music: religion?

I was raised as a Catholic. I even got "confirmed" (whatever that means). Luckily for me, as soon as my sister and I started asking our parents why we have to wake up early on Sundays to go to church and started showing very minor signs of annoyance for this strange habit, our parents seemed to be relieved. It's like they were only doing this whole Catholic act for us and as soon as we didn't want to do it anymore, neither did they.

It's a strange feeling when a belief system of your own is challenged. Nevermind puberty, growing up is not about awkward voice changes or hair where you never had hair before, growing up is finding out Santa Claus isn't real. Now that shakes you at the core. For me, Santa Claus went down with the tooth fairy, unicorns, and other such mythical creatures, and although that was a sad time, I still had Jesus to believe in. And sure, he doesn't come down my chimney delivering presents, but his birthday makes me get presents anyway. Oh, and he walks on water...I guess that's cool.

Now although I can't pinpoint the exact day when I got to this non-believing place, I remember some general things that made me start feeling a little bit less jolly about Jesus: realizing how many wars were/are fought in the name of religion, reading The Republic, watching Zeitgeist, having a nun butt in line at the Vatican (true story), and reading The Davinci Code (kidding). Before I get ahead of myself, it's not that I don't believe in something out there, but I certainly don't believe in organized religion.

Now that was a really long introduction, and you're probably wondering what the shit Santa Claus and Jesus have to do with music (besides carols). But for me, music has replaced religion. But don't worry, I won't kill for it just yet. I think that people can have really amazing experiences with music, and other art in general that are comparable to experiences that religion can offer. Music gets me through the hard times, and defines the good times.

But just like the idea behind Catholicism probably had the best intentions in mind (?), it's come to represent some not-so-good stuff...Will this happen to music?!

Any art can be subverted. Political propaganda: cool drawings, shitty messages. And now, I guess we could get into a whole discussion about "messages" behind music (violence, sex, drugs), etc...but that's not what I mean. What about the grander scheme of things?

The ipod ads are a perfect example of turning really cool music (art?) into jingles for consumerism. Although I worship my ipod for its ability to feed me my scripture whenever I want it, I am a little bit critical of pop culture, and how ipod ads and other commercials will use music to further the western ideology of individualism, capitalism, and being 'cool'. I'm not going to get into a grand discussion of what the media's take-home message is. But is it acceptable for music (art) to be used to promote overarching ideas? Sort of like how renaissance painters were commissioned by churches to create amazing works of art symbolizing the church's power and influence? Was the church subverting the art?

Ironically, I totally feed into this...this whole entry has been about how music is my new religion...Which is exactly what those white shadows seem to be doing when they are listening to their ipods! Having euphoric moments where they dance in the subway. Just like praying in public. Just when I stood in the Sistine Chapel looking at the art around me in awe, I wondered "maybe there is a heaven?". Are ipod advertisements successfully convincing vulnerable people (like me!) that music is the light and the doctrine is to buy more products? Ah!

But then, I am reassured...I listened to music before the ipod came out. And ads like this convince me that art is still being subverted to a certain degree: