Emotional Chords: Music Touching The Heart
Sometimes the lyrics move us. Other times it is the rhythm and melody. There is something about music that strikes emotional chords in each of us. Music helps us express emotions, as well as feel them.
Expression Through Music
Creating music is a way that artists express their feelings and emotions. Lyricists put their feelings to words. Composers create rhythms and melodies that express many feelings, ranging from comfort and compassion to panic and distress. Musicians breathe life into the music and lyrics. Throughout the creative process, songwriters, performers, and producers pour their hearts and souls into creating music.
Connecting With Music
All of us have our favorite songs that we connect deeply with. Sometimes the rhythm connects with our bodies causing us to dance. Many times, the pure emotion poured into a song connects with our souls to elicit our own emotional responses.
Our emotional responses to music are as varied as our emotions themselves. Music can help us express joy, soothe us in time of heartache, or bring us to tears.
Striking Different Emotional Chords
Like any emotional stimuli, we all react differently to different types of music. Even different elements of music can affect each of us differently. Everyone approaches music from their own personal experiences. And as every person has their own story, so too does every person connect differently to each song.
Many times, a musician connects with another musician’s song and creates their own interpretation. However, a cover may not carry the same emotional weight as the original version. Other times, a cover carries the same emotional weight, but to a completely different audience. For instance, Johnny Cash’s cover of the Nine Inch Nails song “Hurt” is a prime example of an artist covering a song that touches an audience that may have never heard the original.
Nine Inch Nails – Hurt (Live)
Johnny Cash – Hurt (Cover)
Sometimes, an artist can take an upbeat song and rework it into a melancholy, tear jerking performance. Recently, the Norwegian rock group A-ha recorded an MTV Unplugged album, closing out their performance with a somber rendition of their biggest hit of the 80’s, “Take On Me”.
A-ha – Take On Me (1985)
a-ha – Take On Me (Unplugged 2017)
The Final Note
As with all art, the meaning in any song is open to interpretation. Even though we all connect with music for different reasons, part of our shared human experience is the fact that music touches all of our lives in some way.
Teaser: Next time we’ll talk about the power of words.
Wayne Cochran