Music vs. Books

The influence of books has a greater affect on a person over the influence of music although they both have a huge impact on the life around us. Books can be enjoyable and educational. Both can surge certain emotions in a person and these elements can be enjoyable. However, music can also be enjoyable but it is a different kind of enjoyable. Enjoyable music affects the way you feel but a book can affect one’s entire outlook on life. Music allows for the body to find some kind of escape and expression for our bodies and minds. Books can draw a person in based on its story line and it takes one an emotional and psychological journey. Most would not attempt or even think about comparing music to books because they are entirely different. The average person would say that they enjoy music over books simply because music does not take one on a journey. One of the major differences between these two is that reading a book requires for the eyes to transfer information to the brain which is much more difficult than allowing for ears to transport the music to the mind. Another major difference is that to read a book, one has to be somewhat educated to understand it whereas with music, one just needs to speak the language to understand. Reading demands one’s full attention unlike music, which completely zones out the rest of the world or one tune’s it out while performing tasks such as cleaning or even driving. Books require one’s full attention as well as the ability to be able to understand the book itself. The majority of the information we know comes from books: can we get as much information from music? Books have a specific storyline and plot and many find it impossible to relate to some of these storylines. Books can either leave one feeling thoughtful or cozy as well as inspire and captivate the reader. Music, in contrast to books, defines a culture, a decade, and it influences society, style, and even a person itself. Music can define a person as well as empower people. Some say that after composing music and recording that they do not feel very accomplished because there will always be the thought of rejection, people might not like it, and they might not understand it, such as the band Rush. There is very few people who like every song that they have done and most do not take the time to understand the lyrics and the music. Music can cause one to go back to a past time and relive a memory and it is for this reason that many find it easy to relate to music rather than books. Of course, everyone can say that there is this book or that song or this band or that author that has highly influenced them throughout their life. But, there are also some who have never even heard of the band, book, author, song, etc. and whose life has never been influence by these different elements at all. To say that books are more influential than music goes against many people’s believes but books can take one to a whole new world and make one look at everything differently. It is not to be said that songs like Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5” and Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” are not speaking to many and causing some sort of reaction but rather it causes a different reaction as compared to books such as “The Iliad” and “The Idiot.” There is much debate and controversy over which is better but truly, they are almost equals.