Musical Distractions

Before the slaves were freed, they used many pastimes to get through their long days of work. Their most common tool was music they would sing and play instruments to pass the workday, enjoy free time, and even to communicate with each other. In a similar way, students sometimes use music during finals week to get them through their studies.

When slaves were out in the fields working, they would sing songs with each other or by themselves. When the soft and passionate harmonies were heard out in the fields, it gave the other slaves hope. They had hope that they would one day be freed or delivered. They had hope that their sweet Jesus would rescue them and take them home. They had hope because no matter what they were going through, they would hear the music and know they weren’t alone.

As students, we know that going through finals can be absolute torture. Our labor is more mental than physical, but long hours, little sleep, and only junk food and energy drinks for sustenance can wear someone down to the breaking point. So how do we keep our sanity and make it to completion? Music, of course. Granted, some college students can’t get anything done with any background noise, but this blog isn’t about them. The students I’m talking about are ones like me. They use music to help them concentrate, to give them inspiration for their papers, and to remind them that there is life aside from homework, and relief is waiting on the other side of this week. Their deliverance is coming.

Whenever slaves had free time, they would throw little parties at one of their shelters and invite others over for merry-making and music. Their owners understood that this was a much-needed moral booster and let it happen. In the same way, hours and hours of writing and studying without breaks decreases productivity in college students and eventually clouds the mind. We need some free time now and then, and what better way to relieve tension than to listen to our favorite music and dance it out? And trust me, we do.

During the time of the Underground Railroad, slaves would sing and play music to communicate with each other. Different tunes and lyrics would mean different things, and certain songs would be sung as signals or alerts. With this method, the slaves would keep up with news and escape plans. Finals aren’t exactly a secret, so we don’t really use anything specific to get messages across, but this fact reminded me of one instance of the week where music brought me and another student together. It was 5 o’clock Monday morning, and I had been in the library for about eleven hours with no sleep or real food. I got hungry, so I went down to Starbucks to heat up a microwave meal. There was another “all-nighter” there working on a paper. His computer was blasting out the sonorous sounds of Switchfoot. I expressed my mutual love for the band and tossed him a pack of fruit gushers, and we’ve been friends ever since. That was a form of communication that was quite welcome amidst my seemingly unending work, and now I have someone else to hang out with between classes.

So as I sing along with the band Saosin ringing out from my itunes and write this blog, my last assignment of finals week, I can appreciate music and its connections between slavery from years ago and the role it plays in my own life when the stresses of finals seem too much to bear. Songs take us through hardships, spark life to our little parties, and bring people together when they wouldn’t otherwise communicate. Life takes a toll and music helps to pay it.