Music, to me, is the ultimate form of Pathos.
During spring break, I had my car so I could drive anywhere I wanted. I didn't have anywhere to go since none of my friends were on spring break, so I just took a nice cruise down good old Tewksbury. If you know my town, you know there are a lot of trees and farms, and if you don't know my town, well, now you know. To set the mood of the 65 degree weather in March, I put on some music, rolled town my windows, and enjoyed the ride.
My iPod was on shuffle and the first song that came on was:
Yellow Bird and Coal Mines by the Scene Aesthetic. I only have two songs from this band so I was about to change the song, however, I kept listening and the song instantly drew on my emotions of a break up I went through sophomore year. The lyrics and the guitar strumming in the background surrounded all my senses and took me back to that time for three minutes.
Then, a change of pace, Welcome to Jamrock by Damien Marley came on. I was immediately drawn to memories of my bus rides to school my senior year in high school, these aren't my favorite memories, since most people drove senior year. However, the song is very relaxing and as I was driving, I was reminded of those bus rides, but I was very relaxed.
Finally, the last song to come on was The Air that I Breathe by All That Remains. This song is very fast pace and full of anger. All of sudden my happy relaxed mood suddenly turned into me bobbing my head back and forth, holding up my air guitar(I may or may not be a good driver) and I was becoming angrier by every verse and I didn't even know why!
Since I am now familiar with logos, pathos, and ethos, the emotions I felt and probably have always felt with these songs was now brought to my attention. I think music is very powerful and it can be a very powerful form of pathos.
I agree completely! Music is extremely powerful and I also see its ability to act as rhetoric. I'm glad you wrote this post, drawing attention to this unique form of rhetoric.
ReplyDeleteI can definitely relate to what you are talking about; music has always carried distinct memories for me. Many times I listen to music based off of how I am feeling at that point, but there are some times when I just don't know exactly how I feel. These times call for the good ol' iPod shuffle and it is interesting how I can go from feeling particularly indifferent to feeling several different types of (sometimes strong) emotions with the change of each song.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely: music is notorious for evoking pathos! Really relevant post, Karen.
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