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Andrew Zipp

Ms. Jennifer Enoch

ENC 1101

1 August 2014


Music: What its all about

In life, many things come and go over time. Something that has been
dated back over 40,000 years that is still strong in todays society is music. The
earliest appearance of musical instruments can be found as far back as 7000 B.C.
(Endymion). The state of music has evolved tremendously over the years.
Today we have many different styles, artists, and genres that all add up and
contribute to a major business. Music is a big part of my daily life. Activities that
I use music for include working out, doing homework, watch music videos, and
even going to sleep sometimes. These arent just activities that I do, but they are
very common things to do in the daily life of people all over the world today.
Music is always something that I can go to in just a few seconds. All it takes is a
quick click of a button for me to escape from everything and tune in to listen to
my favorite songs. This is a pleasure that many get to enjoy in todays society.
Preferences change all the time because of the many new types of music that
come out. Although the preferences of music change, the way people use music
has stayed the same for a long time.
Music is soothing to the ear. Music helps me relieve stress, maintain
focus, or even just to sing along with a catchy tune. Recently in my first semester
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of college, Ive been listening while walking to my classes. Its part of everyday
life for many people around the world today. There are musicians, fans, and
active listeners that make up the industry. Its pretty amazing how far the state
of music has come over time. Going from old record players and musical
instruments to Mp3 players and IPods today is a quite a stretch of the spectrum.
It seems like every few years, there is a new way to listen to music that becomes
popular. Im guilty of purchasing these new pieces of technology because Im
interested in what new updates there are to offer the listener. The way that
technology is changing keeps multi billion dollar industry of music entertaining.
Its something thats important to the way I live my life, and its been proven to
help others with their activities as well.
People pay tremendous amounts of money in order to see their favorite
musicians perform in concert when they can just listen at home on their phones.
Personally, going to concerts has been successful for me. Because of these
events, I have met several friends and people that I enjoyed spending time with.
The experience was worth the amount of money I spent. Seeing what some
people do just to get tickets to these events shows how influential artists are
today. Children idolize artists because of their music. Some children even go to
measures of putting posters up in their rooms to remind them of their favorite
musicians. I had several posters of rock bands from the 1970s in my room when
I was younger because I loved listening to this type of music. Some of them are
still in my garage to this day. This proves that music isnt just something that
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passes time; there is an actual connection between society and music today. The
ability to sing along to tunes with friends can make music a good social
interaction starter. Its become a normal thing to listen to songs while driving,
working out, and maybe even going to sleep. Why is it a popular thing to do?
Why do people continue to spend ridiculous amounts of money on ITunes to get
their favorite artists albums? The answer to these questions is still a mystery
but there is some research that has been done.
Can music really help with psychological and physical factors or is this
just a myth? That is something that has continued to be investigated over recent
years. A study has shown that music does indeed help make a persons workout
more effective (Grannell). Being able to focus on faster tunes has been proven to
improve a persons workout. However, if they get to be to fast, tempo can be
ruined (Grannell). Studies have been done to see if music with words is better
for working out than instrumentals of the song. The music with words has seen
better results because it allows the mind to focus on the words of the song. The
instrumental hasnt seen as good of results, but has seen some positive results
because of the tempo and calmness of the song. Music can also help distract the
mind from the pain of the workout. Workouts can be painful at some points, so it
is important to try and take as much stress off of your body. It has also been
surveyed if people enjoy their workout more with music. Most surveys say that
yes indeed, music helps with the enjoyment of a tough workout that people dont
want to go through that day.
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Recent studies have been conducted to see if listening to music can help
students while doing homework. I think that it doesnt work because it never
did for me. The results are interesting because its been shown that some
students are able to focus while others are disturbed by any outside stimulus
they are exposed to (Pela). It all depends on how the brain works of the
particular student being looked at. There is no significant difference in the
scores between a group who studied listening to music and a control group that
didnt listen. However, some students admitted that they listened to more
classical music. Listening to this kind of music has been shown to provide
short-term enhancement of memorizing material. This is also known as spatial
temporal reasoning (Pela). The best way to see if using music helps with
completing homework is to use the trial and error method. Since there is no
pattern to see if it actually helps, the individual that is curious has to figure that
out.
Over the past few years, the genre of rap music has had some controversy
attached to the industry. Some critics believe that some of the artists should not
be using particular words that are said to attack other races or beliefs. There is
always someone to criticize so this isnt anything out of the ordinary. For
example, in a recent song called Blurred Lines, the artist was criticized for
degrading females. He responded to these accusations saying, yes I think its
degrading to women but Ive always respected women. (Bergman). This is a
very conflicting point of view from the artist, changing his mind in the same
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sentence. In my opinion, the musicians should have a limit to what they say
because they shouldnt have to offend people in order to entertain. Thats often a
misunderstood part of the industry. Although this kind of controversy is
negative for the most part, it is important for the music industry to have this
because it keeps the focus of people on the industry. As long as people are
thinking about music, these companies are gaining viewers, listeners, and
revenue from a controversial topic. I think these kinds of incidents keep the
industry interesting because everyone gets involved and has an opinion.
People today have the opportunity to listen of listening to the beat more
than focusing on the words. They can do that through the instrumental of the
song. In my opinion, musicians dont need over the top lyrics in order to have a
great song. By over the top, I mean lyrics that listeners will take as offensive.
An example of this can be seen with the Robin Thicke quote in the paragraph
above. Sometimes the beat makes the song, not the words. Instrumentals
provide the listener a chance to listen to the beats separate from lyrics. This has
become more popular as music has progressed to Internet sites such as Youtube.
This expansion onto the Internet has also provided fans with easy to access
music videos. The fans can now either access these videos on their phone or on
the computer. Audiences are now able to watch their favorite artists with just a
click of a button either live or recorded. Not only did music expand to the
computer, but also on to television. Channels such as MTV used to play music
videos for their audience. This was efficient for me because I got to listen to the
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top songs in the country while eating breakfast and getting ready for school.
These features make music what it is today. The easy accessibility of music
allows for interaction and comfort with the artist. The viewer can see what the
artist has been up to recently.
Overall, music has helped me discover many things about myself. Ive
found out about myself and what kind of music that I prefer listening to.
Although my preferences may be different than someone elses, the way that I
use music is extremely similar to the way other people in the world do today.
For example, I listen to music to workout just like the man next to me in the gym
did the other day. Were we listening to the same kind of music? We may have
been or we may have not been. Our usage was the same but our preference was
different. This type of comparison can be seen over thousands of years. In the
1920s people listened on record players and at The Great Gatsby themed
parties. They used the music for the same reason, but the kind of music they
listened to was different. The industry is always changing with new inventions
and technologies coming out. People love listening to relaxing music. Its been
proven through research and surveying over the years. Research says that
writing this paper with headphones and Pandora on may or may not have been a
good idea. Hopefully it was a good idea. Music has and continues to provide
enjoyment for me, me, as well as many others around the world today.


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Works Cited

Rachael Grannell 7 Reasons you should listen to music while working out.
Huffington Post. np 11/01/2013 Web. 7/16/2014

Jeremy Bergman. The Hollywood Reporter. Robin Thicke Criticized. 6/18/2013
Web. 7/16/2014



Robert Pela. Should you listen to music while studying. Phoenix Magazine.
8/13/2013 Web. 7/20/2014