Ben Grunow & Austin Vance
Staff Writers
Whether many realize it or not, music has influence on our everyday lives. From inspiring people to follow their dreams to something as little as being a good background noise for homework, music impacts everyone differently. It is everywhere and is only becoming more and more accessible.
According to a report released by Nielsen Music in 2017, on average, Americans now spend just slightly more than 32 hours a week listening to music. That being said people spend over a day’s worth of their week listening to some tunes. Music has been and will continue to be a very prevalent piece of people’s lives no matter what.
When it comes to music, some people have much more of an expertise on the subject matter and do it for a living, vocal and peer assisted music teacher, Ms.Voss, explains the significance of music for everyone, “Music allows humans to communicate in ways that speech does not. When I am teaching, whether it is instrumental music, solo singing, or choral singing, I teach that our role as a performer is to communicate the meaning of the composition to the audience. As a performer, we are a conduit for the composer, to share a message, or at least a feeling, through our performance. As we do so, we create a bond–even for just the length of the song–that didn’t exist before, from composer through performer/s to listener/s… It is that kind of experience that keeps me in music. Our culture would be lost without it.”
Some of the most avid music listeners are high school students. High school is a very important time for many teens, so the songs they listen to during this time sets their musical taste as adults. One of these avid listeners to music is senior, Thomas Morales. Not only does he listen to it on a daily basis, he also plays it on the Foran Marching Band. Thomas explains, “Just listening to music helps me so much. It brings a ton of inspiration for when I make my own beats and music myself. I get a ton of ideas from my favorite artists and try to branch off into my own unique path.”
Another senior that listens to a lot of music is, Owen Schmidt. He explains how music and its importance in his high school life, stating, “Yeah, with music… it has helped so much. Especially rap music. It just helps me focus and concentrate on all the things I need to get done for school. Plus the fact that after listening to the genre since middle school, the massive change in style and beats is crazy. It’s just really cool growing up listening to a genre of music and it changes with you.”
Senior, Logan Zahariades, also voiced his opinion saying, “Music has always been a huge part of my life. It helps me lock in and focus whenever I’m doing my homework or getting ready to play a sport. Music is just so essential to life and I couldn’t imagine going through high school without it.”
Popularity of music seems to be growing with easier access and the way of listening is getting much more convenient . The use of newer, cheaper and improved technology provides more people availability to listen to music. Going from the past’s record players and boom boxes to the present’s mobile phones, portable bluetooth speakers, streaming apps such as Spotify and Apple Music and talking robots that can play any song on verbal request, the use of music is increasing and will continue to do so as technology improves. With that, more people are going to listen to music, students and adults alike.
