by asking you a question by show of
hands who’s ever had the experience of
being in the car with your parents or an
older family member and arguing over
what music to play on the radio right
almost everybody write something we all
can relate to and I think you know that
if I got your parents in here and I
asked them the same question they
probably raised their hands too in fact
I’ve been told that my own grandmother
hated the Beatles so much that when she
saw them play on The Ed Sullivan Show in
1964 she said that night was the
beginning of the end for Western
civilization they were like I want to
so parents fight with their kids over
music the government and radio stations
will try to censor it it’s at the heart
of so much controversy as great as music
is it seems to have this power to divide
us sometimes right but let me ask you
another question who has ever had the
opposite experience who has ever felt
united by music it could be at a great
concert the national anthem before
football game just talking about music
with your friends raise your hands
almost everybody again music makes us
feel connected to each other it has this
amazing ability to make us feel like
we’re part of something bigger than we
are so we know that music has these two
very opposite effects on us it can bring
us together or it can tear us apart what
if there was like a hacking the system a
cheat code almost that we can use so
that instead of fighting over music all
the time we can use it as a tool to
unite us because as you know everybody
has very strong opinions about music and
we can fight over these opinions all day
but at the end of the day opinions are
just that their opinions here’s a fact
right now I am standing on this stage
and I am literally looking out at the
future the young people in this college
and all the young people whether they’re
in school or not
you guys are inheriting a world that is
in many ways more divided than it has
ever been before divided across cultural
lines and political lines social and
economic lines and we know you didn’t
ask for this but we are counting on
somebody maybe one of you to fix it
that’s a lot of pressure right I got
anxiety just saying it to you everybody
is giving you all this responsibility
but you know what nobody is giving you
suggestions they’re like go out and fix
the world kids you’ll figure it out by
the way can you do something about
global warming hut outside right and
you’re out here like what what really
that’s it that’s all you got for me can
you apart I don’t know put up some solar
panels or something man come on I’ve got
an idea for you I think that if we’re
going to move forward and bridge these
gaps between us we really need to
understand each other better and if
we’re going to reach this understanding
this understanding not just with the
people that we agree with but with the
people that we disagree with we need
tools I think that music can be a tool
but I think that we have to go about
things in the right way but because we
can talk all day about the music that
unites us and why it unites us and
that’s fine but I think that if we’re
really going to heal these wounds and
build these bridges we need to go
further we need to talk more about the
music that divides us we need to
understand why it divides us and a lot
of people will point to cultural reasons
and they’re absolutely right music has
always been the social phenomenon as
well as an art form music has a way
particularly popular music of
accentuating the differences between
generations and how they see the world
and we have so many examples of this
throughout history Elvis shook his hips
on TV people weren’t ready for that Bob
Dylan purged young people to to question
authority and speak their minds people
got upset by that but all these cultural
and political reasons while they are
very important and we can’t
ignore them I don’t think they go far
enough I think that we need something
deeper we need something that gets to
the heart of the sound of music itself
something more than just the lyrics or
the way Elvis dances or whatever I also
think that people make a mistake
sometimes and they believe that
controversy is something new to music
they think it started with rock and roll
or maybe jazz that if we go back far
enough maybe it’s something like
classical music then everybody would
just be just be more civil about things
the thing is the history doesn’t really
back that up let’s take Beethoven for
example nowadays nobody messes with
Beethoven for a lot of people he’s
practically synonymous with classical
music and even if you think you don’t
know any classical music you probably
recognize this that’s from Beethoven’s
fifth symphony probably the most
recognized piece of music in the world
possibly the most popular symphony of a
written but if you went back to 1808
when people first heard this thing and
you told everybody that Beethoven’s
fifth symphony would be as popular as it
is today they would have looked at you
like you were crazy they would have been
like what Beethoven his fifth symphony
Ludwig van Beethoven that’s the
Beethoven we’re talking about nah that’s
because the premiere of the fifth
symphony was a disaster people didn’t
know what to make of all the new things
that Beethoven was doing the audience
was just confused in fact the music was
so complex that the orchestra had to
stop in the middle and start over again
and there are a lot of reasons for why
this happened you know the concert was
very long there weren’t enough
rehearsals we know these things are true
but they don’t really fully explain why
back in his day Beethoven was mr.
