I like music. Good beats and clever lyrics make me happy.
But I've noticed that listening to popular music over long periods of time actually brings down my demeanor. Sometimes it even depresses me. Hmm.
In an attempt to discover why, I looked at the
most common themes in Popular music today.
Here they are:
Pop:
1. girlfriend/boyfriend
2. broken heart
3. look at me
Hip Hop/Rap:
1. sex
2. drugs
3. look at me
Country:
1. broken heart
2. clever randomness
3. sentimental wallowing
Rock:
1. anger
2. revenge
3. depressive reflection
It was quite revealing when I stopped and thought about what popular music teaches. It screams and screams and screams and screams and screams, and yet for all its screaming, it preaches a single message:
ME
I had to take a moment to let it sink in.
And then I fought:
"But country music makes me feel good."
"But rap music makes me feel important."
"But pop music makes me happy."
"But rock music calms my anger."
Yet I realized I was trying to defend the 'value' of mainstream music based on the way it made me feel. If popular music has 'value', why does it bring me down? Yikes.
I believe I had bought in to the ME mentality. If music makes me happy or calms me down, it does so not because it has value, but because it has power. Yea, speak that name which I love above all else:
ME
...and all is well. Until, of course, I realize that life does not actually revolve around me. Then I become despondent. And when life begins to lose meaning, I look around and wonder why and why not and what's the point, because I know that life is about more than just me but all I can see is myself.
I've been there a thousand times. Blech.
Now, I still love popular music and listen to it all the time, but whenever I am feeling unfulfilled and depressed, boy am I thankful for Christian music (even though I can't stand half of the popular stuff these days). What a novel concept! That I can sing along with, bob my head at, dance to, and laugh over, music that preaches GOD! How relieving. Listening to God music actually de-stresses me and brings me hope, because it shifts my focus from ME to HIM. Whereas I can not bear my own burdens, He took my sin on His shoulders when He gave up His life; He can bear my burdens and He does. Whereas a world which revolves around me does not make sense, He created the heavens and the earth; it's only right that the world revolves around Him
And so, by listening to music about Him, I acknowledge Jesus as Lord of my life, and I am instantly filled with His love and peace which surpasses understanding. And it's all because I choose to stop looking at
me
