Blog #45 - The Power of Music

It's obvious that most mainstream music is full of pride, hate and arrogance and yet we listen.

Today I heard a song. It was sad and powerful. It tore me down because of how deeply I related to each word and each note made those words sting down to my bones. When I had reached a level of melancholy I could barely stand, the somber tone turned. It exploded into a chorus I craved so badly that I sighed when i finally exhaled, having realized I had been holding my breath in anticipation. It flung me into a soaring composition that felt like flying. By the time the song had concluded I was completely removed from the space I had been in prior to that first note.

Twenty seven years into playing music and working in the industry and I still experience music so intensely. I've been thinking about this a lot lately and about the people I've met on tour and behind the scenes of this world I've spent my life in and around.

Musicians and lyricists have an incredible power over us and it's very rare that we take the time to think about who these people are and what it is that we're absorbing so eagerly.

It's obvious that most mainstream music is full of pride, hate and arrogance and yet we listen. We absorb the message without even thinking about it most of the time so who are these people and what is their music doing to us psychologically and spiritually?

One of the keys to a great song is repetition. An average pop song repeats the chorus at least three times. The reason this is common is because it makes it easier to memorize and the song becomes stuck in your head quickly. This is the same tactic used in brainwashing. Repetition causes memorization and memorization eventually leads to normalization.

So, what is it that we're learning by listening to music? Well, it depends on the music.

Music was created to worship God. It was intended to serve Him. However, in our fallen world, music is often used by Satan to capture, depress, lie to, and trick people. It is a very powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. A type of brainwashing that people not only allow but pay money to absorb.

It may come as a shock to Christians but the "Christian music industry" is as bad, if not worse. Not because the messages in the music are necessarily terrible but many of the musicians involved are not even Christians. They do it for the money and unfortunately the Christian market is much more gullible.

Music is so ingrained in our culture that it's not possible to avoid the bad but understanding it's intent can definitely help navigate a world that is (in many ways) under it's control.

The goal is not to never listen to music and I certainly listen to tons, but if we are aware of it's place in our increasingly evil world, we can begin to spot the darkness behind it and make informed decisions on what we allow to be repeated in our lives.

There is a lot of great music out there. There are a lot of great people making music. The question is, is your money propping up deserving artists or ones being used to deceive and destroy?

Don't pay to be brainwashed into sin, debauchery and darkness.