One of the benefits of doing a lot of driving is listening to the radio a lot. Yesterday, I listened to a radio station all day of a genre that I have not listened to a while. Listening to the radio made me ponder the effects that music has had on my own particular romantic inclinations. Now, it should be admitted at the outset that I have never needed a great deal of encouragement for my romantic inclinations. Though my romantic longings have not generally been spectacularly successful, they have at least been honorable and decent, and fairly consistent over the course of my life. In pondering the way in which music serves to encourage certain aspects of longings.

There are some sorts of music that people think to be safe and innocuous that are not so much upon deeper reflection. For example, the soft rock song “Steal Away” fails to be innocuous on at least two counts. One count is that the song itself is about immorality, couched in “safe” language to avoid causing offense. The second reason is perhaps more interesting, and that is that the song itself was stolen from an existing tune by the Doobie Brothers. Here we have the case where a song was stolen talking about stealing away for some fornication. A song that was more crude would cause offense on account of its language, while those who are able to express the same message in different language would cause less offense on account of its language. Which is more evil, that which causes offense honestly or that which is sugar-coated and disguised? Of course, it would be better to avoid being evil, but an honest enemy is better than a false friend if one has to choose between evils.

The problem is that music which poses as friendly and inoffensive often fails to be as good as it appears on the outside. Gentle and slow love ballads have been sung about friends with benefits since at least the 1980’s, when Robin Thicke’s mother sang a duet called “Friends And Lovers.” Likewise, the seductive skills of pop musicians have been used for seduction almost as long as music has existed. Perhaps this is what made the music of Lamech’s family in Genesis 4 so problematic. That which sounds pleasant on the outside can hide all kinds of evil on the inside to those who are unwary, who repeat the song and who internalize its message, not realizing the poison that such a message brings on one’s thoughts and behaviors. What could be more inoffensive than a song like “The Rhythm Of Love” by the Plain White T’s, until one realizes that the song is about a one night stand, attempting to perusade a young lady to give up her virtue to a man she knows is going to leave in the morning for the experience. In all of these songs, the evil is phrased in such a way as to make it appear worthwhile, as if it is an acceptable tradeoff between the suffering of a tormented spirit and a guilty conscience for a very short-term pleasure.

We ought to be clear that it is not the genre of a song that ultimately matters when it comes to its virtue and moral worth. Rather, songs of all genres themselves contain messages. Even songs without lyrics have rhythm and melody and harmony that are designed to send a particular message, one that does not need words to convey. Songs like “Tragic Kingdom” by No Doubt and “Darwin’s Children” by Edwin McCain end in chaos, designed to show that the apparent economic prosperity of Orange County, California and the incubus of Darwinian evolution both have led to chaos and moral anarchy within the hearts of the people affected by it. The music itself is a handmaiden to the message of the songs as a whole, a message that is accessible to those who are sensitive to the deeper order and structure that the music has. In this particular case, both songs have a moral purpose, one that is not necessarily pleasant to listen to, but one that is ultimately instructive to those who are able to understand the message and internalize it.

All too often our examination of music is superficial. We look at the style of music or the genre of a piece and then rush to judgment to pronounce the song or the singer as being worthwhile or without worth. However, bands and singers themselves, as is true of all of us, are full of a great deal of depth and complexity, and their struggle against evil and their expression of their own heartfelt longings reflects a mixture of good and evil inside of them. Anyone who pours out their spirit into creations exposes, for better or worse, the longings and fears, the lusts and moral standards, of the creator. Our works demonstrate our character, whether that is a good or a bad thing. If our examination of a work is limited to looking at its form, we miss the structure and the meaning that provide the fullest picture of its moral excellence or its tendency towards evil, or its honest struggle between the better and worse aspects of our own natures.

As I examined the music I had long listened to, seeking to ponder the deeper patterns within, I recognized that I had internalized good and bad lessons about life and love from the music around me. This is certainly true of others, but all the same as someone who is particularly sensitive to external stimuli, and particularly poetic in my own way, it was sobering to reflect deeply on the messages that were being played. Being surrounded by music so often helps to bring out the point that the concerns of our age are written on our songs. Whether we are listening to dishonest ballads by people who pretend to be loyal and faithful and committed but who are really exploiters, or whether we are listening to the heartfelt and tragic results of the brokenness of countless lives, our songs reflect ourselves. Those who write songs, and those who listen to them, do so out of their own longings and to express the language of their own hearts. It is time we paid more attention to what those hearts were trying to say.