The Power of Melody

Denis’ observations of the history of the Russian national anthem piqued my interest.

My introduction to the anthem was my childhood days of watching the movie Rocky IV, where the famous pugilist travels to Moscow to battle the unbeatable Ivan Drago. In a pivotal scene of the movie, the Russian national anthem is played in its entirety. I remember my twelve-year-old self thinking, “I have no idea what the words mean, but the melody is very cool!” It is a tune that I found myself humming often after watching the movie.

So it is interesting that the non-communist Russia is reusing the melody of the old anthem, with reworded lyrics. Most people who do not speak Russian would never notice the difference. I listened to the new lyrics and could not tell any difference from my memory of the original lyrics. Had Denis not pointed it out, I would have assumed the new lyrics were the original lyrics. Though the lyrics had faded in my memory, the melody of the song was unmistakable.

Such is the way with human memories. We remember tunes, but the small details of words slowly dissolve away: hence the reason why I only remember the first line to “Auld Lang Syne” and hum the rest of the tune. When I think of my last vacation to Mexico, I remember the warm sun, the lavish food, and frolicking at the beach. The small details of waiting for the flight, security checks at the airport, and a crying baby on the plane: all these details seem to drift away while the main melody remains.

Music lingers in people’s memories, evoking strong feelings from the past. As such, music is a powerful aid in marketing and advertising. Businesses work very hard at creating a positive association between their logo or product, and a popular tune or melody. My first memory of the song “Mack the Knife” was not of Frank Sinatra singing. Rather, I remember this song used in a McDonald’s commercial, which used the same tune but changed the original lyrics “It’s Mack the Knife!” to “It’s Mac tonight!”

The music industry is putting tremendous effort in trying to control their music content online, as many people are using copyrighted music as background music in their homemade Youtube videos. There are many silent videos on Youtube with the message, “this video contained an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders”. Youtube has implemented an automated system that tracks what it considers copyrighted, and automatically deletes the audio. This move has angered many users of Youtube, here is an example:
http://techcrunch.com/2009/01/14/youtube-full-of-creepy-soundless-music-videos/

Though this move may be considered drastic or heavy-handed, it suggests the power the common person now has as a creator of online content. One person can create a Youtube video with a copyrighted song and associate themselves, their logo, message, or product to that song. Viewers of the video, who may have never heard the song before, would associate the song to the images in the video. This may not be in the best interest of the musician who, for example, did not want to endorse an inappropriate product on a Youtube advertisement.

Educators are caught in the middle of this copyright war. Does a phys-ed teacher require public performance rights to play cd music while the students are running laps in the gym? Many schools have “end of year slideshows”; a collection of photographs from the past school year accompanied by pop music. Are these public performances an infringement of copyright? Probably. Are teachers ethically obliged to respect copyright? Most likely.

What is the solution? I always tell my students the best way to avoid any copyright issues and ethical ambiguity is to record their own music for their projects. Students can use Audacity, a free multi-track audio recording program. I have guided students in recording classical music, rap, group poems, radio plays, movie sound tracks, and sound effects using a collection of free software and inexpensive musical instruments. It is amazing to see the pride students take in listening to their own recorded music.

Music is a powerful medium that is universal in its ability to evoke memories and stir emotions. Give students the chance to use this powerful medium to demonstrate their learning.