I wonder what it is about music that can bring out the emotions or the responses that it sometimes can do. You can Google this and find out there are literally millions of answers out there (about 51,500,00 results in .57 seconds when I Googled "why does music makes us feel"). I read a bit of this one article and the writer seemed to know what it was that was behind our emotional responses to the music we listen to (read it here). I really didn't get anything from the article, but I have my own theory on why music makes us feel something emotional. I believe music that we listen to touches something in our memory banks - both positive and negative emotions. That's just my take on it. I sense it when I listen to Christmas songs - both the sacred and the secular. They bring me back to the Christmas of my youth, when life just seemed like a simpler time. I knew all of the Christmas hymns by heart (at least the first line of them). Whenever I hear them today, I am brought back to that time when my mom and dad tried their level best to make Christmas a special time for our family.
You see, we didn't have internet or Facebook or computers or smartphones or Twitter or text messages to entertain us. We had variety shows on tv that was honest to goodness entertainment. No laugh tracks allowed! We listened to music on the phonograph (the phonograph was an instrument for reproducing sounds by means of the vibration of a stylus, or needle, following a groove on a rotating disc, called 45 or an LP vinyl record.) Late night, I'd listen to the radio station - WEBC out of Duluth, sometimes WLS out of Chicago. I'd put that radio right near my ear and fall asleep to Nilsson singing "Without You" or the soft sounds of Bread or even the Beatles "Yesterday". I know, these are secular songs, but even today they bring out emotions in me. I can't help that - I love all forms (most forms) of music, especially music that connects me with those days.
That's why Christmas music is very special to me. I remember more than just the presents and stuff like that - I remember Christmas Eve and 11:00 p.m. and Sunday School programs playing all the parts - shepherds, wise men, angels, Joseph. I want to be reminded of those simpler days because it puts me in touch with something that the season is all about: love. How much God loves us. How much love was present in our home. How much I miss not being able to be home for the holidays.
How about you? What does music do for you?
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