Tia Denora's Music In Everyday Life

As I step outside the door and plug in my earphones my thumbs automatically scroll through my playlist in search of the theme song to the latest musical, the Greatest Showman. The beats kick in, my steps quickly match, and I’m off to start my day feeling cheerful and prepared. Its songs are full of power and determination. For instance, the song “This Is Me” has lyrics “And I’m marching on to the beat I drum, I’m not scared to be seen, I make no apologies, this is me”. I choose this bold song because it refreshes my busy mind and puts aside insecurities like a reset button to get ready to start classes. In Music in Everyday Life, Tia Denora makes a convincing argument that music is a tool or technology that assists every day tasks, moods, and simply being. Although Denora uses observations to demonstrate an association between style of music and our feelings, I am convinced that we often explore outside our musical tastes while still maintaining self-awareness. …show more content…
DeNora presents music “as a catalyst that can shift reluctant actors into ‘necessary’ modes of agency, into modes of agency they perceive to be ‘demanded’”(DeNora, 54). A catalyst, not only used by actors, to reflect on a current emotion and prepare for the desirable or expected behavior. From previous experience, I tend to have an ideal emotional behavior for when I am in class, a focused and prepared mindset to perform well, before the music even starts to play. Music “speeds up” the change in attitude like water clears taste buds to exaggerate the new