UNIT III. THE POWER OF MUSIC

Can music impact our behaviour?

Art & Power

FINAL TASK III

A team of researchers recently understood that music is really connected to the brain and is trying to find a way to stimulate people’s brains by tasking you with finding a proper activity to read or sing to them in order to identify a reaction.

The purpose is to try to convey feelings with your voice. It could be any feeling : anger, joy, sadness, fear, love or passion.

Your final assignment has to be linked to music and rhythm, that’s why it will have to be a poem or song lyrics.

It will have to be about 200 words and must respect certain aspects of poetry such as rhymes, length or verse/chorus patterns.

Good luck!

01. BRAIN & MUSIC

According to the John Hopkins Institute:

‘There are few things that stimulate the brain the way music does. If you want to keep your brain engaged throughout the aging process, listening to or playing music is a great tool. It provides a total brain workout.

Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.’

How does it work?

The Brain-Music Connection

Experts are trying to understand how our brains can hear and play music. A stereo system puts out vibrations that travel through the air and somehow get inside the ear canal. These vibrations tickle the eardrum and are transmitted into an electrical signal that travels through the auditory nerve to the brain stem, where it is reassembled into something we perceive as music.

Johns Hopkins researchers have had dozens of jazz performers and rappers improvise music while lying down inside an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) machine to watch and see which areas of their brains light up.

Music is structural, mathematical and architectural. It’s based on relationships between one note and the next. You may not be aware of it, but your brain has to do a lot of computing to make sense of it.

(www.hopkinsmedicine.org)

02. IS MUSIC PART OF NATURE OR MAN-MADE?

Questions:

I.Why is communication underwater challenging?

II.Which whales are able to sing?

III.How far can a whale song reach?

IV.Why do whales sing?

V.Do they all sing the same songs?

VI.How has human activity impacted whales?

03. HOW DOES IT MOVE US?

Music can also be used to channel people’s energy/anger or their will to go against their government. It is what we call a protest song.

The song ‘Fortunate Son’ by Creedance Clearwater Revival was written during the Vietnam War in 1969. The idea was to show the ‘unfairness of class’.

Indeed, during the Vietnam War, a lottery system was put in place to determine who would go to war no matter who they were. The problem was that rich people’s sons could avoid war using money. This led to the fact that mostly poor/working class soldiers had to fight that horrendous war.

Yeah-yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes It ain't me, it ain't me

Hoo, they send you down to war, Lord I ain't no military son, son, Lord

And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?“ It ain't me, it ain't me

Hoo, they only answer, "More, more, more, more“ I ain't no fortunate one, one

To move people, music uses substance (lyrics) and form (music genre, dance, voice...). Here is an example with the song 'Hopeful' by Bars & Melody

Please help me God, I feel so alone

I'm just a kid, I can't take it on my own

I've cried so many tears,

Yeah, writing this song

Trying to fit in, where do I belong?

I wake up every day, don't wanna leave my home

My mamma's askin' me why I'm always alone

Too scared to say, too scared to holler

I'm walking to school with sweat around my collar

I'm just a kid, I don't want no stress

My nerves are bad, my life's a mess

The names you call me, they hurt real bad

I want to tell my Mom but

She's havin' trouble with my Dad

I feel so trapped there's nowhere to turn

Come to school

Don't wanna fight I wanna learn

So please Mister Bully

Tell me what I've done

You know I have no Dad

I'm livin' with my Mom

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