the Color of Context

The value of movies and music
By Jerilyn Covert

It’s one of the first things you ask, right after “Where are you from?” and “What’s your astrological sign?” You ask her favorite movie and what kind of music she likes. Of course, you probably could have just visited her MySpace page, where you’d find whole lists devoted to addressing those very topics. After all, movies and recorded music are the mass art forms of our time, and they say as much about a person’s personality as the brand of shoes she wears. But movies and music can serve a greater role than as mere pastimes or expressions of individuality. When done well, they can inspire.  

Few people would deny the impact movies and music can have on our culture. In fact, we’ve so imbued these entertainment forms with the power to influence us, that they now must come with ratings and warning labels. Certain music and film genres have become the scapegoats for all our societal ills and public tragedies, most notoriously¾ and dubiously¾ the shootings at Columbine. But this attitude isn’t a new one. Even Plato in book three of the Republic suggested music should always be used to promote goodness and morality, and cautioned against mean, deranged or promiscuous rhythms, with all the fervor a modern-day critic lecturing on the dangers of rap music and Marilyn Manson.

Traditionally, however, the power of music to invoke passion has been considered a virtue, not a threat. And although theorists can’t quite agree on why, it is a point of general consensus that music can impact a person emotionally. A well crafted tune can confirm or change your mood, and, unlike a good book or fine painting, it does so instantaneously. Music has been shown to have therapeutic value, and even compared to stimulants such as medicine and drugs. Imagine, music: the Prozac or Ritalin or heroin of the melodic world!

Music can even impact us physically, with studies revealing altered heart rates, breathing rates, blood pressure, motor activity, body temperature and stomach contractions all in response to different types of music. Chemically, music appears to influence hormonal activity, eliciting the release of feel-good endorphins. In fact, it’s all we can do to defy a bodily reaction to infectious beats and melody. After all, who can resist some lively head bobbing, foot tapping or finger snapping upon hearing a catchy song filtering through the car radio or at a concert? Indeed, if the body is a blank page, and culture, the pen, then surely music must lay down some of that ink. Music, quite literally, helps to create the self, both physically and emotionally. As the celebrated music critic Eduard Hanslick once said, “other arts persuade, but music invades us.”

Film is like recorded music in the sense that it, too, is invasive. Unlike a poem or a painting that might require extensive effort or analysis to understand, a good movie creates its own world and invites us inside. The picture can be sped up or slowed down, frozen, faded or panned out, mimicking the passage of time in a way that approximates our own experience more closely than the steady tic-tock of a clock. Chronology can be manipulated; the story may jump from one era to another with little confusion. And space can be infinite, since it is not physical, but perceptual. Just like real life, our experience of film can be ambiguous, multiple and complex. And depending on how successful a movie is at drawing us in, we may feel even more alive while watching it, than we will once it’s over and we have left the theater to reenter the world of reality.

But if this seems like a tragic analysis, then it’s also a hopeful one. Because if music and movies can inspire such potent thrills and chills within us, then surely that energy can be honed to inspire more. After all, who doesn’t take their iPods with them to the gym or play music during a creative brainstorming session or wish that they, too, could be a highly trained secret operative like the star in the latest high-powered action flick? Who knows how many future special agents Jason Bourne has already inspired! If you can effectively harness your feelings, then maybe you can use them to create something yourself. And maybe one day, your name, too, will be on somebody’s MySpace page.