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You Can Draw a Picture of Someone Who's Upset? How Pathetic. I Use Music to Emotionally Manipulte People into a State of Sadness - Hailey Morgan

My two younger siblings have always been pretty good at drawing. As they have gotten older, they have branched out a bit more and are currently trying to get better at crafting expressions. While emotion is a fairly simple thing to capture in a photo or a painting, feelings are a bit more difficult to express through words! After all, incomprehensible rambling is what often results as a side effect of the most intense forms of emotion and, in all seriousness, our words are ultimately meaningless.

On that note, let's shift our attention to the power of music! Through word painting, the madrigals were able to inflict images within the minds of their audience members, crafting perfect mental pictures through sound. Though there is a spoken element to songs, the underlying beat is what makes it. The amount of times I have told people, "So, it's a little strange, but the beat's good!" is astronomical!

Sometimes, it takes a bit more than words to set the scene. Occasionally, some music is needed, music that will bring out the emotions to really drive the words home!

Now, I would need to do my research again to look up all of the specifics, but there was a horror movie that was produced a while back and the directors were aiming for a PG-13 rating. After the movie raters watched the film, however, they decided that the production was more suited as an R rated movie. Not content with this conclusion, the directors of the film edited the background music in a few of the scarier scenes and had the film re-evaluated. With the musical edits in place, the raters decided that the film had become less horrifying and was now adequate to be seen by a PG-13 aged audience. Here, you can clearly see the power of music in full force!

Edit - Replied to Rachael Gregson and Brooke Hutcheson.

Comments

  1. Brooke HutchesonApril 25, 2021 at 4:13 PM

    Music really can move people in mysterious ways. In my life, music has been my source of comfort when life becomes stressful. One of my favorite things is to either ride my bike or to take a walk while the sun is setting and to play some music. I feel so much peace in that moment. (I would recommend it for anyone else.) I feel like singing music in a church service sometimes moves me more than the message from the preacher.

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  2. ClaboApril 26, 2021 at 3:37 PM

    You are definitely right. Music is very important for setting the scene in almost every environment, and especially when it comes to storytelling. Your post reminded me of how awkward it would be to watch a movie if it didn't have music or orchestras playing behind the scenes. Also your comment on the horror movie was very interesting.

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