Music Why It Matters

by Cook, Nicholas

• ISBN13: 9781509542406
• ISBN10: 150954240X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-07-17
• Publisher: Polity

Summary

As countries went into lockdown in 2020, people turned to music for comfort and solidarity. Neighbours sang to each other from their balconies; people participated in online music sessions that created an experience of socially distanced togetherness.

Nicholas Cook argues that the value of music goes far beyond simple enjoyment. Music can enhance well-being, interpersonal relationships, cultural tolerance, and civil cohesion. At the same time, music can be a tool of persuasion or ideology. Thinking about music helps bring into focus the values that are mobilised in today’s culture wars. Making music together builds relationships of interdependence and trust: rather than escapism, it offers a blueprint for a community of mutual obligation and interdependence.

Music: Why It Matters is for anyone who loves playing, listening to, or thinking about music, as well as those pursuing it as a career.

Author Biography

Nicholas Cook is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

or maybe it doesn’t?                 
music for good or ill
ideology in disguise
music, race, colonialism
after BLM
music and asocial individualism
music, nostalgia, delusion
music and administered society
musical togetherness
music, covid, ethics
pandemic intimacy

Notes
Further Reading