controversy his music inspired such
strong reactions in people and the fifth
symphony was no different a fellow
composer at the time named Louis sport
called the fifth symphony and orgy of
vulgar noise
one source says that the famous poet
gertha said that it was a threat to
civilization and these two guys were
Beethoven’s friends this is what
happened here you know it’s a symphony
it didn’t have any words it certainly
didn’t have any dancing so what was it
about the music itself that made people
react this way historians and
musicologists have been asking these
questions for hundreds of years not just
about Beethoven’s music but about music
in general and in the last couple of
decades neuro scientists have gotten in
on the act as well and what’s amazing is
that all of these experts from all these
different fields they all seem to agree
on one thing that one of the things that
gets us wild up about music one of the
things that gets us upset is newness
uniqueness originality sounds and tone
colors and chords and rhythms that
people have never heard before that’s
what gets under people’s skin and to
understand why this works you really
have to understand how hearing works
because your ears are just receptors all
the sounds of the world hit them all at
once like a tidal wave and it’s your
brains job to make sense of it all and
what science believes is that one of the
ways your brain does this is by seeking
out and recognizing patterns your brain
loves patterns it’s an amazing skill
that we developed back in the caveman
days to let us know that if we heard a
bird in the tree things were cool but if
we heard a saber-toothed tiger somewhere
it was time to run now this this same
skill that kept us from becoming from
becoming food now helps us make sense of
the world around us including music by
seeking out these patterns your brain
makes connections it develops
expectations and when your brain picks
up on one of these patterns and it gets
what it’s expecting it feels comforted
but when it can’t find the pattern or
when it thinks it has a pattern but
things take a wrong turn that’s what
makes people upset that could make
people agitated your brain feels on
some people find it exciting some people
don’t and it’s no coincidence that music
is jam-packed with patterns right in
western music we these patterns are so
ingrained that we sometimes call them
the rules it’s the reason we know that
if I play Doremi Faso latte I’m going to
end up on though these are the patterns
that we’ve come to live with these are
the patterns we know these are the
things we expect let’s look at some more
examples through history in the 1940s
guys like Charlie Parker here we’re
developing a new style of jazz called be
Bob bebop was faster and harder and more
complex than any of the jazz that had
come before it music aficionados even
jazz aficionados couldn’t get their
heads around it at first Duke Ellington
famously said that playing bop was like
playing Scrabble with all the vowels
missing I’m not exactly sure what that
means but it doesn’t sound like a
compliment to me give it a couple of
years though ask all the young jazz guys
who they want to play like Dizzy
Gillespie Charlie Parker Thelonious Monk
the bebop players are their heroes we
look back on bebop as one of the
greatest innovations that ever hit jazz
but admittedly bebop was a little
intense so let’s take it down a notch
this handsome gentleman is Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby everybody how did people
fight about Bing Crosby he’s saying
white Christmas he did the little
drummer boy with David Bowie he never
even raised his voice for God’s sake
actually that was part of the problem
you see Bing was one of the first
crooners these were guys who got up way
close to the microphone and saying soft
slow songs like they were whispering in
your ear and people were having none of
it they said it was too sexual it was
too obscene the New York singing
Teachers Association said that crooning
corrupts the minds and ideals of the
younger generation now you can’t have a
holiday party without this guy and if
that one was surprising to you imagine
my surprise when I learned that in 1966
my grandma was a beetle
and she was stealing my mom’s records
all of these people I talked about they
all have something in common Beethoven
Bing Crosby Charlie Parker the Beatles
they all pushed the limits of music as
they knew it and did something new they
endured some backlash but in the end we
recognize them as Trailblazers so you
might be asking yourself how does this
keep happening why is it the same thing
generation after generation furthermore
understandingly if music is something
this ingrained in us and if science says
that I am hardwired to dislike new music
what do I do when I’m faced with it I
don’t want to be left in the dust like
those jerks who didn’t like Beethoven I
want to hang out with Tom’s grandma
listen to the beatles grandma would have
loved you guys by the way we’ll calm
down everybody science has good news
it’s called neuroplasticity it’s it’s a
relatively new science it’s changing as
we learn new things but it gives us hope
basically what the research says is that
your brain can change the more you
listen to new and different kinds of
music the more that you you you think
about it you listen about it the more
your brain will make new connections it
will develop new neural pathways and
incidentally one of the reasons why
young people tend to pick up on new
music faster than their parents do is
because their brains are younger as well
those neural pathways are a little bit
more flexible they’re not as firmed up
but that does not mean that that is game
over for the older generation no no in
fact the research suggests that no
matter how old you are your brain can
still rewire itself and if you work hard
enough and your mind is open enough then
suddenly the more you listen to it that
music that your kid plays in the car
that you can’t stand you may start to
like it you may start to love it but if
you don’t start to love it you may at
least start to understand it and
understanding is the key here because if
you think about all those times that
music made you feel United to the people
around you if you remember how you felt
in those moments then you can see
how understanding some new music might
be the first step to making a real
connection with somebody you understand
their music now you can start that
conversation you can start to bridge
those gaps it could be somebody you know
like a family member maybe somebody you
don’t know maybe somebody you may have
never talked to before and this is just
me speculating here but if we can do
this with music if we can get out of our
own way and just let our mind do what it
does who says we can’t do it with art
maybe we can do it with food maybe we
can even do it with ideas and think of
the implications of that think of how
far we could go as a society if all
these things that once divided us became
tools to unite us think of what we could
accomplish think of the things we could
do so I think that we should keep
endeavouring to have these new
experiences to push ourselves out of our
own comfort zones to look for new things
to understand new ways to make
connections and if you liked this idea
if you think it’s worth a shot but you
don’t know where to start then I
encourage you to start by listening to
some new music because I truly believe
that if we could understand each other’s
music we could come one step closer to
understanding each other thank you very much