A Visit From A Goon Squad Analysis

The rhythm of social life is changing, language is changing, tastes and preferences are changing too. A writer, who suddenly thought of using the gallant novel language of XVIII century, in our time would have seemed a ridiculous. Something similar happened in the views on musical art. Pop infrastructure dominates among the many musical styles today with its producers, performers, groups, image makers, fan clubs and all the necessary components. It has become an everyday sound-visual reality with an endless number of charts, popularity ratings, brands, music videos; with constantly appeared shocking rumors, star showdowns, scandalous articles in newspapers and magazines. Being a music producer, Bennie Salazar, one of the main characters of “A Visit from a Goon Squad”, could not accept the changing of tastes on the music. Seemed he just should be a part of this movement. But for him "the problem was precision, perfection; …digitization, which sucked the life out of everything that got smeared through its microscopic mesh. Film, photography, music: dead. An aesthetic holocaust!" (Egan, 24). Probably, many

noticed from personal experience that music can affect our mood: sometimes to cheer us up, sometimes to destroy our psyche. Different styles of music are providing completely different effects on mood. There is a direct connection between a person and her psych-emotional mood, and how some music composition harmonizes with this condition. If there is harmony, it means the music is pleasant to us. But, in Bennie’s case, if the dissonance comes into emotional condition, so it can cause very resistant negative effect, and mental stress or discomfort. He wasn’t interesting in its production, and the business of all his life was doomed to ruin.
Nevertheless, music inspires us to actions, helps to understand what is happening with us, get to know ourselves.

Bennie’s perception of music, as for me, was not usual as everyone’s. He felt every note, the sound was getting inside his body, to the heart. Listening to one of the songs, Bennie closed his eyes and “every part of him alive with the palpable act of listening. ‘He’s absolutely pure…untouched” (Egan, 313). It elevates us and makes more sophisticated; helps at work, school, and daily activities, making it more enjoyable, interesting, and meaningful. Researchers by British scientists have shown how music can affect the mood of people. For example, it turned out that The Drugs Do Not Work by Verve immerse a person in a melancholic condition, while LDN by Lily Allen causes shivers of happiness, and Song 2 by Blur evokes an uncontrollable desire to

dance.