Is Music Neutral?

 According to the Word of God music can have a powerful influence on one's emotions, mood, and state of being (1 Samuel 16:15-17, 23).  Secular researchers have confirmed this to be the case.

Music that produces positive effects on the listener is considered 'good'.  Music that produces negative effects on the listener is considered 'bad'. 

Music has five parts to it.  It has melody, harmony, rhythm, pitch, and intensity.

The principles that control these five parts must be followed in order to write good music.  If  one or more of these principles are not followed then the music is considered partially bad. If all of these principles are violated then the music is considered bad.

Good Music: The principles for writing good music is as follows:
 
Source: "What's Wrong With Christain Rock", by Jeff Godwin, Dec 1990, pages 37-40

"Melody - True melody will combine ascending and descending pitches that will end with a definite high place showing resolution."

"Harmony - All harmony is based on chordal patterns which support the melody. There are no excessive consonance and/or dissonance."

"Rhythm - Rhythm is the orderly movement of music through time. Constant alternation of triple and duple measures creates a driving syncopation (a musical rhythm accenting a normally weak beat), producing tension. Subtle balance between regular accent patterns and occasional syncopation is necessary to avoid hypnotic effect."

"Pitch - True music has a variety of pitches which are accurate. Very high pitches are used only for contrast and climax points."

"Intensity - True music employs much contrast between loud and soft, with a constant change in the dynamics level. This is not true about rock music. It has an intensity that is pretty much loud all the time.

Classical and semi-classical music follows these principles."

Rock Music: Rock music violates all the above principles. Specifically,

"Melody  - In rock music there is no melody that combines ascending and descending pitchs but instead it has for the most part static movement and lack of balance which produces either a hypnotic effect or a sense of despair in the listener."

"Harmony - In rock music there are excessive consonance and/or dissonance."

"Rhythm - In rock music, the rhythm is a combination of unending back beats and break beats. The purpose of this is to produce an environment of dominance."

"Pitch - Rock music has constant repetition of pitches almost never modulates, and is slightly under true pitch. The unorderly high pitched screams through out the rock music results in nothing but musical chaos."

"Intensity -   It has an intensity that is pretty much loud all the time."

Rock music does not conform to the principle of what makes for good music. It is not music at all; it is noise.

Secular researchers have carried out experiments to determine the effects of good and bad music on all forms of life;  plant, animal, and human.

Here are a few examples of the experiments that were conducted and their results.

Affects of Music on Plant Life

Source: How Music Affects Your Kids..., What Parents Need to know

Researcher: Dorothy Retallack

A. Experiment #1 - Plants  exposed to semi-classical and rock music

At the end of 2 weeks

a) plants exposed to semi-classical music (good music)
-- plants were leaning toward source of music

b) plants exposed to rock music (bad music)
-- plants were leaning away from music source
-- grew erratically
-- died within a month

B. Experiment #2 - Plants (beans, squash, corn, morning glory, coleus plants) were exposed to four different kinds of music (rock, avant-grade atonal, no music, devotional)

After 10 days, researcher Dorothy Ratallack found

a) Group #1 - Plants exposed to Led Zeppelin and Vanilla fudge (hard rock) [bad music]
-- all plants leaning away from music source
-- after 3 weeks all plants were stunted and dying

b) Group #2 - plants exposed to avant-grade atonal music [partially bad music]
-- all plants were leaning 15 degrees away from music source
-- had medium size roots

c) Group #3 - plants exposed to no music
-- had the longest roots than Groups #1 and #2
-- grew higher than Groups #1 and #2

d) Group #4 - plants exposed to devotional music [good music]
-- grew towards music source
-- grew 2" taller than Group #3

Affects of Sound on Animals

Source: How Music Affects Your Kids..., What Parents Need to know

Researchers - Studied affects of sound and music on mice
   -- Dr Harvey Bird, Physicist from Fairleigh Dickinson University
   -- Dr Gervasia Schreckenberg, Neurobiologist from Georgian Court College in Lakewood

