Can Music Usher in a New way of Thinking?
We’ve seen it several times throughout history, particularly as new types of music come into existence. A group will deviate from the norm and the music will be accepted by a portion of the population and rejected by another portion of the population.
The interesting thing about music is its power of influence. One of the first things to occur when trying to control others is media restrictions. Shows, music, and even the websites the population is allowed to access are restricted. Why this is done is quite simple, by restricting what a person is exposed to makes it that much more difficult from then to question the information they are privy to.
If the information cannot easily be cut out through bans or forced removal then demonizing the information, or way of thinking is the next step. Make it socially unacceptable to have a different viewpoint or the catalyst in which the message is traveling upon as a way to prevent others from being exposed to it.
Different ways of thinking can be troubling for one group trying to control another. One potential risk is an uprising or splits from the group to create a subgroup. This, from a sociological perspective, can be potentially damaging to the group as a whole as survival depends on all members of the from helping the entire group of people surviving.
Information can be presented in many different formats, one such format is music, it is easy to spread, now more than ever thanks to social media. While it may seem that thinking differently from the norm is bad that is not necessarily true. Societies and humans, in general, can grow and change because some members choose to think, to imagine, and peruse ideas and dreams that may not be typical. Without these diverges in thinking society would remain stagnant and unchanging forever.