Bobby McFerrin Hacks Your Brain With Music

All throughout life, I've lived in the paradigm of being a music person. That being said, I've had an innate understanding that everyone who did not live in the same realm, all the others, were decidedly non-music people. After one of my close family friends told me that he thought all music except for country pop was irritating noise, I damn near lost it. For me, it was a classic case of "us vs. them", and the "them" were just unenlightened, lazy, boring, soulless people. I simply could not imagine someone not loving music, not wanting to listen to it, study it, play it, and appreciate it for the rest of their lives.

I'll admit that my opinion hasn't changed very much in recent times. This isn't a post about how my world was turned upside down when I discovered the dark side of music, the evil lurking below the surface of the Dorian mode. In fact, what I began to realize is that there are no such thing as non-music people. I know it might sound ridiculous, but the more I read and research, the more I discover that music as a form of enjoyment and expression of identity is something unique to humans, something for which we all have the capacity.

Sure, some people may claim (sometimes rightfully so) that they don't like most types of music: I even understand complaints against rap music as being obscene, against classical music as being boring and stuck-up, and against rock music as being abrasive and shallow. The thing is, not enjoying certain genres of music is no longer enough for me to condemn someone to the dreaded cult of the non-musical. In fact, this video shows that everyone has the ability to understand music and to be surprised by this ability in themselves. And the fact that every audience that hears Bobby McFerrin, every person, whether they have instruction in music or not, can figure out a basic pentatonic scale is a uniting force among the world.

So while this video didn't make me view non-musical people in a better light, it helped me realize that this group is much smaller than I previously thought. It's not about "us vs. them", it's just all "us". Everyone has something about them that is musical, whether they realize it or not, and this is the last time I view anyone in a negative light for claiming ignorance. There's no need for music to become a divisive force among people, especially not in my mind. It really has the power to bring the world together in a song.

In the immortal words of the Coca-Cola commercial, and in the cheesiest ending that will ever grace my blog, "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony..."

It may just be easier than you think.

The Gay Gene and What It All Means

It's a growing trend in my household: every mention of a gay, lesbian, or bisexual classmate is met with a falter as my parents inquire as to whether news of the homosexuality of my friends surprises me. I consistently reply with, "of course not", but I often forget the novelty of liberty to be gay; when my parents were teenagers, hardly anyone was out of the closet. Homosexuality was repressed and seen as foreign, uncomfortable, or even slightly repulsive. The times certainly have changed, and only some have changed with them. I admire adults like my parents and even my grandmother, who are clearly unable to view homosexuality as "any old thing", but try their damnedest to be as accepting as possible. In any case, homosexuality certainly is a hot topic right now.

Generally, the issue among people with traditional (and often religious) values is that homosexuality is morally wrong because it's not transcribed in *insert religious text here*. This causes people to try to simplify the issue by determining a justification for the immorality so that "them crazy liberal folk" will finally see the error of their ways in accepting such behavior. Thus the argument foments into whether homosexuality is a decision or something you're born with. Choice or gene, essentially.

Now it's pretty apparent that viewing homosexuality as a choice is a dangerous mode of thinking; it's for this reason that there are reprogramming clinics and "pray the gay away" camps for LGB teens, as well as rampant hate crimes against homosexuals. One need only look at the comments section on any popular YouTube video to find alarming use of anti-gay language in a nonsensical context to see evidence of the anti-gay sentiment among those who believe homosexuality is a choice.

On the opposite end of the spectrum are those who believe homosexuality is genetic, that it is an inevitability and should be accepted because it's not something that's about to just disappear. Among this crowd, there is heavy support for gays, with pro-gay cries echoing just as loud as those that are anti-gay. Basically, the whole issue is a noisy, reverberating mess.

What many may not realize, however, is that viewing homosexuality as being linked to genetics is also a dangerous mode of thinking. Recently, I've read several articles about scientist Dean Hamer of the National Institute of Health, who in 1993, announced that he'd isolated the "gay gene" on the q28 allele of the X chromosome in males. While his results were never able to be repeated, and he was later accused of fabricating them, this supposed discovery brought forth a new wave of talk about homosexuality. What arose from this was the shocking quote from prominent gay community members saying that viewing homosexuality as genetic is also detrimental because it makes people both pity those who "suffer" from it (in the same way we pity someone born with a physical disability) and makes the people with traditional values desire gene therapy to modify future children to prevent this "unnatural mutation".

Everything considered, my solution, and the mode of thinking that I most often employ in regarding this issue, is to stop trying to justify homosexuality. By trying to figure out why, we lose the ability to see individual people; in this way, justification, whether pro- or anti-gay, is dehumanizing. It doesn't matter why people are attracted to one sex or another, only that homosexuality is a reality in our world and that it's not going away, no matter how much we try to break it down.

Thoughts? Opinions? Post them below!