By John Madsen AKA Commander Zero

How powerful is music?  What if I stated that the act of listening to music occupies larger areas of the brain than any other human experience, including language and speech? The author of the book "Awakenings" , from which the movie of the same name was made, explores the neuroscience of music in his new book - check this link - http://www.oliversacks.com/musicophilia.htm  .

Music facilitates spirituality, accompanies almost all social interaction, functions as high art, and provides a public forum for advocacy and comment. When melody and written word  art combine, we find a unique mixed media form that encourages trancelike imaging:

 "In a soldier's stance I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach

   There's no fear I'll become my own enemy in the instant that I preach

   Existence led by confusion boats; mutiny from stern to bow

   But I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now"

          Bob Dylan, My Back Pages 

However, the level of artistic and esthetic dynamic a given piece of music achieves is limited by the purpose for which it was intended. The  mass-producers of contemporary music produce huge quantities of aural wallpaper which is designed primarily to massage our brains in between  episodes of sales drama featuring video games, fast food and the latest trend in ED tableaux.

So I'd like to suggest, if you're interested, some antidotes to the pandemic of puerility infesting our airwaves and digital media.

There's a wonderful South African poet and performance artist who writes lines such as: "Melody rises like smoke from sacred fire". If you'd like to see him performing at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday party, follow this link:

http://www.youtube.com/vusimahlasela
 If this doesn't make you want to dance with your ancestors, then you don't have any.

There are some marvelous syndicated live music shows to be found on WEVL, our local independent (meaning ZERO commercials) radio station at 89.9.

I call it "handmade music",  meaning that they play the sounds made by human persons sharing space with other human persons while using their hands to play instruments that make undistorted sounds, and when they sing, you hear only what comes out of their mouths. Two of the best, in my ears, are "Woodsongs" and "Etown". It's no coincidence that these shows use their formats to promote pro-human ideas, like building community, planetary stewardship, and kindness. Websites for these shows are:

http://www.etown.org/about.what.php
http://www.woodsongs.com

Whether you like these examples or not, we can improve our lives and our selves by feeding our brains something other than fast-food-for-thought.