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Thoughts on Music

Music is everywhere. It is part of every movie and TV show. It is played in cars and on phones. Everyday millions of people walk around with earphones of some sort or another most likely listening to music. Music, in that case, has become a private, almost intimate event. Concerts on the other had are a shared and community event. Churches of all sorts know the value of music as a form of worship and a means to get people’s spirit aligned with the events of church.

When I was much younger, there was a TV commercial where a man goes into a diner and finds a jukebox. He asks the proprietor what songs are on the jukebox. The owner of the diner says “all of them.” I forget what this was advertising. Most likely some magnetic storage medium or cassette management system. Today we have Spotify and Apple Music as the two top contenders for your music dollar. They are as close as we have come to that jukebox. Someone can look into Spotify and ask “what music do they have” and the answer would be “all of it.” Of course no system has every piece of music ever recorded. Much music from little known or independent artists have been lost. However all known and preserved music is on these system and people can listen to anything they want, as long as they want, whoever they want, for a fee.

Music can change our mood, poke at our emotions, prompt us to think and feel a certain way about certain things. Most people can recite the words to their favorite songs, while they are insisting they cannot memorize anything. It has been known for millennia that if you put words to music, people will remember them. Armies and colleges and groups have fight songs, not fight poems. No one has a fight novel. Putting ideas or teaching or even Scripture to music will increase the chances that people will remember it, quote it and that it will get into the depths of their thinking.

I have tried the various music services. I have bought subscriptions to Rdo (may it rest in piece), Spotify and now Apple Music. I use Apple Music because it is built in and responds well to Siri commands. My music tastes, however, have stopped growing. I still listen to the music I listen to in High School and the Military. Music from my early adulthood is what is stuck in my head and heart. So I am wondering the value of paying money to listen to the same songs, while I could buy them, which I have, and own then and not have a subscription cost every month.

Most of my listening time, these days, is spent with podcasts. I listen to podcasts from reformed teachers and political pundits. Religion and politics are my focus when I have time to listen to things. This keeps me up on the latest political news and the depths of the knowledge of God.

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