Wisdom communicated through pop music.

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A while ago, I started perceiving the things in the world in a different, more meaningful way. Random things started making sense where before they were just random things. I started hearing messages in music. Whether they were actually intentionally put there or not is irrelevant. I'm not talking about schizophrenia, Apophenia if anything.

I think most people see music now as a kind of pretty noise that you use to fill a lonely room, or something to stimulate one's hearing buds, a bit like eating a sound cake. But in times gone by, music was most likely used as an adjunct to the passing of oral traditions; the myths and stories and wisdom passed on from the elders.

I wonder if you've ever heard any music that you've found educational or revelatory, or containing life changing information.

Here are some examples I recently posted to my blog: http://recollection.posterous.com/buddh ... op-music-1

it is said that music is a bridge to heaven, but pop music.. fudo thinks pop is not really music

i certainly think music is 'divine' in a sense, just treat is as sacred, perhaps a bit over-protective with regard to pop..
also i suspect one can potentially see wisdom anywhere, even in pure folly. but i digress

also, i personally think lyrics generally 'take away' from the music.. diminish it & confuse the 'truth' of melody, harmony etc with words full of ambiguities. hope i'm not de-railing this thread

When I was a little kid, I loved music, but it was, as you said, just pretty noise, and I sang along just mimicking the sounds. It wasn't until an adult told me that I was just making noise and not singing the song correctly that I realized it was supposed to be words. At that point, I became fascinated with it and wrote down the lyrics to every song I had on pieces of construction paper. But doing so, I misheard a lot of them. After I'd read over them a few times, I realized that they weren't just random words, that they were actually saying things. This was a huge revelation! At that point, I could listen to the songs again (over and over and over) and compare them to what I'd written, and figure out what the actual lyrics were, judging by what made sense in context. I can't tell you how many hours I spent doing this when I was little. I guess it was an obsession, but I'd forgotten about it until your thread reminded me.

Anyway, I'm sure I've experienced what you're talking about, but I can't think of any specific examples. Well, except for one. It was the lyric "Life will never be the same again." I actually remember crying as I listened to that because I suddenly realized the truth of it.

This is kind of interesting to me now, since one of my favorite singers is Azam Ali, and she is known for singing without using any actual language. It's all just sounds... like how I sang before I realized they were words.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fxrLIZpuvo[/youtube]

Great post, Zen! Thank you.

Your singer there reminds me a little bit of that guy from Sigur Ros who sings in a made up language.

also, i personally think lyrics generally 'take away' from the music.. diminish it & confuse the 'truth' of melody, harmony etc with words full of ambiguities. hope i'm not de-railing this thread

i don't think i'm a synaesthete. some of my feelings about lyrics come from being very literal i think. & just loving music.
partly why i adore the blues, doesn't matter what you sing, just how you sing it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq0XJCJ1Srw[/youtube]
this song says it all.

Music has great messages & advice sometimes

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0pM5dm--yQ[/youtube]

"row, row,row your boat
gently down the stream
merrily,merrily,merrily,merrily
life is but a dream"

Like all Western children, I learned this song sometime in toddlerhood. I always thought it was such an incredible song. It attached itself to me when I was a little kid and I thought itwas more important somehow than any of the other songs I learned like Eensy,Weensy Spider or Jack and Jill.

It always stuck to me through childhood. I knew it was somehow more than all the other little kid songs but I didn't have the vocabulary or experience to know why.

In highschool I learned about the maya/illusion concept and suddenly understood that that's what "life is but a dream" was trying to tell me. In college I learned about meditation and mindfulness and finding the joy through that and suddenly understood that's what "row,row,row tour boat, gently down the stream, merrily merrily, merrily" was trying to tell me.

I hope this song never leaves the children's song canon.