Essay (the status of music in society)

Can you imagine life without music? It surrounds us, exists in every part of our lives, from the form of background music in commercials or advertisements to classical music concerts. I have been asked to write an essay assessing the importance of music nowadays. To support my views, I have asked professional musicians and music teachers for their views.

Someone, who doesn’t have any favourite genre or band, is considered to be more than strange nowadays. Asked: “What is your hobby” most people would say: “Music”. It means that we like listening to it in our free time and it allows us to wind down. It is also a kind of thing that puts people together. Music fans join special clubs, called fan clubs, to share views on their favourite genre. Moreover people from all over the world meet at concerts, very often situated far away from their place of living.

If you feel that listening is not all you want to get from music you can create your own band. For a start, it is going to be a local band only, playing in “underground” but if the audience approves you, it is very likely that you will achieve a greater success. Local rock bands, for instance, play lots of live concerts, often for free, first for smaller, then for bigger audiences. They record their own CDs but their selling rates are usually very small. At times it occurs that a famous recording studio discovers a local band but in most cases the band simply falls out and never starts playing again.

At the same time, reaching somehow tops of chart lists will guide you to popularity, which will enable you to play huge concerts and earn a lot. But the reality is that those who achieved that have given up playing what they really like and started doing what recording company said.
If classical music is your hobby and you want it to be your main subject or faculty, you can learn to play one of the instruments. Yet after long years of studying, you will find it hard to get a job in classical orchestras, which is going to be low paid anyway. Another possibility is to become a music teacher. But in this case you would have to struggle with a way of thinking, that your subject is less important than others (comparing to maths or physics).

In my opinion, real music tends to be gradually disappearing through ages. The most popular songs are the most silly ones and people tend to ignore good music genres and interesting artists. It is not to say that bands worth hearing play only locally.
In actual fact there are many benefits of listening to the music. Relax of body and soul, development of our minds. Some people claim it is easier for the to learn when they hear it. Just imagine what would life be without it.