Theoretical Reflection Week 5

 RHYTHM'S OF LIFE

Partridge aims to explore the ways in which listening to music affects the individual in everyday life. Although acknowledging that it is important to study how people relate to music, Partridge is more concerned with music and the "construction of self." (Partridge 2012)

Music can cause a person to reminisce about times gone by or be affiliated with something familiar, it can be in an individual and/or collective sense. A universal language that not only seduces the aural and emotional, it can also create a physical feeling.

Partridge discusses this with the example of dub music,  linking it to the construct of a person. The bass having a relationship with the heart pumping blood and the melodic rhythms to the rhythms of life. This assault on emotions can be created from a sound frequency too low to be heard, the sound therefore affecting the emotional and physical being rather than the aural being. Creating a new special awareness the listener can exist in.

Interestingly, this low frequency sound is also created in pipe organs, often played in a place of worship. Given the already spiritual atmosphere, this new emotional space and feeling of connectedness of music to life could easily be attributed to or even mistaken for the presence of God. The tones of the organ stimulating the same unseen euphoria experienced through dub music.

Partridge also mentions the relationship of drugs and music, amphetamines often associated with fast beats heard in jazz and cannabis use with dub. If these drugs are used to enhance the feeling created by music, and similar tones are used in dub music as well as pipe organs, it could be said that the combination of either drugs and dub music or church music and the listeners spiritual place of worship, could be endeavouring to achieve the same purpose. That of some form of spiritual enlightenment.

The role of music and "the construction of personal and social identities". (Partridge 2012) is a phenomena that impacts every music listener. Further study of the relationship between music and the 'construction of self' may reveal music to be "a language of the emotions through which we directly experience the fundamental urges that move mankind." (Cooke 1959)

References:
Partridge, Christopher.  "Popular Music, Affective Space and Meaning."  In Religion, Media and Culture:  A Reader, edited by Jolyon Mitchell, Gordon Lynch and Anna Strhan, 182 - 193.  London and New York:  Routledge, 2012
  
Cooke, Deryck.  "The Language of Music.", 262.  Oxford:  Oxford University Press, 1959 

Image References:
http://pixabay.com/en/music-note-recreation-cartoon-clef-25663/

Is Music Part of my Spirituality?

After reading "Popular Music, Affective Space and Meaning" by Christopher Partridge,I began reflecting on the music I listen to. As someone that spends much of my spare time going to live concerts, I began to wonder- was I attending these for the music or the feeling live music gives me?

I once had a conversation with someone who did not see the point in paying for a concert when listening to a Cd was cheaper. I pointed out that listening to live music creates a whole different experience than that of a Cd. Live music not only indulges the hearing senses, it also invokes what I can only describe as a spiritual awareness throughout the entire body. At this point, it becomes more than just enjoying the music. It is about indulging in the joy that blossoms throughout the body, the love pumping like blood through the veins.The experience shared with other music goers gathers energy and swells within the crowd, an almost contagious feeling that I can't help but get seduced by.

Having somewhat of an eclectic taste in music genres, this feeling can take a slightly different focus. Rage Against The Machine can be an outlet for anger and fighting for beliefs, Massive Attack may calm me and distract from the outside world and Architecture In Helsinki just makes me joyous and want to bounce around on a wave of happiness. Nevertheless, intrinsically understanding that others are feeling the same strengthens this feeling in much the same way as the 'shared experience' (Meyer 2012) of religion does to worshippers. As Meyer eloquently states in regards to religion, this shared feeling can "not only generate but also heat up and intensify religious feelings"(Meyer 2012).

Is music part of my spirituality? Increasingly, I think so. Music is such a huge part of my life, something I don't want to live without and it can support me through any mood I might have. Music effects me in the same way joyous religion effects its believers.

References:
 Meyer, Birgit.  "Religious Sensations Media, aesthetics, and the study of contemporary religion."  In Religion, Media and Culture:  A Reader, edited by Jolyon Mitchell, Gordon Lynch and Anna Strhan, 159 - 170.  London and New York:  Routledge, 2012

Partridge, Christopher. "Popular Music, Affective Space and Meaning.". In Religion, Media and Culture: A Reader, edited by Jolyon Mitchell, Gordon Lynch and Anna Strhan, 183 - 194. London and New York: Routledge, 2012

Image References:
Philp, Bonita.  2011