Why Music Matters

“Whenever human beings come together for any reason, music is there,” according to neuroscientist Daniel J Levitin in This Is Your Brain on Music. (Levitin, 2006)

Lee et.al. (2012) mentioned that music appeared to have become embedded in our daily lives. From the moment we wake up, our day is filled with music ranging from our country’s national anthem to that song on radio that reminds us of how we are feeling about a person or an event, to one that got us dancing and singing at the end of a work day. Music penetrates almost every part of our lives: our rest, our entertainment, our education, and our worship. Music often reflects the mood of the times and certain songs eventually become symbols for a particular group of people, a place or historical event.

The power of music is ubiquitous. In an introductory speech for a lecture entitled “Why Music Matters”, former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan highlighted that “in a world of diversity where often values clash, music leaps across language barriers and unites people of quite different cultural backgrounds.” He further added that “music can transcend geographical, cultural, economic and political barriers”. (Annan, 2004)

In his famous book

Musically imagined communities can only function if they define their own margins. The musical experience allows, therefore, not only different modes of identification, but it can generate both belonging and non-belonging (Born and Hesmondhalgh 2000, Negus and Roman-Velazquez 2002). Thus for an imagined community to be effective especially across different nations and borders, there has to be respect and understanding of the diversity of cultures and what the different cultures imply for everyone in the community to prevent any misunderstanding or conflicts. In short the imagined community is one in which there are attempts on the part of its members to find common identity