Three test groups.  Mice were tested to see how well they could run a maze to get food after exposed to voodoo music (bad music), Strauss Waltzes (good music), and no music.  All music was kept at low volume.  Done over a period of time.  Mice were tested for their ability to remember the maze over time.

a) Group #1 - exposed to incessant voodoo drum beats (bad music)
    (i) -- had a difficult time running maze
         -- over time this difficulty increased to the point they became totally disoriented and unable to
          complete maze
         -- after a 3 week break from the voodoo drum beats and running maze the mice still could not run
         maze
    (ii) At the end of the experiment brains were dissected
         -- "had abnormal structural changes in their brain cells"
         -- "the neurons in their brains were growing out widely in all directions without connecting to
         other neurons"
         -- "There was abnormal amounts of Messenger RNA, a chemical that the brain uses for restoring
         memories"

b) Group #2 - exposed to Strauss waltzes (good music)
-- had no problem running the maze
-- after a 3 week break from the waltzes and running the maze the mice could run the maze quickly
--  had a slight edge over Group #3

c) Group # 3 - mice were kept in silence
-- had no problem running the maze
-- after 3 week break from running maze the mice could run the maze quickly

Researchers Conclusions:
a) Music effects mental function
b) Exposure to harmful music (disharmonic noise) causes brain damage

Affects of Music on Humans

Source:  "Christian" Rock Music, Christian or Satanic?

1) Researcher - John Diamond, MD
-- "man is rhythmic in respiration, heartbeat, pulse, speech, and gait"
-- "when the rhythm of music corresponds to the natural body rhythm, it produces feeling of ecstasy, alertness, and peace.  It energizes the mind and body, and facilitates balance and self-control."

2) Researcher - David Nobel, MD: an authority on music
-- "has done extensive research on the value of music rhythms corresponding to body rhythms"
-- "rock music contains harmonic dissonance and melodic discord while it accents rhythm with a big beat.  In fact, the anapestic beat (two short beats, a long beat, then a pause) used by many rock musicians actually is the opposite of  our heart and arterial rhythms [thereby causing an immediate loss of body strength]."

"Dr Diamond confirms Dr Nobel's findings and adds that the stopped anapestic rhythm "heightens stress and anger, reduces output, increases hyperactivity, and weakens muscle strength.""

3) "Clinical researchers at the UCLA School of Nursing in Los Angeles, and at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta found that premature babies gained weight faster and were able to use oxygen more efficiently when they listened to soothing music mixed with voices or womb sounds."


Summary

In summary researchers has shown that

a) Rock music (without words) causes negative effects on all forms of life
-- plants lean away from music source
-- mice can't run maze due to brain damage from music
-- all life forms experience either stunted growth, brain damage, and/or death

b) atonal music [partially bad], music that lacks a tonal center, or key (ie, pitch), has a limited negative effect on all forms of life

c) Classical, semi-classical, and devotional music [good music] had a positive effect on all forms of life; it improved the quality of life.


Jesus said, "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)

God created music and the laws for making music that blesses and/or improves the quality of the life of  the hearer.  When the laws are disobeyed then the hearer is negatively affected.

Is Rock Music demonic?  Rock music causes destruction and sometimes death to the hearer.  Since the objective and purpose of  Satan is to kill, steal, and destroy then rock music is of the devil.

Many Christians play in Christian Rock bands.  Their music is no different than that of secular rock music.  Do the godly words they sing make their songs godly?  The answer is "No".   Rock music causes negatives effects on the hearer and it matters not what the words are.  Godly words will not override the negative effects of the music.

See: Is Christian Rock Music Godly?
http://christianfaith4today.blogspot.com/2011/12/is-christian-rock-music-of-god.html

Sources:

 "What's Wrong With Christain Rock", by Jeff Godwin, Dec 1990
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss/190-2427935-5343069?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=what%27s+wrong+with+christian+rock


The effects of rock music on all forms of life cited in this article plus other experiements performed that were not mentioned can be found in the following articles.

"Christian" Rock Music, Christian or Satanic?
http://www.av1611.org/crock/crock1.html

How Music Affects Your Kids..., What Parents Need to know
http://www.vanillafudge.com/link_backups/music2.htm