Why Music Matters

Today music is just another form of expression. It is like writing, dance and filmmaking. It conveys feelings and moods within its lyrics and tone. But like other forms of expression, it is also used for entertainment. People listen to music to liven up their not-so-entertaining tasks of daily life. For example, people listen to music when they are driving in the car, making dinner, jogging, or writing blog posts for English class. If music wasn’t developed, life would be really quiet. There would be no mood or suspense in movies and the city streets would not have a beat. However, music evolved from being solely used in a religious setting. In the medieval period, music was used in the church to give praise to God. Native Americans used music in chants to speak to their gods. But now music is used in many aspects of life. It is now used in plays, movies, video games and advertising. But different types of music are used in each of these aspects. Plays use mainly classical music, while movies use classical as well as pop, rock, R&B, basically any music that displays the right mood the movie director is trying to portray to his audience. Video games seem to use automated music that has no words. Advertising uses jingles and simple melodies that easily sticks into customers’ minds. Classical music often has a complex array of melodies, harmonies, rhythms and octaves that balance each other, while pop and rock always have a steady beat in the background and simple chord transitions and cadences to accompany the melody that is usually sung.