Music has a profound impact on our mood, research shows that music doesn't just have a short term impact on our health. The long term consequences of listening to music could be contributing to harmful landfill.
How?
Music has been used many time in the past as the most effective ‘propaganda’ per se, to alter peoples views on political matters. National anthems, political rights music movements (such as the rise of anarchy with the punk music scene), and even communist countries in World War Two used Music to instill the new political ideas. But why does music have such a profound effect on people to the point where it can heal, change and empower people? In the soviet union communist revolution, auditory propaganda quickly became a mainstream ‘more effective’ method of propaganda, as research proves. This is because when you listen to music, you cannot stop and contemplate the ideas being presented to you in the lyrics, by the point you've realised what you’ve listened to, the song has already moved on to the next verse. The means our brains are picking up on the stimuli, and our subconscious mind is listening to and reacting to the words, in ways we normally aren't even aware of.
How often have you met someone, who’s music taste reflects their personality? 9 times out of 10, its because the Music itself is actually subconsciously influencing the person to ‘fit in’ with the social implications of the scene they listen to. Hence this explains why Metal listeners often have a stereotype, melancholy music listeners are often sufferers of mental health issues, punk listeners often ‘rebel’ against authority, the list goes on. The problem with listening to music, is; because the sounds move by so fast, most of the time we don't even realize the extent of the effect it has on our brains. Let me show you an example:
Imagine you are watching a bomb go off in the distance, if I were to take away your hearing abilities , it would take you a while to process the stimuli and decide whether or not its dangerous, you would have spent some time processing the visual information of the bomb before deciding it is dangerous and then triggering the fight or flight response. If I were to cover your eyes however, your body would immediateldy react to the auditory stimulation by flinching before you’ve even processed that theres a bomb, thus triggering your adrenaline and forcing you to be scared and run away. This proves just how much we are influenced by sound itself, however it shows aswell that we might not notice it unless it's urgently dangerous.
If this example of sound invoking fear, one of the most powerful emotions, can create such a quick physical and mental reaction, then what are the effects of all other types of sounds? What is the effect of a lovesong? An angry political rage against the machine album? A soothing Cool Jazz playlist? A melancholic Ballad? What implications do these sounds have, in relation to lyrics? And what does this have anything to do with the environment?
Modern ‘pop’ music, owes alot of its lyrical themes to hedonism. What is hedonism? Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure. The act of partaking in activities which bring one pleasure, this could be: healthy pleasure; going for a walk, meditating, self care… or it could be unhealthy pleasure; substance abuse, drinking, fast food, excessively scrolling on social media, hook-up culture. All activities generally coined ‘bought pleasure’. Things you have to buy to bring you 'happiness'. Of the two, healthy, and unhealthy pleasure, what do we see more in mainstream music?
Consumerism is an example of unhealthy pleasure. Over-spending on luxury, non essential luxury goods has significantly increased in the last decade, with a larger amount of general household income being spent on luxury items, high end electronics, fine dining and luxury travel than food, housing and healthcare than ever before.
Commercial marketing strategies encourage consumers to overspend on unnecessary products, which boosts their revenue, and thus employ strategies aimed at psychological manipulation, thus taking advantage of human behavior to increase sales. These commercial marketing strategies are implemented in all industries, including music.
But, How does mainstream Music impact the listeners?
Music offers this unhealthily hedonistic theme often, especially in popular music. In ‘Ghost of my life: writings on depression, hauntology and lost futures’, the cultural critic Mark Fisher (Fisher, 2014) implies that Hip-Hop is where ‘the secret sadness lurking behind the 21st centuries forced smile has registered most deeply’. For example; artist Travis Scotts music frequently refers to brand promotion. In the song ‘Butterfly Effect’ there are repetitive lyrics ‘M&M’s sweet like candy cane’ which alludes to product sponsorship. Similarly in the majority of the music video for ‘Butterfly Effect’, we can see a golden Porche centerfold in the frame. Other songs released on the album ‘Astro World’ contain lyrics promoting Toyota, Mercedes and Lamborghini. This focus on sports cars also suggests a promotion, organized or not, which implies to the public that you must have these products to live this lifestyle and be happy.
What does this subconsciously say to the ‘fan’?
Buy more product and maybe you too can be like Travis Scott. Whats the consequence of over spending on non-essential goods? Produce ultimately ends up in landfill, production often includes transportation of materials which in tern contributes to co2 emmisions & packaging is normally not recycled. And because of these artists partnerships with brands who dont put sustainability first, combined with their large fanbase, Adidas profits are sky high, while you pocket those yeezys, Kanye thanks his managers for his brand deal and the globe gets 0.0003 degrees hotter. Which doesn’t seem like alot, until you factor in 2 million other people with the same idea. We’re all well aware that Kanye isn't the only artist that encourages people to overspend on non-essential luxury items through modern marketing strategies.
If we take the small step to simply alter the artist we listen to, the Music we promote, we can drastically affect the media, and encourage people towards protecting our earth, not forgetting about our earth.
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