The Music in Me

Most of us LDS youth constantly hear our leaders tell us that what we listen to and watch can affect the way we think and act. For most of this, it blows over our heads. I have never thought that music really had an affect on me. However, a recent experiment has proved me wrong.

I have been writing a novel for the past couple months. I often get stuck at places where I don't know what to write, or how to word it, etc. A common problem I encounter is that I have trouble thinking like my characters. How would they respond to a certain situation? How would they word their sentences? If one did this, would the other do that? And so on.
One day, I was writing a scene told from the main antagonist's point of view. He is a BAD guy. He is very crafty and deceiving. He appears to be a pleasant sensible man through his lies and "flattering words", but is actually evil to the core. Anyways, the way it was set up was that he was talking to someone on the streets, very subtly trying to persuade the man to do evil. I was having the hardest time! I could not think like he would think I didn't know how to be evil! I was so frustrated. I wrote and rewrote it three times before slamming my pencil down in defeat. With nothing else to do in the school library, I put on my earphones and set my iPod to shuffle. The second song that came on was "Misery" by Trans-Siberian Orchestra from the musical Beethoven's Last Night. If you haven't heard it, it is a devil named Mephistopheles singing about how he will torture a little girl lying on the streets. He has a very sly voice and the music is sneaky and dramatic. Suddenly, I found myself picking up my pencil again and writing. With the dark music in the background, the words flowed freely from my pencil. I knew exactly what to write. The pure evil of this character was coming out on the paper. As soon as the song ended, my writing spree ended. When I started the song over, my writing started again. I kept replaying the song until I finished the scene. Right now, that scene is one of my best so far in my opinion.

I tried this music experiment several more times. I chose music that would set the proper mood for that particular scene. The parts that I listen to music with are my finest scenes I think. I have listened to "Fight a Good Fight" by BYU Singers for triumphant parts. I listen to "Love Story Meets Viva La Vida" by Jon Schmidt or "Falling Slowly" by Kris Allen for romantic scenes. "Butterfly Fly Away" by Miley Cyrus for family scenes. "

This just goes to show that music can affect the way you think. I became "evil" when I listened to Misery. I became hopeful and brave when I listened to FIght a Good Fight. I felt the love when I listened to Love Story Meets... and Falling Slowly. I could just feel the warmth of family through Butterfly Fly Away. Listen to your leaders and read the For Strength of Youth Pamphlet! They know what they're talking about.