Have you ever noticed how music affects you? I listen to a pretty wide range of music, mostly older melodic heavy metal, but I also love classical music, good piano music, and I enjoy a good symphonic piece. However, I do not listen to rap music or country music. Rap music is degrading, not only to women, but to humans in general. You can’t be positive when garbage is being pumped into your mind. I don’t listen to country because most of it is either just plain silly or, more often than not, it’s about cheating or drinking. Again, it’s hard to be positive when you’re wallowing in misery.
This post isn’t about music, per se, I just wanted to get your attention on things you listen to on a daily basis, and music is common ground between almost everyone. Television programming isn’t much better than rap or country music.
I’ve talked a lot lately about staying motivated and being positive. It helps when the sounds you hear being pumped into your subconscious are either uplifting or at least decent.
Another thing you can pump into your brain is knowledge and motivational speakers.
Many of us spend a lot of time reading material to expand our minds, learn new things, build our self esteem, learn new business skills–the list is endless. But there are times when it’d be much more convenient to have these things playing in the background while we work.
I found a site that offers tons of audio files you can download and listen to at your convenience. Some of the downloads are free, some are not. But this site has almost everything under the sun–motivation, fiction, religion, technology–like I said, the list is endless.
If you find yourself with little time for the material you’d like to read and can easily work with noise in the background, this site is for you. It’s called Learn Out Loud. I think you’ll love it.
You can improve your blogging, writing, life skills, self-esteem, learn foreign languages, whatever areas you want to expand on or empower while listening to material that lifts you up instead of bringing you down. You have choices; you can turn the TV off, ignore the Rap music and give yourself and your family a brighter future. This is also part of getting plugged in.
After you check it out, grab a freebie or two, come back and let us know what you think.
This is not an affiliate link. I share these things to help you learn and grow.
Enjoy!
If you work online, as a reader I'd like to think you'd be able to use a search engine to find positive examples of rap or country music.
Sweeping generalisations are the enemy of progress just as much as the negative content spewed by the genres of music you highlight.
There is also an argument that you learn more when you step outside your comfort zone and try something different.
Thank you for the link to Learn Out Loud. It is a solid resource for days when you want to be over productive
Nic, Thanks for sharing your opinions. Music is a personal choice and I gave personal opinions on my tastes in music. I do listen to some country, but only if it has meaning (to me) or is uplifting. Rap, on the other hand, I'm sorry the sound of it just annoys me. Period. That's one comfort zone I will not step out of–that and opera. If you went through my music collection you would find a wide array of genre's and styles. I have been known to have Willie Nelson, Iron Maiden, Elvis Presley's gospel and Beethoven on the same play list. I guess I'm a diverse odd ball?
Perhaps it would have been better to list individual songs in the genre's I listen to, but it would be a long list.
I normally avoid "sweeping generalizations" but I do know the effects the power of sound has on people–whether it's music they love or hate, traffic, kid's playing, or loud machinery like jack-hammers. What annoys one person doesn't necessarily annoy another. But the main point is to be careful what you do listen to. If it brings you down or puts you in a bad mood–avoid it. If it gives you a negative outlook on life, love, or even cultural groups of people–avoid it.
Audio learning, for some, will be stepping out of their comfort zone. It actually took me awhile to get used to being read to as opposed to reading it myself. I've also discovered voices that are hard to listen to for long periods. But it is a great tool when you don't have time to sit and read or your eyes are simply too tired to read.
Thanks again for the great points you made in your comment; the main point being to be careful in whichever genre of music you choose.