girlfriend’s feet, violin strings vibrate furiously, she tugs open the barn door, and — OH MY GOSH! WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE GREEN THING THAT JUST GRABBED HER HAND AND JERKED HER IN?
But I knew to close my eyes because the music warned me that Girlfriend was about to be in deep doo-doo.
I spent every Saturday at the movies when I was a kid. So I grew up thinking that every couple danced off into marriage to a full orchestral rendition of “Canadian Sunset” and lived happily ever after.
I also thought that when cowboys raced across the great plains after their stampeding herds of longhorns, epic music like the Bonanza theme song emanated from their saddlebags to urge them on. I couldn’t wait to get my own horse and my stereophonic saddlebags and go racing after longhorns myself, chaps flapping and Bonanza welling up from the side of Trigger!
But that didn’t happen for me, and I now know that music doesn’t always have such a good effect.
Music can make you rebellious. There’s something about the beat of modern rock music that speeds up the heartbeat and causes young listeners to take risks they wouldn’t ordinarily take. Like riding around the block a few times listening to heavy metal, then going home to tell your mama you “ain’t gonna take out no trash!” Then spending the next few weeks in your room with no music, very little food and lots to trips to the trash can.
Music can also create confusion about reality in young people. It certainly confused a generation of youth who took Pink Floyd’s anthem “We Don’t Need No Education” as truth. It seems that the kids did need an education and are now wishing they had ignored Pink Floyd and learned the ABC song instead. Their job prospects might be better.
And then there are songs like “If Lovin’ You is Wrong, I Don’t Wanna Be Right.” It sounds romantic, but you’ll be singing a different tune when her 280 pound hubby takes a tire tool to your head. Or somebody’s 280 pound wife, as the case may be.
I need a way to break writer’s block because at least two fans breathlessly await my column, but I’m going to choose my music carefully. A tire tool on my head would defeat my whole purpose of getting my brain in gear, don’t you think?
