I have mixed emotions that young people today are over indulged in music and that nothing alien to music is not taken seriously. On one hand people today have more access to music via the “IPOD” and any mp3 player. Now if this technology would have been available fifty , a hundred or even two hundred years ago would this still be stated. The comments made by “Bloom” in chapter two of “Music and Culture” , that state “ nothing else excites them” is a little far stretched. To me it sounds like Bloom is in fantasy land. Bloom makes it seem in his statement that the youth of today is basically controlled by music. Yes music is a very large part of our society but why? I think a good answer is because our everyday lives from the age of ten to twenty are filled with not only growing up and dealing with changing hormones but the level of stress that is applied to the individual.
It’s as if we are zombies controlled by music according to Bloom. Music does appeal to one of our senses and we do feel music in the sense of enthusiasm. If a romantic song is on and we are with our girl or guy then yes it does stimulate the mood. And yes if a fighter or soldier listens to some gangster rap or some death medal yes it does make them get amped up for the occasion. But at the same time a composer by the name of Mozart was blind and deaf. His famous symphonies with all that they were, was composed by a person who could only feel the vibration. I feel that Bloom didn’t have much of a social life and he looks at youth and all the electronic communication and lack of personable communication that going on and watches all these ways to people are listening to music and thinks they are controlled by it.
I think the exact opposite of the youths today than Bloom. I feel that people between the age of ten and twenty are more open to expressing themselves now then ever before. Music just helps ease the mind and body from the daily grind. I myself have a passion for Football. Yes I listen to music to pass the time sometimes but I do not require music to function. Football is something I love to do and has been a big part of my life for the last fifteen years. Bloom makes it seem as if music in itself propels the world in its daily activity. To me Bloom has explained and shown examples of the effects of the television. He is so concerned about the education and how music interferes with that but maybe that’s because he has never owned a T.V. You talk about people that get mummified, have you ever tried to talk to a ten year old when they were watching T.V. He says that music has more of an impact than that of the television. But all day long there is sexual content in cartoon, moral questioning language and he says that its controlled by the right and left of the government.
I really can’t believe in the final paragraph of the essay that its says rock music leads to premature ecstasy like the drugs with which it is allied by. I think he has a personal vendetta against rock and demonizes it because of personal dislike not by any factual evidence other than personal opinion.
I completely agree with you, especially when you say that this is all his personal opinion and has nothing to do with actual facts. I think that maybe he had a bad experience with rock music or met someone who he did not like that listened to rock music and it made him think that the music did that to people. It is not rock music that makes people do drugs or forget about other things, it is the person who decides to this. I also agree that music helps youth to express themselves. There are not many things that a young person can do to express themselves or to be heard, but with music they can find an outlet. They can express how they feel by the music they listen to or maybe even by writing music of there own, Music is far from being the only thing young people are into, there are things like TV, video games, sports, and being with friends. Music can be a part of many of these activities as well but is it really a bad thing. When being with friends, young people can use music as a common interest and find people that like the same things they do. Music does not have any control over anyone’s life; everyone is in charge of their own lives and can decide to let music be a part of their life or not.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, this guy Bloom doesn't have a clue about a young people today. How he relates music to drugs with no recovery after the fact is just crazy. If he would actually take the time to know how drug addicts have to live their life once clean I think he would have to find another analogy to base his views on. Young people can turn the music off at any time and not feel the need to say, "Where's my music fix?, My life just is so terrible now that I don't have rock-and-roll." I have to agree that he must have some sort of personal vendetta against rock music to be able to write an essay in which he gets so deep in his thinking that he believes the youth are throwing their lives away on music. There are many other outlets in a young person's life which could really end up giving them real harm and he goes nowhere near those topics in his writing. I think he could have used any form of media to express his views that young people just are not taught the importance of the classic teachers of yesterday. He should be focusing on the education system of America and not a person's music choice.
ReplyDeleteThe sentence in your blog where you ask if anyone has ever tried to talk to a 10 year old while they were watching TV is what caught my eye. This is so true! Sometimes you have to speak to them 3, 4, and even 5 times to get their attention. I don’t think this is limited to 10-year-olds though; it probably applies to about ages 3 through 23 or worse!
ReplyDeleteMr. Bloom is definitely in fantasyland or somewhere similar, on that I must agree with you. He either had or has had very little interaction with many young people, or has such a loathing for music that he doesn’t see reality. He definitely makes it sound as if young people are walking around like zombies, only focusing on hearing music and nothing else. To take it from the point of being passionless about anything other than music to aligning it with the use of drugs and drug addictions is ridiculous in my opinion.
When you talk about music being an escape from the daily grind, this is actually the topic of my Essay 2. For many people, I think this is so true. Even if they are engaged with music or just listening, it can be an escape from everyday life and stresses.