Danger and music

Extract

[...] Danger and music Shostakovich and Messiaen composed music while their very lives were in danger, and those musicians hired to perform aboard the Titanic are reported to have played until the cold gray water enveloped them. Messiaen composed while a French prisoner of war to the Germans, during World War II. Shostakovich suffered at the hands of an oppressive and dictatorial government, with supreme authority over the life and death of each citizen. The musicians aboard the Titanic are claimed by some survivors to have played to the very end, to keep the other passengers calm as they escaped. [...]

[...] Youths generally love louder music because it serves to benumb their other sense, and even their sense of hearing, leaving their brains in an overexcited state of activity. This has been proven to be dangerous and harmful to their healths, and they are thus aware. This apparent uncertainty of harm, to some degree, is viewed as a risk, making the effect of the music all the more exciting to those who care to listen at insane volumes. This more personal aspect of danger, as far as each individual concern, can only be subconscious; no one would willingly enjoy himself being harmed in such minute steps over long periods of time, but it is worth noting because of the scientific evidence supporting this danger. [...]