Begin today’s lesson by showing this video to your students [12:01; stop at 2:41].
How Does Music Affect Your Brain? | Tech Effects | WIRED
As we’ve just seen, sound and music are powerful influencers that manipulate our behavior in ways few other forces are capable of. Today, we’re going to focus specifically on how music impacts our lives and the ways in which we can use it.
- What kind of music are you into? (Ask a few of your students to respond. Each student is likely to have a fairly well thought out answer to this question; allow them to share a few of their favorite songs or artists and a brief explanation of why they are a favorite.)
There’s a reason this is a common first date question: many psychologists have concluded that “our musical choices reflect important aspects of our personality.” In other words, you can learn a lot about someone by the music that they listen to.
A quick look around the data of music consumption makes it easy to understand why.
According to research presented in articles written by Forbes, we’re listening to more music than ever before. Way more. In 2008, the average American listened to 2.5 hours of music per day. In 2017, that number was up to over 4.5 hours. That’s 32 hours a week! With this astounding level of consumption, it would be impossible for music not to influence identity development, and likely, it is doing so more than any other entertainment medium.
So, what’s the impact? What are the good influences in music? What about the bad?
Even across the same artist, and in some cases, even across the same album, there can be huge fluctuations between positive and negative messages. While some songs choose to focus on uplifting, motivating content, others target substance abuse, opulence, and sexual immorality.
The reality is that music can be used for both good and evil, but understanding the impact of what we’re hearing can be tricky. The question becomes “what music helps us live for God, and how can we use music to worship Him?” Today, we’ll look at the answers and discover the Bible’s link between music and worship.
