[Zebedee]

I was thinking about music today. I mean, reaaally thinking about it. It suddenly became bizarre to me. Spoken words in songs are very different from normal speech. It's like a rabbit-trail approach to communication. Then there are the inflections, changing pitches, repetitions--accompanied by a variety of things called instruments that make different noises... subject matter is often cliche... I just wondered why it's so popular. Why does it work? How could music be so powerful? So pleasing?

Maybe I'm not even as surprised that our whimsical imaginations could appreciate such a phenomenon, but what about the non-dreamer types? Do, say, ESTJ's 'feel' music differently than we do? Does it still touch their soul in the same places? Is it more 'practical' for them? If so, how so?

[Why do I have so many more questions now than I did as a child?]

 

[Nintendo 64]

I try to apply different perspectives to everything regularly; I see it as a basic principle of being open-minded. It's such a great enabler to see issues in different light.

But yes, as you noticed, this can often result in bizarre shifts of general thinking. Some things can seem really weird given meaningful thought.

On the topic of music, I'm not much of a lyrical person. I'm more about melodies, beats, compositional intricacy. Why music itself works for us is hard to say. Music has become such a personal thing. Everyone's got their own set of stimuli that sets 'em off. The things they look for in songs.

As you hinted upon, not everyone is as bothered with critical thinking for the impractical/inconsequential. A lot of people would wonder why you give such a damn about the meaning of music if you aren't part of the industry.

Consider the majority of people: they eat up the (awful) mainstream music on the radio because it's "catchy". And this happens without a second thought. Not once is there a thoughtful examination. Cyclically, this keeps occurring, and these same people probably die never having wondered the same things you wonder.

They were thinking about other stuff.