Knock, knock, bang, bang, crash!
The first major deconstruction project of my summer cottage in Babylon has been to go through my music – particularly what’s on my iPod.
It was a bit difficult to begin with. I LOVE music. All kinds. But I realize that not all music is uplifting. By uplifting, I don’t mean feeling perky all the time. By uplifting, I do mean it inspires even when creating a feeling of sadness, or melancholy. Music is meant to create moods and emotions – joy, peacefulness, sorrow – but there are certain kinds that debase or are crude because of their beat. Most music of this kind gives a dark feeling. Other songs have a melody and beat that do “pass the test” yet the message intended by the lyrics are not wholly uplifting. Rather crafty how those sneak in, don’t you think?
The first song to go was this {sniff}. I missed it terribly the first week. I liked listening to it while jogging. I decided to substitute something else in its place. Now I don’t miss it at all. (more about this later)
“Substitute habits, change environment. Change comes by substituting new habits for old. You mold your character and future by thoughts and actions.
“You can change by changing your environment. Let go of lower things, and reach for higher. Surround yourself with the best in books, music, art, and people” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, 172).
The next song to go was this. My latin blood enjoys rhythms like this, but the message…aye, aye, aye. It has been replaced with songs like this and this {wink}.
Those are just a couple of examples to show what my main standards have been in judging a song worthy to keep. Is the beat appropriate? What is the message of the song? Does it inspire me?
Music has the power to penetrate deeply. Have you ever wept after hearing a truly beautiful piece of music? I have. It is not uncommon to hear one of my children say a particular piece of music makes them ______ (happy, sad, like dancing, etc.) insert whatever adjective you want.
“After playing Chopin, I feel as if I had been weeping over sins that I had never committed, and mourning over tragedies that were not my own.” ~In Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist,” part 1~
Is it no wonder that I can tell what mood my children are in by the choice of piano music they play when practicing throughout the day? Funny, my parents used to say the same thing about me and my siblings! I want to make sure my children are exposed to all the great wonderful music of the ages that there is to enjoy. While it was cute and rather amusing to find my three-year-old son dancing and singing “Bet On It” (from High School Musical II) out in the orchard, it was much more endearing to hear him belt out “All We Like Sheep” from Handel’s Messiah as he walked down the hallway to his bedroom.
“When some music has passed the tests of time and been cherished by the noble and refined, our failure to appreciate it is not an indictment of grand music. The omission is within. If a young person grows up on a steady diet of hamburgers and french fries, he is not likely to become a gourmet. But the fault is not with fine food. He just grew up on something less. Some have grown up on a steady diet of musical french fries.” ~ Douglas Callister, Your Refined Heavenly Home ~
I don’t want to feed my children a steady diet of musical french fries! (Though, truth be known, french fries every now and then are good too.)
Remember when I first wrote about my personal warning rattles? I have learned to listen to those thoughts and impressions that come into my mind. Sadly at times it does take several “warnings” before I follow through. Thankfully those times are becoming less frequent.
A couple of weeks ago I was listening to my iPod while walking in the late afternoon heat. Now normally, I would have been listening to the “wild” music I linked to earlier. Instead I **replaced those songs with BYU Speeches which are free from iTunes. As I listened to this talk by Boyd K. Packer the thought came to my mind, “Will you be able to hear the rattle of a snake over the sound of this?” The volume was turned up a little loud. Not two seconds after turning the volume down I did indeed start to hear a rattlesnake just off the side of the road. I immediately stopped, turned around, and went right back home (jogging this time) thankful to have given heed to both warnings.
Would I have been able to hear the first prompting had I been listening to wild music? Maybe, but more likely not. Makes me wonder what promptings I may have been missing before.
** I don’t always listen to BYU Speeches while walking or jogging. I still have a plethora of music that I listen to depending on my mood.
© 2007-2010 Chocolate on my Cranium, LLC all rights reserved
Wow, this is so inspiring…I need to sit down and think.
Thanks!
The photos in the Montserrat video were beautiful! Have you ever been there?
You really gave me something to think about. The same Muse song is on my playlist, along with one Lady Gaga (somehow I don’t feel as guilty with one) and some songs with a hip-hop beat. I love dance music and sadly so much of it really isn’t appropriate. Thanks for the gentle wake up call.
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a cousin (non LDS) stumbled on your blog because of one your crafts she was making and thought I’d like. I did like it, but I had to see what else you were about. I was glad to see a Sister in Zion. What a lovely essay about the Summer Cottage in Babylon I’m going to use this as a basis for a lesson in Seminary. The first week we teach the plan of salvation every year regardless of the scripture for the year. You have a wonderful gift and I’m glad you take the time to share your thoughts, spiritual, family jovial, it’s all good. Thank you thank you thank you.
Thanks for sharing. Your posts are so inspirational.
This is a hard one. Recently I’ve been doing the same thing…going through my music one cd at a time. Mostly I find I don’t even like the stuff I used to listen to anymore! But if I get a hankering, I’m sure it’ll be on the radio some random time and I’ll get my fix for whatever beat I’m missing! Ha ha!
I have been paying a lot more attention to my music too. Even the show toons that I remember singing along to as a kid, when I really listen to the words aren’t something I want my kids to listen to and especially not sing along to. I have had to be a lot more selective with my choices. Not just for them, but for me as well. Even if it is just me listening while at the gym I try to choose songs that still have energy to them but don’t have a questionable message.
