Music making is an universal basic instinct and it is not a concrete art form. In fact, music is the most intangible art compared to dance, painting, architecture, sculpture, etc.
Music is considered a combination of aesthetic, emotional and perceptual aspect of art. Different types of music pick out the essence and can force us to recognize that essence called Genres. A musical genre can drive perception very strongly as people listen to it by their emotion. This highlighting is a strong perceptual process.
A) ACCEPTANCE
Perception is always in the world of art culturally as it can be changed anytime, anywhere without causing any harmful elements to the society. Whereas it had no place in some fields where conformation is extremely important. New perceptions/ ideas of music when involved in religion and law could be considered disrespect of them. In another words, the more perceptual your music is the more possible you will be criticized by conformists. It is quite true that to improve our human civilization process, musicians have to be given absolute freedom to express themselves through music. Unfortunately, religion leaders and law enforcers always perceive their thinkings are more supreme than musicians’. They always use their traditional logical to judge musical perception. That is why Rock & Metal are always misinterpreted.
Do art and music change perceptions or reinforce the ones that already exist in society ? Is art and music a mirror or a diagnostic kit ? No doubt Rock & Metal reflect the inner human conditions and also the values of the times. Death Metal and Black Metal reflects the evil elements in society and also the darkest side of humans.
School text books have to always reflect the gender sterotypes - A positive side of society and human condition. If art and music is going to be a mirror in which people can recognize the human condition, that mirror must indeed reflect what are there, namely the good and evil sides of the society and the nobility and brutality
of human nature, but not a “perfect world” delusion. You might not be realistic if you don’t see things from many different angles.
B) CHANGES
Perceptions can indeed be changed by art and music. Feelings towards war have been changed from the glorious to the brutal by music, literature, film, television, etc. Art elevated our thinking system, science can never acheive that. In the modern society, we do not mind if all beliefs are heading in the right direction, but for sure we do not consider one direction thinking is right anymore.
All excellent and creative Rock & Metal musicians always wanted to create music that is interesting, emotionally and attractive. They do not want to write something ordinary such as contemporary music which inspired by daily life, but more interested in composing something about people with hyper-complex neuroses.
American renowned author Tom Wolfe once pointed out, movies and television have to be full of violence and deaths because this is the most reliable form of dramatic punctuation. What can be applied in movies and television surely can be used in music. Whether it is a reflection of naked truth or pure imagination. Therefore, showing pure good sides of the society and human nature could be pretentious, it is not considered a “good art”.
Showing dark sides of the society and human nature could be depicting the truth, and the value is always higher as no one is willing to expose their dark sides openly to others. Unfortunately, it was usually considered extremely intolerant by people who are having arrogance of logic and belief systems. It is enough to say that society can happily leave perceptions to the art and music. Religion, law and politic should not be over protective, trying to accept the valuable role of art and music could be improving our traditional perception, it also may change or create new perceptions.
We may rely on art and music for perceptual enrichment, but it does nothing to encourage the persistant habits. Perceptions only create the “Starting Points”. Art and music might create opposite opinions of the subjective nature or the possibility of looking at things in different ways. As I said earlier, music is a kind of perception. Music lyrics are not a doctrine or a concrete guild that could lead the listeners to follow from the begining to the end. It can not be enforced. Whether it is right or wrong, a truth or pure imagination depends on the righteousness and certainty on the opposite of the subjective nature of perceptions influenced by the formation of the society.
C) CRITICISM
As American politician Donald Rumsfeld famously noted, “There Are Known Unknowns And Unknown Unknowns”. People do not react to music to same degree. The power of music is diverse and people respond in different ways. Rock music of the 50’s and 60’s, such as the songs of Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were loved by teenage fans but dismissed as unbearable noise and hated by many of their parents.
Albert Einstein says, "Where there is love there is no question” as there are known unknowns. I say, "Where there is hate there is no question too” as there are unknown unknowns. Those teenage fans and their parents are in total opposite positions as they defined the “Unknowns” in different ways.
