Food for the Soul
Except in a few rare cases, music is a predominant part of people’s lives. The roller coaster called life presents each of us with an array of emotions. Hours, days, weeks, or longer can be spent in states of pure bliss, depression, anger; you can add to this list any number of other emotions.
What this article will do is cover first the health benefits of music. Then, a historical perspective will be taken at how music has evolved, in particular inventions that have shaped the sounds we love. The conclusion will focus on a time-tested favorite of many, as we do our best to imitate our favorites.
Music and Our Health
Over the course of history, it has been proven that human beings should address three areas of their life; those being their physical, mental, and spiritual health. If you stop and think about it, this was ingrained early on in our lives.
What are the health benefits to music? Surprisingly to some, they cover all three areas of the human condition mentioned in the previous paragraph. Bear in mind that our spiritual condition is routinely tied to our physical and mental health.
- Reduction in the perceived amount of physical pain
- Increased motivation when listened to during exercise
- Better quality of sleep
- Happy people tend to have better blood vessel functions, hence music can bring this about
- Reduction in stress (who of us can’t use a reduction in this!)
- Lessens, or relieves, depression symptoms
- Assists in meditation practice
- Better performance in high-pressure situations
- Patients prepping to go into surgery tend to relax more
- Assists in post-surgery recovery
Evolution of Music
Some of our readers will not have any experience with cassette tapes, a walkman, and even fewer a turntable which plays records (although these are coming back in vogue).
Certainly, all of us have our favorite methods of listening to our music. Our current generation leans heavily towards downloads onto our phones. Countless apps are available for streaming.
If you are a baby of the 80s and later, you may not be aware of what it was like for the generations before. Regardless of your age, this historical review of inventions that have helped shape the music industry will prove enlightening.
- Invention of the phonograph in 1877, which leads to playback (Thomas Edison gets the majority of the credit for this)
- The same year (1877) saw the invention of the microphone come to light (David Edward Hughes, a British telegraph specialist, commonly receives the credit)
- Those earbuds that we leave in for hours at a time are rooted in the work of an electrician by the name of Nathaniel Baldwin, who in 1910 invented the first known headphones in his kitchen
- 1928 and 1931 saw the introduction of magnetic tape and the LP
- Let’s skip a few years of inventions and look at the year 1954, which brought about the transistor radio. This was the genesis of portable and handheld music devices
- Cassette tapes enter the market in 1963, followed closely by 8-tracks in 1965
- 1979 brought with it an invention that many of us can identify with, the walkman
- If you were to ask a group of random people when compact discs were invented, the chances are that you would get many answering the late 80s or early 90s. Much to their surprise, this invention came about in 1982. Billy Joel’s 52nd Street is, by most accounts, the first music recording offered on compact disc
- The world wide web comes about in 1989. What more needs to be said?
I could go through the innovations of the last 20 years, but will leave those out since the majority of the readers of this should be somewhat familiar. The timeline just presented gives a fair cross-section of the history of the music as it pertains to recording and distribution.
Karaoke
Friday comes around and the group text lights up with what plans each of your friends has for the weekend. A few want to go out for drinks after work. One of the usual spots in “on tap”. You get excited, as they have karaoke on Friday nights.
Time goes by, we get a little older, and the bar scene just does not do it anymore. So, you start to host friends at your home for a night of drinks. Everybody misses singing karaoke, so you head out to a local retailer for a karaoke machine.
While it was a good price, unfortunately, some of the cheaper machines sold at the big-box retailers are not designed for frequent usage. As your friends enjoy coming over to your home frequently, you might need to upgrade to a professional karaoke machine.
The features and benefits of the upgraded machines make the investment worthwhile. If it is just one person using it, that is one thing. Let’s put our guests at the forefront of our thoughts.
When it comes to entertaining, we want our friends and family to enjoy their time at our home. With a better quality machine, everyone’s experience taking “the stage” and becoming a “big star” will be enhanced.
Let’s be honest, few of us are actually good singers. A couple cocktails and next thing you know we are ready to take our talents to the radio and television.
Consider looking up songs for karaoke for people who have no musical talents. Hard to go wrong with “Sweet Caroline” or “Mambo Number 5”. A music selection such as this is a sure-fire hit for your tipsy guests, and your sober ones as well!
Hit the Lights, Closing Time
Kenny Chesney, on one of his albums, credits Robert Kraft (owner of the New England Patriots) with opening his eyes to two things that bring people together like no other, music and sports.
Music is the sound of the soul. It’s benefits are far-reaching. How far along it has come. Let the music take you to another place. And take this trip with the ones in your life you care about.
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