Hearing but Not Listening

            Our textbook states that more often than not people listen to music but either don’t listen to the lyrics or misunderstand them. While many people use music purely for the entertainment factor, it is also a way to communicate feelings through lyrics. Like many others, I am guilty of mindlessly singing along to songs in the car and not even thinking about what I’m saying. This is a fact for many people and most of the time the words we are singing along to are offensive or vulgar. For example, a few weeks ago when I was driving my eight-year-old cousin to school I put on my local hit radio station and didn’t think anything of it. A few days later I got a call from her mom who told me that during that short 15-minute ride she had managed to pick up a few words from one of the songs and had been singing them in school and at home. The words that came out of this second graders mouth would have been offensive if said by anyone and they were being played on the radio. While issues like these are cause for concern, there is another reason why we should take a closer look at the lyrics being sung by our favorite artists. The words that they are writing are not only there for our entertainment, they often times have a message. 

            As seen in the songs we have been listening to in class, artists use their songs to support causes, relay a message or communicate with their audience in some way. This is important because these people have such a huge influence that the words they are saying should have more of a meaning than something we sing without thinking on our way to work. As a whole, we should all make more of an effort to dig deeper in a song and not simply take it for what it seems.