Philip Alperson and Noël Carroll wrote an article
for the Journal of Aesthetic Education
in 2008 discussing the impacts of music on morality and society. In it, they give many examples of how music
influences behavior. For example, music
is used in the churches and military to control the actions of the followers
(Muslim call to prayer or the military reveille bugle wake-up call). Other examples include the use of music to
celebrate weddings, births, holidays, etc.
Alperson and Carroll also explain that music has the ability to enhance
relationships (love songs) and offer healing (both physical and emotional) through
music therapy and funeral music, including celebratory tunes such as “When the
Saints Go Marching In.” They also
describe how music can influence destructive behavior, such as the rock music
of the 1960s and the drug culture.
The authors discuss how the actual construction of
the music can elicit emotional (and perhaps moral/immoral) responses. From the rhythm, to instrumentation, to tone,
to dynamics, the music that is heard can have a strong influence on
behavior. Additionally, they write about
how music has a measurable effect on brain function which can affect mood and
development.
The authors don’t really present an argument for or
against the idea that music can influence morality, but rather show many examples
of how music has influence over our daily lives. The argument that Plato makes regarding the
impact music has on morality is strongly supported in this article, not only
through examples, but through quoted research on how music physically affects
the brain. This is where I found that
the article lines up with Plato’s philosophy.
Back in Ancient Greece, they might not have had the ability to measure
the activity of the brain, but Plato was obviously on to something!
Ian Inglis’s 2006 article for The Journal of Popular Culture discusses the impacts of censorship of
music and freedom of speech. He writes
that the current debates of the early 21st Century are not new and
discusses the censorship that took place on The
Ed Sullivan Show during the 1960s.
His examples include the censorship of Bob Dylan, The Doors, and The
Rolling Stones. Just hours before Bob
Dylan’s appearance on the show, CBS told him he would not be allowed to perform
his chosen song, “Talkin’ John Birch Society Blues,” due to its content and
satirizing of the extreme right-wing organization. Dylan refused to change the song and never
appeared on the show. After agreeing to
alter a drug reference in their lyrics to their hit, “Light My Fire,” The Doors
sang the offending line as written during the live performance, even though
they had changed the lyrics during the rehearsal. Management was furious and The Doors never
appeared on Ed Sullivan again. By contrast (and with some controversy and
denial) The Rolling Stones removed a sexual innuendo from one of their
performances as demanded by Ed Sullivan and the producers of the show. It had been their fifth appearance on the
show, and the decision to give in seems to have been a commercial one, because The Ed Sullivan Show provided bands with
considerable national exposure.
Inglis goes on to discuss that each performer’s
actions ended up being beneficial to their careers. Dylan and The Doors were seen as pioneers of
the 1960s counter-culture, and The Rolling Stones were able to gain more
popularity from being on the show again.
Popular music is often at the center of debates over how much influence
music has on a population. The attempts
to censor the musicians show that the producers of The Ed Sullivan Show felt that it was their responsibility to keep
morally questionable material off the airwaves.
These conflicts between musicians and the “establishment” continue
today, and are a strong indication that if Plato was not correct in his ideas
that music can have an effect on morality, the general population of today
still subscribes to his philosophy.
Bibliography
Alperson, P. & Carroll, N. (2008). Music, Mind,
and Morality: Arousing the Body Politic . Journal of Aesthetic Education ,
42(1), 1-15.
Inglis, I. (2006). The Ed Sullivan Show and the
(Censored) Sounds of the Sixties. The Journal of Popular Culture, 39(4),
558-575.
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