Many people hate some types of music because they don’t bother to know more about it. The main reason is learning the truth might take up some of his/her time. They are so afraid that the more they learn, the more shaky is their ground. People do not like to confess their weakness. The most direct and effective way is to persuade more people to be on his/her side blindly.
Groundless criticism towards Rock & Metal became prevalent especially after internet came in to our life. There are always arguments, polemics, confrontations, conflicts and problems due to our state of minds are not stable and complicated, it can be influenced by many external influences quite easily.
D) VALUES
Values are the components to build up your beliefs. Your family and educational background, culture, language, religion, financial status, geographical and historical influences, and experiences in your childhood, etc.. They would create a lot of tiny values in your subconcious mind. Those values had been accepted by you over the years. Some had been proven scientifically, they are considered reliable, and the sructure also was considered safe and concrete. But some wereemotional, they can not be achieved by logic or science, such as the values that passed on to you by the elderly when you were little.
For examples, you always like to run around during meal when you were a kid. Your father told you that you might get appendicitis for that. You believed that without checking the truth. Today many people still holding this belief. Of course the belief is false.
I once went to a zoo and saw a big Elephant was chained down by a small chain, zoo-keeper did not even bother to get a much bigger chain for the elephant ? I was really curious and asked the zoo-keeper about the reason. The zoo-keeper told me, the elephant was kept in that small chain when he was little and that size of chain was considered strong at that time. after he had grown up he did not bother to try to escape anymore. I started to understand values in the subconcious are not applicable to human only, it can also produce a false signal to the animals too.
Not all of our values could be accepted by everybody as some people had different experiences from us. Some values could not be accepted by certain group of people might seem practical and precious to another group of people. Values mainly come from your belief which decides what Universe you are in. Once a fixed “Universe” is formed in you, your brain will become lazy to think of changing anything.
E) BELIEFS
All the values were collected in your past experience since you were a baby. They were implanted in your subconcious mind. When you are mature enough to have your own thinking, your brain wil start categorize your thousands or even millions of values into your “Belief Files”. Like your computer data base, you need to categorize similar small data under different related files, so that it is more easier for you to do searching in the future. For examples, Japanese believes whale meat could make their body become stronger. Half of the population in the world believe that there is ghost. Terrorists believe that suicide bombing is predatory martyrdom. Many conformists believe Black Metal musicians are satanics.
One person can have hundred to thousand kinds of beliefs, it depend on his experiences towards different encounters. Every Belief is built by numberous of values. For instance, a Japanese believes that whale meat can make his body become stronger. His belief is built by a lot of values, such as i) His parents told him so when he was very young. ii) His grandfather eats whale meat everyday and he is still very healthy. iii) Killing whale in the sea is considered a heroic deeds. All these values have been implated in his subconcious naturally and became a strong belief in later years, making him a whale meat lover.
Beliefs are rooted in the subconcious mind in everyone. Therefore, it is extremely strong and never allowed to be challenged by others. Or else, it would be deemed as provocations. There is no way you can make a believer to change their belief by your persuasion, unless you know what are those tiny values deep inside him which formed his belief. Unlock each value is the key to change someone. Frankly it is not possible at all, because a believer also does not know what are the values deep inside him, as those values have been accumulating inside his subconcious mind since he was very young.
F) UNIVERSES
Universe is a general term to include all your values and beliefs. Everyone has only one universe. Threfore, every universe is unique and different. There is no two universes are identical. Your good friend and you can be together for so many years, because your universe is close to his universe, the values and beliefs are similar. It does not mean that you guys don’t quarrel as your universes are not identical. There is no argument when two people are having identical universe will not have arguement, which is unlikely. The only one do not argue with you is you yourself.
By now you should understand how art and music was influenced by individual perception psychologically. Why art and music is not restricted to a piece of work but a reflection of your explorations of the truth or sometimes a creative imagination. Why there are no two pieces of artpieces or musical works are identical. Why so many people like to jump into conlusion, criticizing art and music without bother to find out the truth. Last but not least - What is the true value of a musical work !
