The Morality Of Music

I continue to think about music and art, the objectiveness of beauty and how this affects the way we think and live.  See here, here and here for my previous thoughts on the matter.

Roger Scruton has written an article titled Soul Music.  In this piece, Scruton presents the idea that music itself, not just lyrics, carries with it morality.  He begins with referring to Plato's Republic, and then says this:

We know of music that is good-humoured, lascivious, gentle, bold, chaste, self-indulgent, sentimental, reserved, and generous: and all those words describe moral virtues and vices, which we are as little surprised to find in music as in human beings. Our ways of describing music give incontrovertible proof that we find moral significance in music—and it would be surprising if this were so and we did not also believe that people should be encouraged to listen to some things and discouraged from listening to others. For our characters are shaped by the company we keep, and those who rejoice in the company of crooks and creeps are likely to become crooks or creeps themselves. It is difficult, therefore, to disagree with Plato’s view that music has a central role in education, and that musical education can go badly wrong in ways that impact on the moral development and social responses of young people.
And even if we don’t forbid musical idioms by law, we should remember that people with musical tastes make our laws; and Plato may be right, even in relation to a modern democracy, that changes in musical culture go hand in hand with changes in the laws, since changes in the laws so often reflect pressures from culture. 

 He goes on to contrast music that triggers a response to music which provides a proper object of that response, natural and unnatural rhythms,( the latter which leads automatic and autonomous movements, dancing at rather than with), the melodic and amelodic.  There is much more to the article and I highly recommend it.

Perhaps we should be more thoughtful about art and music. Can we really expect to listen to music and not be changed in some way?  We have become very timid in our society about making judgments.  If music has a moral element, if it is soul and character shaping, we would be negligent in not evaluating it.