I really need to download some of those talks and such from LDS.org or even the LDS Radio station. Other than at the gym, I don’t get a lot of time to use my ipod.
The year we studied the teachings of Heber J. Grant in Relief Society, this particular concept taught by President Grant influenced me so much. It has been the determining factor whether or not we listen to certain music – certain songs. In fact, all I need to do is say to my children, “This song does not teach correct doctrine” and they are often pretty good about turning the station or forgoing the musical selection entirely!
This is what President Grant said: “The more beautiful the music by which false doctrine is sung, the more dangerous it becomes. I appeal to all Latter-day Saints, and especially to to our choirs, never to sing the words of a song, no matter how beautiful and inspiring the music may be, where the teachings are not in perfect accord with the truths of the gospel.”
I believe the word “listening” could be substituted for the word “singing.”
Thanks for some wonderful insight!!
I just KNEW you were going to pick that first song to get rid of! Now you’ve gone and made me feel guilty! 🙂
Seriously, thank you for sharing this. I have appreciated your “personal warning rattle” posts – they have been inspiring and helpful.
Recently I got to download an application on my phone called “The Mormon Channel” and I get to listen to Mormon radio (I forget what the station is called at the moment), BYU speeches, church magazine articles, hymns, conference talks and scriptures. I find it super inspiring and uplifting. Also I have found that when you take time to “refresh” your spirit like that, it is way easier to turn off some of that other stuff you thought you loved but is not that great later on.
I am so glad I found your blog recently! Your posts are so inspirational and make me want to do better.
This topic of the summer cottage in Babylon has also been on my mind! Though I don’t listen to a lot of music, movies are my weakness. We turned off the TV a couple years ago and haven’t gone back, but at the same time my Netflix queue has increased! I’m starting to realize that I need to really weed through the movies. Most PG-13’s just don’t make the cut anymore…
Thanks for inspiring me to let go of the world a little more.
Harmony,
I have been to Montserrat – when I was 10 months old. I REALLY want to go visit.
SweetmamaK,
I teach seminary too! Hadn’t thought of applying the Babylon posts to the first lesson but it would totally work. Thanks for the idea. 😀
MyHeartSquared,
I like that quote by Pres. Grant! It’s going in my memorization box right this minute.
Good Job Chocolate! Music can be distructive. You are a great inspiration in doing the right thing.
Yay! I’m working on this as well – I’ve never been a fan of classical music – I didn’t really “get it”, but as since we’ve been listening to it a lot more these days, I find that if I focus just a little – I start to understand, and I am amazed at the beauty I find. Thanks for the inspiration!
I have always had a weakness for popular music, until five years ago. We went on a music fast for a few weeks and never put most of the popular stuff back in our lives. It has made a deep impact in our efforts to face Christ.
Thanks for sharing your journey with us. It is inspiring, and reminds me that I continually need to examine the music in my life to make sure it is helping me and my family get closer to the Savior.
Nothing like turning up the radio when an old favorite comes on only to have your kids shocked by the lyrics. My ipod is pretty clean, but it’s pretty tough to listen to the radio any more.
As a youth I was in the car with my YW leader and her two daughters. We were listening to the radio and singing along. I don’t remember the song but at one point my YW leader turned off the radio and said that she didn’t feel the lyrics were appropriate. I have never forgotten that. I personally had not noticed the lyrics (I don’t think we always do.) but I respected her for her guidance and instruction at that time and have always tried to be careful to what I listen to.
I have found that I prefer running without music. I enjoy the sounds going on around me and would miss the birds and perhaps the personal inspiration that often comes when I am alone on my runs.
Great post Cocoa!
It’s funny you write about this because I have just recently been thinking a lot about this. I heard about kids singing all these crazy songs and their parents were surprised they new them {Ah duh, how would they know them if THEY weren’t the ones playing it for them} Anyway so because I heard this I have been trying to be way more careful with my music. I love this post a lot. And good job, even though it is super hard, {especially exercise music} Love your blog! Come visit mine anytime.
Okay, so I read this post the day it was put up. I come visit your blog about every day. But after reading this one… I stayed away for a week or two (can you see my cheeks burning pink???). I knew there were some things I should do to deconstruct my cottage, but I just really didn’t want to, at all. But the idea kept bothering me, despite my dismissals. And then I read the article in the August Ensign, “Listening as Samuel Listened”, by Elder Walter F. Gonzalez. It finally got through to me that the Lord can’t really use me or help me until I’m actually willing to do something with what He’s been trying to tell me. So I did something.
Our family has started with movies. We’ve gotten rid of any that contain foul language or sexuality. We never realized how much of that we had let into our home. But we’ve discarded 91 movies. CRAZY!!! Yes, some only had 1 swear word in them, but why do we need to waste our time with that? Really, these are just stories, after all. It was a painful process, but my husband jumped right on board when I brought up the idea (and he’s a major movie buff), and we feel much more comfortable to let the kids watch anything that is left on the shelf. 🙂
So thank you. I didn’t like it, but I think I’m finally starting to listening like Samuel, and I owe that to your post. 🙂
I am a runner(and homeschooler!) as well. I don’t listen to the radio much at all anymore. I just don’t like the things I hear on the radio….(Lady Gaga! YUCK) but I do have a few songs on my Ipod from a few years ago that I need to get rid of. I have been thinking about this a lot and really loved your post. Thank you for your great blog.
What a fabulous post! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I’m totally inspired. Thank you, thank you!
Corine 😀