String Theory Media

Transcendent Pop

It's out at last. Bill Friskics-Warren's book about the spiritual components of popular music, a semi-academic discourse on the attempts of artists from Madonna to Van Morrison and (of course) the Staple Singers to imbue vernacular music with the big questions: Who are we? Why are we here? What can give our life meaning?  I haven't read the book yet, but here's a smart first look: Paul Griffith's new review in the Nashville Scene. Here we have one of the best music writers in Music City writing about Bill, whom I regard as Nashville's standard-setter for beautiful, informed music journalism (He also married my wife and me, but that's another story). I'm looking forward to reading I'll Take You There and hope it's well received.

The Mozart Effect Surveyed

Peter Gumbel writes about the extra layer of Mozart's mystique in TIME magazine: What's behind Wolfgang's demonstrable but mysterious effects on the brain? The researchers who published the studies behind the Mozart-makes-you-smarter movement say they were misunderstood, but that there's  something very real going on in the way Mozart's particular use of patterns and repetition soothes and orders our psychology.

A guy named John Hughes says he's absolutely certain Mozart reduces epileptic seizures in comatose people, for whom there can be no placebo effect. He's quoted as to what he thinks is going on:

"(Mozart) turned a melodic line upside down and inside out. That gave people something interesting to listen to. Our brain loves pattern." Some of Bach's music scored highly, as did works by Mendelssohn and Haydn. But Mozart's musical sequences tend to repeat regularly every 20-30 seconds, which is about the same length of time as brain-wave patterns and other functions of the central nervous system.

The curmudgeon in the piece is Gary Ansdell at the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Center in London (who) argues that "it's all about active music making, not passive listening." Which seems pretty all-or-nothing to me. I feel sure that getting children to make music together makes them better adjusted and, yes, in some ways smarter. But to imagine that exquisitely constructed music doesn't actually shape our minds seems to fly in the face of evidence, common sense and, for that matter, wonder.

Metallica and the Miner

Doctors are playing Metallica for rescued West Virginia miner Randal McCloy, according to a story in the New York Daily News.

The story suggests that the music was more the doing of his wife than his doctors, but there's evidence that music might help mitigate some of the brain damage he seems to have suffered. As this brief piece indicates, rhythm stimulates the lower limbic brain, which is pretty deep in our core. If anybody can shake Randal back to the world, then Metallica can. Their stuff is a lot more rhythmically sophisticated than most heavy metal, so perhaps he's in good hands. But a thought experiment - would it be better for a patient in his condition to have music playing that he likes and with which he is familiar, or something theoretically more effective for its complexity. Is it possible, for example, that recordings of Indian music or African drum ensembles would do more to rewire or repair damaged parts of the brain? Or is this just about making Randal feel more at home? I do not have these answers.

For a general orientation to music therapy, check HERE.