August 28, 2003

The Power of Music

In his opera for children, Help, Help The Globolinks!, Gian Carlo Menotti presents music as an almost indomitable force for good. In fact, music is so powerful that in the story one little girl with a violin vanquishes terrorizing creatures from outer space, known as the Globolinks. (Menotti was also taking a satirical swipe at electronic music and other musical forms that he doesn't seem to approve of, but that's another article.)

Recently, there was a great deal of talk, and several cottage industries, built around the so-called "Mozart Effect," which was promoted as the way to help children learn. Playing classical music was supposed to increase children's brainpower. While no reliable scientific study has been able to confirm a correlation between Mozart and learning, nurseries sounded awfully nice for a couple of years.

Music also plays a role in the work of an alternative therapist in California who believes that one can use astrology to find out what music is best for children (and adults). By calibrating music in the person's environment to the vibrations of the planets, one can promote healing of all manner of physical and emotional ills.

And then there are mainstream parents and caregivers who know that their children love music.

The point is that whether its benefits derive from slaying aliens, increasing intelligence or being more in synch with celestial bodies, music is an essential and enjoyable part of a child's world. Everyone knows the soothing effects of a lullaby, or as Shakespeare says, "charms to soothe the savage breast." (And "savage" is indeed the word for a sometimes crabby baby who isn't quite ready to go to sleep.) Yet music is also an important teaching tool.

Think of the alphabet song. Do you remember when you learned it? Probably not, and yet no matter how old you are, I suspect you can sing it, you should pardon the expression, letter perfect. Learning the melody facilitates the rote memorization process, and the music stays with the child as he or she grows up. The same holds true for more sophisticated learning as the popular ABC series "Schoolhouse Rock" has demonstrated. It's impossible to know how many millions of kids learned about conjunctions or even how a bill becomes a law through the catchy, oft-repeated short programs. Moreover, many baby boomers can still sing those songs, or at least recall them when asked. (They can also sing the theme songs from "Gilligan's Island" and the "Addams Family," but then we all have some information stored away that's of limited practical use on a daily basis.)

Advertisers use music to drill brand names and more information into our heads. If you need your drain opened or a mattress, I can hum a few bars that will point you in the right direction. While at one time America could sing, "See the USA in your Chevrolet," today the Barenaked Ladies have helped propel sales of Nissan cars to young drivers.

Music has, quite simply, been part of every human culture. It has instructed, amused, moved, been called "the food of love," and much more. (Get out your Bartlett's Familiar Quotations if you doubt me.) Styles of music can define a culture and, planetary influences or not, resonate with the human soul. Music has defined generations, influenced fashion and even been used as a military tool (not just against Noriega, but also in ancient Greece) for protest and to draw people closer together. One cannot separate a culture from its music.

So it's natural that we find music in toys. Whether for lullabies, learning or just plain fun, music is a natural part of the human experience.

Over the past couple of years, music has played an increasingly central role in toys. Wonderful products from Neurosmith have encouraged children to explore not just music but shapes, phonics and more, reinforcing the process that turns experimentation into an understanding of cause and effect and later learning.

Fisher-Price's new line called Learn Through Music allows children to explore and learn while playing with Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues characters.

For older kids, DSI has launched DJ Skribble Spinheads, which allow kids to combine different styles of contemporary music in a DJ-styled mix.

And these only complement the myriad keyboards and instruments that become part of children's worlds.

Music is also one of the ways children define themselves, moving from nursery songs and the soundtracks of such shows as Sesame Street to the music that they and their peers listen to. Targeting music to children has been a huge business lately, and products like Hasbro's phenomenally successful Hit Clips, which provides a one-minute sample of some of today's most popular songs, have been both a toy and a social link between kids. While kids would not call listening to music together "play," it is a shared, social experience around a product, which certainly would be called play if the children were preschoolers.

Such play experiences follow us throughout our lives. As adults, who among us doesn't hear a song on the radio or even in an elevator (despite the bubblegummy muzac-ization of the tune) and instantly have strong memories associated with it, with a specific point in time and specific people? Music stays with us, helping us to shape, define and remember experiences, and whether we're children learning fundamentals or adults remembering specific events, music helps us to know who we are.