Music is spiritual. The music business is not.

Van Morrison
About This Quote

Daniel Levitin is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University, in Montreal. He's also the author of "This Is Your Brain On Music" and "The World in Six Songs." And he says music is more than just a sound. It is emotional, emotional, emotional. "It makes you feel good," Levitin says. "It can make you feel bad.

It can make you laugh or cry or get angry or very sad. It doesn't only make you want to dance, it also makes you feel safe and warm inside." And when the music comes on in our cars, in our homes, in our offices, in our malls -- it's not just background noise for us anymore. We actually pay attention to the music that's playing in stores or restaurants or airplanes or elevators or cinemas -- when the music is playing. And when companies start putting so much money into marketing their products, they spend all their advertising money on radio ads with jingles that aren't necessarily great songs but are catchy enough to get stuck in people's heads, making them want to buy whatever product is being advertised. Levitin says that nothing works like music does to get us into a particular mood. "It has an extremely powerful influence over people," he says.

"Music doesn't just feel good; it makes people think it's good." He adds: "Music makes you want to do things. It makes you want to dance." So if we know how powerful music can be, why don't we use it more often? Why don't we use it to get the kind of mood we want? Why don't we create music that gets people fired up for action? Levitin says it's because the business of music is not the same as the business of selling products that will help people achieve goals and get them excited about doing something about their problems. And companies try to capitalize on that difference every time they use jingles instead of real songs with lyrics that tell stories about what life would be like if they could finally save enough money for a new car or buy enough insurance on their house so they wouldn't have to worry about losing everything if they got sick or had an accident or found themselves laid off from their job.

Companies know how powerful music is -- but they don't know how powerful real songs are when they're put together by real musicians who care about telling stories about real people going through real problems

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More Quotes By Van Morrison
  1. Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
  2. Hark, now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea, and feel the sky let your soul & spirit fly, into the mystic...
  3. And I shall watch the ferry boats, and they'll get high, on a bluer ocean against tomorrow's sky. and i will never grow so old again, and i will walk and talk, in gardens all wet with rain...
  4. A famous person to themselves, they don't get up in the morning and think, I'm famous. I'm not famous to me. Famous is a perception.
  5. I'd love to live in Ireland but I'd like to live as me, not what someone thinks I am. People don't understand - I lived there before I was famous.
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