Will Music Therapy Ever Rule the World??

It is early on this Sunday morning, and I am sitting in the semi-darkness, wondering what to write about. I have a blog post title generator that I occasionally use to help me find a way, and this was the suggested title that caught my fancy - Will Music Therapy Ever Rule the World?

Ooh, boy!

Here is my completely unsolicited opinion that has nothing to do with what you might think but is my right to hold and espouse to anyone who listens. Feel free to agree with me or disagree with me. We can debate this until the cows come home, if you would like, but I am just as entitled to my opinion as any one else is - and I will fight for the right for you to offer up your opinion, even if I feel that your view is incorrect (again, in my opinion!).

Are you ready? Here it is.

No. Music Therapy will never rule the world.

How can it? How can music therapy, a profession which is growing in awareness and acceptance, be something that is universal? There are several things that are keeping us from world domination (what would a world dominated by music therapy even be??). 

First, we can't stop bickering with each other about every thing and any thing. We can't seem to find a common language to describe what it is that we do. There are still rifts in how we view the work of each other. I have had many a fellow music therapist tell me that if they knew where I lived (LIVED, mind you) before we started talking that they would never have even spoken to me because I was from "the other side." That staggered me and made me so very sad for our profession. Sides? We are sorting ourselves into sides?? If we cannot seem to get into respectful and meaningful dialogue with our fellow therapists, how will we ever become united enough to rule the world? We cannot even unite on social media topics that are supposed to help us become united. We need to find our commonalities before we can coordinate our world takeover.

Second, we can't seem to keep good music therapists in the profession. This is not an easy job, folks, and if you go into music therapy expecting to be high paid, always singing and dancing, and having bluebirds flying around your head every time you start to sing, you are going to find that this is a very unrealistic idea about what our job entails. There will be times when you have to clean up human juices because that's what human helpers have to do. There will be times when you are bogged down in paperwork because that's what human helpers do. The money will never be enough - it never is. The trick is to find a good balance between the things that you do not like about any job (because all jobs have good and bad things) and the great things that happen in this job (the client who has never said a word but who sings in your session, the group members that work together to complete a music therapy project but who cannot speak to each other outside of the project). For whatever reason, music therapists are not staying music therapists. This is reflected in the membership of our national association. We need more of us before we can change the social structure of the world.

Third, we do not own music. I have this discussion with music therapy interns every so often. Music therapists do not have a monopoly on music or how music is used outside the music therapy session. Until we can have complete control over all music everywhere, we will not be able to rule supreme! (Tongue firmly in cheek, here - which is an idiom for "I am being sarcastic!") I have known music therapists who have taken the stance of "if you want to play music on the floor during leisure time, you have to play what I choose and provide to you." That is an unrealistic position as music permeates the lives of every human. We cannot control what people hear as they watch television or are doing chores. So, we cannot take over the world because we cannot take over our primary medium.

Fourth, music therapy is not for the masses. One of the best things about our job is that we individualize what we do for each client who comes in front of us. If there was such a thing as a universal tone or frequency for all humans, how long do you think it would take for someone to weaponize that tone? Not very long. We would go from being compassionate human helpers to being the oppressors of the world. Not a job title I relish, I tell you. MMM. Relish - I think I am hungry.

Fifth, music therapists tend to be compassionate, dedicated, and devoted to the clients they serve. World leaders have to view others as part of a collective rather than as individuals. I posit that we, as music therapists, are not suited to ruling the world because we are not built to do so. We would have difficulty in making decisions that devalue some while building up others, at least, I think we would. Some of the trends in music therapy discussions these days seem to contradict this thought. 

I admit that I enjoy the thought exercise of what a world ruled by music therapy would look like. It seems to be something very happy on the surface, but as soon as you start to get through some of the details, it turns dark pretty quickly (at least, it does in my mind). I hope that this post piqued your interest in thinking through some of the things that are happening in our music therapy world and to work towards solutions rather than divisions. 

If music therapy ever does become so important in the world that people are saying things like, "I'm not sure if I should negotiate with that country. Let's talk to the music therapy council of the world first," I hope that the person who is in charge of it all is my friend, Janice. I think she would be a good overlord. Do you have any nominations for our slate of councilors?

Singing for all, right, Janice?

Ooh, that just led me to a new blog post idea that I had better write down before I lose it in the morass of things that are contained within my brain. Thanks for reading this tongue-in-cheek post on this Sunday morning. I hope that it made you laugh and think a bit. Again, differing opinions are welcome!!