The Value of Music

Someone once said to this writer, 'I listen to music so I don't have to listen to my thoughts.' While it is both funny and poignant, his statement does make a lot of sense. Music has a way of releasing us from our burdens, of transporting us to whatever spirit the artist intends, whether intentionally or arising out of chance. It allows us freedom from whatever worries we have, if only for a few minutes.

In pre-modern times, music was only available first hand. One has to either know how to play music through instruments or go to a live performance to experience music. Nowadays, one can listen to high quality music almost anywhere. On our phones, in our cars, from our computers, basically anywhere.

Through such availability, it is easy to take music for granted, to treat it as just another background noise. It is through no small fault of technology that music's ubiquity has devalued it. Like the old water-diamond paradox, wherein water is more important than diamonds but diamonds are more valuable, the easy access to music has made it lose some of its luster.

But not all of it. Music retains its value, as evidenced by the sheer amount of music we have nowadays, not only in quantity but in the types of music one can listen to. It would seem that every decade or so, another music style arises. One cannot help but feel excited about the next type of emergent music.

Music is used for relaxation, for therapy, to aid in concentration and to simplify beautify a moment in time. It allows the listener to transcend the moment for a while, tuning out everything else. This effect is particularly more pronounced when in the presence of good music; it has the ability to grab the listener like no other form of art.

Music also has a way of making us remember certain events, simply by being present in the background. Who does not have a single piece of music that means something more to oneself than it does to others? Special occasions and events are enriched with the right kind of music, or even any kind of music.

It is this ability of music to elevate a moment in time, to create an order out of noise, to vibrate the silence away, that ascertains it a top spot in the pantheon of human arts. While some arts are said to be in decline, music is and will always be a constant in human culture.