Music and Lyrics

Dear Reader, Today I'm feeling patriotic, but not because of any huge holiday or celebration. Today I experienced a little thing that made me proud to be a citizen of the United States of America: listening to the National Anthem on the Campus of Brigham Young University. This twice daily occurrence is something that I believe should be done at every appropriate opportunity. You see, at BYU there is an American flag outside the administration building that is put up every morning and taken down every evening whilst the "Star-Spangled Banner" is played over loud-speakers across the entire campus. I have walked across campus several times during the evening when they take down the flag, giving me the chance to stop and think about the meaning of our flag. It is rare that I am ever on campus early enough to hear the National Anthem while it is put up, but this morning was different. Whilst running around campus making food deliveries (I started work at 5:45), the regu

Dear Reader, For those of you who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, participating in music is probably at least a weekly occurrence, if not more often. For those of you who are not members of the Church, you probably already know that every week during church meetings, there are always hymns and music being produced by the members. We sing hymns in sacrament meeting, sometimes in other Sunday meetings and put together special musical numbers for special events like ward parties. With all this live/untouched music, a question came to mind: why does the church not switch to using recordings of all the hymns in sacrament meeting or other common church events? One of my favorite songs when I was growing up Considering the secular side of music, why is it that we long to hear our favorite bands in person? Why do we jam stadiums, crowd clubs and book live wedding music? The answer, my friend, is divine. Music is a source of creativity. Music re