Tired Eyes

I met Mark while working for a wireless equipment maker in the late 90s.  Slight of frame, bright of mind and sunny in outlook, Mark was one of those people that could get along with anyone…the kind of person whom you gravitated to at a party because you knew he would be glad to see you and take interest in what you had to say, no matter how weighty or inane.

I last saw him at a lunch we shared in February.  We had not had much contact after we both left our former employer, but I wanted to ask him a few questions regarding a job search I was doing.  An hour or two before we were supposed to meet I got a text message from him.  He didn’t want to startle me when I saw him…he had some recent health problems and would be dragging an oxygen tank with him to lunch.

Mark arrived at the restaurant and looked frail.  The warm smile and sunny disposition were still there, but you could see weariness in his eyes.  He spoke a little about his condition…doctors were running tests/they didn’t know the root cause of the illness/he might need to take a leave to get some specialized help.  Mostly, he and I spoke about friends in common, what each of us was doing now, the usual kinds of lunch chitchat.  We left the lunch vowing to stay in touch.

Last Friday I got a text message from another friend who said that Mark had died the day before of cancer.  Quite a shock.  Mark was in his 40s, still vibrant, but another victim of the Big C.  The flame cast by Mark is now snuffed out.  A little less light in the world. Another friend gone.  

We and They, Part 2 of 2

A second example of music’s role in group cohesion and identification is its use in the context of sporting events. Indicative of this point is Queen’s, “We Will Rock You,” a popular staple of American football games. The song begins with an uncomplicated rhythm of eighth note tom-tom beats on the first and third beats of the measure with a combination of snare and handclap quarter notes on the second and fourth beats.  After a few measures of the percussion solo, the vocal melody begins, an aggressive melody with little pitch variation. After the performer recites the melodic incantation call, the response by the audience is to unite with the performer in singing the chorus.  

In the song’s re-purpose for American football games, the performer/audience binding affect acts to unite team and fans. While fans do not participate in the game itself, they do experience the sporting event and unite with the team against an opponent by participating in the group activity of singing in unison and experiencing the shared arousal and excitement evoked by the music.  In a similar way baseball fans are united in the seventh-inning stretch by the communal singing of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame;”  however, unlike the call and response, martial anthem of American football described above, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is a gentle waltz.  The song’s pleasant rising and falling variation in pitch, its slow tempo and cheerful, nostalgic lyrics call fans to pause and to embrace the game, regardless of outcome.

Dowling & Harwood (1986, p. 236) state that music’s role as  “…a cohesion-facilitating group activity—an expression of social solidarity,” began with the earliest, hunter-gatherer social groups. While music’s ability to unify individuals and to strengthen group bonds is not unique—civic associations, political parties, even the clothes we wear or the cars we drive can mark in-group, out-group distinctions—the fact that music continues to influence group coordination and identification tens of thousands of years later is testament to the depth of its affect and adaptive value.

References

Bowker, J. (1997). Music. The concise oxford dictionary of world religions.  Retrieved October    25, 2009, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O101-Music.html.

Dowling, W. J.,  & Harwood, D. L. (1986).  Music cognition. San Diego: Academic Press.

Storr, A. (1992). Music and the mind. New York: Ballantine Books.

We and They, Part 1 of 2

In Music and the Mind, Storr (1992) notes that “music brings about similar physical responses in different people at the same time.” Music serves as an aid to group formation for good or ill, but also “…has the effect of intensifying or underlining the emotion which a particular event calls forth, by simultaneously coordinating the emotions of a group of people” (Storr, p. 24).  Through this synchronization affect on individual emotional behavior, music can reinforce the notion of who are we, and who are they.  Two areas in which music plays an important role in behavior coordination and group identification are religion and sport.

The inclusion of music in religious services or rituals is universal (Bowker, 1997), and in some instances music not only identifies and binds members of a group, but may also serve to impel outsiders to join the group. As a child and teen growing up in the Bible Belt, I witnessed music’s power and influence on individuals to join a group in the context of evangelical tent revivals.  I saw how music played an important part in distinguishing between believers and non-believers in the message conveyed by hymns such as “Onward, Christian Soldiers,” but I saw music’s most powerful influence during the “come to Jesus” apex of the program. Almost invariably, the choir and crowd sang “Amazing Grace,” as the preacher urged the un-saved to come forward.  The hymn’s spare, unadorned, ¾ time melody is easily learned, remembered and popular; regardless of musical ability, those attending the revival as members of the believer group were able to join in singing the hymn.  The song’s quarter note, half note rhythm seemed to create a musical impetus and momentum that drove non-believers out of their seats and walk to the front of the tent for salvation and inclusion into the fold.  The resulting combination of the pull of the preacher’s message, the push of the song and the massed voices of crowd and choir was commanding and difficult to ignore.