Copland: Difference Between Songs And Music

Aaron Copland illustrates the difference between songs and music in his essay, “How We Listen.” There are certain songs and music that will mean the same thing every time someone listens to the songs or music, which will eventually become “dull music”; however, there are also other songs and music whose “meaning is slightly different with each hearing, [which will have] a greater chance of remaining alive” (Copland 2). Songs that become dull with each hearing are often the ones that are overplayed on the radio; they also have repetitive and generic elements. Essentially, the dull songs “always say the same thing” or are similar to the songs sung by previous artists. (Copland 2). To illustrate, the song, “Baby” by Justin Bieber is one such song …show more content…
Initially, some listeners may think Popcaan wrote a typical “party” song about drinking, smoking, and having a good time, but upon subsequent hearings, some listeners may arrive at the conclusion that Popcaan wrote the song to encourage people going through hard times. Some listeners may then think that they should party to ease stress of exams, while other listeners may think that they should party to distract themselves from losing a loved one or having a stressful day at work. Therefore, with listeners interpreting the song in different ways with multiple hearings of the song, “Everything Nice” is more likely to remain alive, as the meaning continuously changes for each listener. The preceding example illustrates Copland’s point about the need for people to be active listeners instead of passive listeners, as the more frequently people listen to a song, the more meanings people can derive from the song. By being more conscious and aware listeners, people would be able to derive multiple meanings of a song and can analyze rhythms, tempos, harmony, timbre, and other musical elements of the song to “deepen [their] understanding of music” (Copland 3). Thus, actively listening is necessary for listeners to have a complete and enriched listening experience, instead of passively listening to songs for the sake of