Music has long been perceived as a tool of the devil, influencing people to engage in immoral behavior and promoting evil. However, this belief is flawed and overly simplistic. Music is a complex and diverse art form that can have a range of emotional and psychological effects on listeners. In my own life, I used to believe that all music was inherently evil, largely due to the influence of my father who raised me to see it that way but also due to major artists such as A$AP Rocky, Beyoncé, and many other artists who have always made public displays of them putting up the Illuminati hand symbol. I believed that all singers and musicians were also associated with evil and had their souls tied in a contract with the devil which is the reason why they were so big and successful. However, a series of events and experiences ultimately led me to reconsider my beliefs and embrace the positive aspects of music.
Growing up, I was not allowed to listen to music and was taught that music was indeed evil, bad, associated with the Illuminati and the devil, and was something to be avoided at all costs. As a result, my exposure to music was limited to television and movies, where I was often told to mute or skip over any musical segments. Despite my curiosity about music, I followed my father’s strict guidelines and avoided it as much as possible as it would pull me down the neverending rabbit hole that music is which included a lot of negativity.
However, my attitude towards music began to shift around the time when I was eleven where I started watching anime. I usually skipped over the intro songs that played at the start of each episode until they eventually caught my attention and I found myself enjoying them. This was the first time I had really appreciated music and it sparked my interest in exploring different genres and artists. This is what led to me being more or less okay with the idea of music not being entirely bad and that started my journey on my major belief change and my ending up as a big-time music listener.
Another turning point came when I discovered the social media app Musically which was the Tiktok of 2014. This platform was filled with people posting videos of themselves doing the most random of things, dancing, and performing skits set to different songs playing in the background. I spent hours scrolling through the app, enjoying the music that accompanied the videos. My father caught me on musically one day and got very angry with me and made sure I didn’t go on it again by making me delete the app and going on one of his long lectures as to why it’s evil and associated with the devil. After that, I uninstalled Musically and went back to skipping or muting the television whenever a song was on and went back to living a totally music-free life.
Despite my father’s influence, my curiosity about music continued to grow. I brought that mindset with me to school and started spreading that word whenever someone asked me why I disliked music so much. People would then try to always play songs around me knowing how strongly I disliked the notion of it. I always ended up having big debates as to why I believed music was bad and gave no benefits. I won a lot of the debates until this one kid who was really heavy into music always debated back and forth with me. That kid would be one of the major turning points as to why my belief would start to change. The kid who used to always debate with me one day decided to take things to the next level and pushed me so after he made the first move we got into a big fight which ended up with both of us in the office getting detention. It was during this detention that I met Mrs. Shannon, a music teacher who would change my perspective on music forever.
I walked into the room where six other students were already seated and the detention supervisor, Mrs. Shannon handed me a sheet of paper and told me to sit two seats away from anyone else. We were then instructed to write a few sentences as to why we ended up in detention. I immediately got to writing about my whole situation and since I was still a bit heated from what had happened, I ended up writing a super long paragraph. After thirty minutes everyone was required to hand their papers in and one by one we did. Once she had gotten everybody’s papers with around twenty-five minutes left of detention she read all of them.
At the end of detention, I was getting ready to leave because I really wanted to get out of there but she held me back because she was curious about why I fought and got in trouble over music. I gave her a little rundown on my beliefs which she then responded in “How can music be evil if it lifts the spirits of a lot of people and is actually linked to the improvement of lots of health issues” those words still strike me to this very day and that was the start of a beautiful friendship. Whenever I saw Mrs. Shannon my curiosity about music came to me and I always asked her questions and she would be more than obliged to answer them. Mrs. Shannon introduced me to a range of different types of music and showed me how it could be used as a form of self-expression and therapy. She challenged my belief that all music was evil and helped me see its positive aspects of it. Through her guidance, I began to understand that music is a complex and nuanced art form that can evoke a wide range of emotions and experiences in listeners.
What really changed my beliefs is when I had to write a little research essay about anything of our choosing. I chose music and it was during that research that really led to me wanting to start exploring all different types of music. After I finished writing I got some headphones and downloaded SoundCloud for the first time ever and started going down the rabbit hole of music. For weeks I listened to all different kinds of music, from upbeat to sad to rock to classics, and felt all the different emotions and power that come from music. I learned that music just couldn’t be evil if it helps with anxiety, reduces blood pressure, and pain as well as improves the quality of sleep, can better your mood and helps with memory.
My belief that music is inherently evil had been challenged and ultimately dismantled through a series of personal experiences and encounters with people who helped broaden my understanding of the art form. Music is not solely associated with the devil, but rather a diverse and multifaceted medium that can bring joy, healing, and self-expression to those who engage with it.
