What is it about music that affects us so profoundly? Since sound is vibration, does music penetrate parts of our inner being while assembling different frequencies, unlike other creative forces? It’s hard to say. Nevertheless, no matter who we are and where we are from, we all love music. We may differ in our choices, but we all respond to this universal language. Tatted Swerve, a hip-hop musician from the Bronx, New York believes that music empowers and motivates us when the going gets tough.
The pandemic has shaken up many lives, torn apart several families, and put our fears in front of our faces. When we can’t turn to regular company and life as we had come to understand it, where can we go? Music, it seems, is one answer. Tatted says, “Music can have a calming effect on our minds. Fear and anxiety are places, mental landscapes that can imprison the mind and arrest right action. Listening to the right kind of music can literally put our troubled minds on a carpet and fly them off to new places. This is not escapism. It’s like moving away from a wildfire in order to come back with appropriate tools to fix it. Instead of getting singed and burned, you choose the right action. Music has the potential to calm us and help us think straight.”
Music is a divine gift. As humans, we have created instruments to string those unseen chords that existed in nature all along. Music, in that sense, also brings us closer to our innate being, our core that most spiritual people and now even people of science are beginning to see as a place of strength and solutions. For Tatted, “music is a tool that molds us without us knowing it. It’s the best kind of teacher. It teaches without preaching and its healing is holistic. You can see it in the growing echoes of drum circles, kirtans, and intimate concerts across the world. Individuals are waking up to the power of music, not because an expert says so but because music has stirred the inner expert out of its dormancy.”
Music, like books, is our friend for life. Its emotional appeal and transformative powers can help us a great deal as we find our way through life’s never-ending labyrinth.
