Classical versus rock

CEBU, Philippines - I’ve heard it many times from pregnant cousins, friends, teachers, and neighbors. They always say classical music is good for babies inside the womb. It will create a kind of creative circuitry in the brain that will help them become talented individuals when they come out into the world. A friend who just learned she’s pregnant, texted me, asking what classical music she would play for her baby. I said play rock music. She didn’t follow my advice, of course. One time in the hospital, while I was tending to a cousin who just delivered her very first baby, I eavesdropped on her and the lady lying on the neighbor bed. I pretended to be reading something. But I heard my cousin asking the other lady, who looked like she just survived the bombing of Hiroshima, “did you try classical music with your baby?” The lady replied, “no we don’t have that in the house.” In my quiet life, I have heard so many conversations or arguments favoring classical music as one that will give children a brighter future with overwhelming opportunities. Some say it will help children shine in the classroom. Celebrity singers even have claimed one way or the other that somehow their mothers played classical music every night before they went to sleep, which is the reason for their unmatched success. And mothers always insist that the baby can really hear the music from inside the womb, again and again, as if the world doesn’t know that. Most mothers say the baby moves only with classical music. I say differently, because I tried this with my wife a long time ago and the baby reacted not only to classical music. It even kicked stronger when I experimented with Metallica’s “Sad but True” and Guns ‘n’ Roses’ “Sweet Child of Mine.” And the baby seemed to be enjoying it too. Many would say, don’t try playing rock music to your baby. It will ruin his life. He will end up in prison or he will become a nuisance to society later on. I’d be dead if this was true. I’ve had had so many students who listened to rock music or was born into a rock-music-filled environment because the mom or dad was a musician of sorts. You can even add acid rock and heavy metal if you want some growling and screaming to their repertoire. But they didn’t end up in prison or become scalawags in society. They are now hard-working citizens: nurses, engineers, Montessori teachers, architects, and civil servants. For God’s sake, they are the ones who are now holding the chin of this country up until we can all fully stand up from the mistakes of the past. They are the same people whose rock music the adults tried to muffle. No wonder they pack the malls to get the “b” sound monitors. Even milk companies try to lure consumers with free CDs of classical music that comes with the can. If the claim that classical music is really the one for developing babies in the womb, I doubt if our brothers and sisters who are living in poverty will have the chance to listen to this so called “refined” kind of art since this does not own ample playing time on radio stations around the city. I know of a grown-up from my childhood who strongly believed that his music, if I may quote him — “is the refined one”, is the right kind of music because it is classical. May God have mercy on his soul. God does not enjoy classical music only because it is the refined one. He also enjoys rock, funky, metal, or reggae because these are the music of His people. Children become worse not because of the music that they listen to. They become monsters because of how their parents raised them. So music clearly has nothing to do with it. In fact, children or the youth per se, find solace in their play tracks. You’ll see them banging their heads like rock stars inside jeepneys or malls and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just music, pal. Music. Plain music. Whoever said listening to rock music is a crime? I am not standing on a mountain full of rock cds and usbs. I am embracing all existing mountains of thousands and millions of music, all sorts of music which includes classical, of course, that the world has ever produced. I do not discriminate. I do not say that only classical music can bring out the best in babies and children and teenagers, alike. In fact, there’s one piece of classical music that I really love so much. It’s J.S. Bach’s “Air on the G String.” It makes my heart fly like leaves in a warm summer night. It gives me the kind of peaceful feeling I get on a Sunday morning out on the veranda sipping latte on a white cup with blue skies hovering over my head. I even named my firstborn, Sebastian after Johann Sebastian Bach. If you are the kind of person who still doesn’t believe in the fusion of rock and classical music, better check Yngwie Johann Malmsteen on youtube. Enjoy listening!