When we listen to the songs, do we just listen to the songs?
Trance is an unconsciousness that can be induced by various physiological, psychological, or pharmacological tools. According to the “pharmaceutical model”, music creates an impact that affects our brains and bodies physically like drugs would on most passive listeners. In some aspects, this model has some failures because we cannot accept that music is just a physical stimulus, and there is a second kind of reductive theory. The theory interprets that the effects of music depend on the psychology of listeners. Some people can be influenced more by the song. In ancient Greece, these effects, thought to be, are begotten by the gods to possess humans’ minds. As a result, music has trance-like effects on all of us.
Sometimes we want to isolate ourselves from the surroundings and we put on our AirPods or headphones to listen to the songs that make us feel relaxed, happy, etc. Why do we do this?
The answer lies in the trance-like effects of music. Music evokes our feelings even without awareness. It can make us remember our memories, feel the same emotions again. Music can even transport us within the beauty of music. We can find ourselves in tears, anger, happiness, etc. I want to mention quite an impressive song and its effects on listeners.
How do we understand what the song conveys without knowing its language? Which artist can make us feel both darkness and brightness at the same time? Which artist makes you get lost in your thoughts in the softness of the melodies? Dhaffer Youssef does. Especially Dhafer Youssef’s Abu Nawas Rhapsody can make people feel a scream of sadness, regret, or anger; according to our subjective experiences, when the vocal reaches the highest pitch, which makes the song’s texture bright, cold, and robust. The complementary harmony of the vocal and the clarinet can have us feel the mixture of our emotions or remind us of our conflicting thoughts (Dhafer Youssef, 2013). In my subjective experience, every time the vocal reaches the highest pitch, I find myself in tears and I cannot prevent this.
Due to the trance-like effects of music, music can even manipulate us. As Sacks mentioned, “Wagner, too, was a master of the musical manipulation of emotions, and this, perhaps, is a reason why his music is so intoxicating to some, and so avoided by others”(2006, pp. 2529–2530). While we get lost in the evocations of the song, the song kind of rules our thoughts and emotions.
So, while listening to your favorite songs, be aware of the power of music.
References
Sacks, O. (2006). The power of music. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 129(10), 2528–2532.
Youssef, Dhafer. (2013). Abu Nawas Rhapsody.
