📘 Part 3: Music, Culture, and Modern Life

This episode's vocabulary

the in thing (idiom) – something that is very fashionable at the moment. → Example: It seems like pop music is the in thing these days.

all over the place (idiom) – everywhere. → Example: We have folk music events and live bands all over the place.

by and large (idiom) – in general; on the whole. → Example: By and large, when you listen to things at home, you've got more control.

at the mercy of (someone/something) (idiom) – in a situation where someone or something has complete power over you. → Example: At a live concert, you're sort of at the mercy of other people and their choices.

as a rule (idiom) – usually; in most cases. → Example: As a rule, listening to music might take their minds off any demanding activities.

take (one's) mind off (something) (phrasal verb) – to stop you from worrying or thinking about a problem or pain, often by forcing you to think about other things. → Example: Listening to music might take their minds off any demanding activities.

dissociate (v.) – to disconnect or separate from something. → Example: Maybe people don't really want to be in the moment, so they want to dissociate a bit.

portable (adj.) – easy to carry or move, so that you can use it in different places. → Example: Technology has made music more portable.

in the palm of your hand (idiom) – to have complete control over someone or something. → Example: Now, thanks to technology, the opera's literally in the palm of your hands.

large-scale (adj.) – involving many people or things, or happening over a large area. → Example: People enjoy large-scale events, like large music festivals.

gig (n.) – a single performance by a musician or a group of musicians. → Example: They did a gig in London last night.

enhance cognitive abilities (phrase) – to improve mental processes such as thinking, learning, and memory. → Example: Musical education enhances cognitive abilities in children.

tend to (phrasal verb) – to be likely to behave in a particular way or have a particular characteristic. → Example: Younger people tend to like newer and louder pieces and artists.

Questions and Answers

Maria: What kind of music events do people like today?

Rory: Well, generally speaking, it seems like pop music is the thing or at least the in thing these days. You can see pop artists at the top of most of the charts, like people like Taylor Swift, for example.

Maria: What kind of music events are there in your country?

Rory: Usually there's a little bit of everything, I think. We have like folk music events and live bands all over the place, but there are also bigger concerts and orchestras and even operas in the major cities.

Maria: Do you think children should receive some musical education?

Rory: In general, yes, it's good to be able to understand why things work and how they might be used to achieve some effect. And presumably we want music to be created in the future, so some kind of education will be necessary for that. It doesn't just happen by accident.

Maria: What are the differences between old and young people's music preferences?

Rory: Oh, that's a good question. I suppose usually older people seem to prefer more old-fashioned music, probably just because it's what they're used to, and they've been around longer. So of course it will be old-fashioned. While younger people tend to like newer and louder pieces and artists. I'm not sure why, that just seems to be the case.

Maria: What are the differences between listening to music at home and at a live concert?

Rory: Well, by and large, when you listen to things at home, you've got more control over the environment and choice in music, whereas, well, broadly speaking at a live concert, you're sort of at the mercy of other people and their choices, aren't you?

Maria: Why do many people like listening to music while doing sports?

Rory: Well, I suppose as a rule, it might take their minds off any demanding activities or distract them from the huge effort they're probably making, because doing sports is pretty demanding, I would say. And maybe people don't really want to be in the moment, so they want to dissociate a bit.

Maria: How has technology changed the way people listen to music?

Rory: I suppose it's made it more portable. So, for example, in the past people would have had to go to an opera house to listen to music. Whereas now, thanks to technology, you can just switch on a device and there everything is. The opera's in, literally in the palm of your hands.

Discussion

Maria: Yeah, dear listener, if we say it's music to my ears, it means you like it. I say like, oh Rory, you are so educated. You look lovely. Your hair is fabulous. And Rory says,

Rory: That's a lie.

Maria: No. No, it's music to my ears. It's a nice thing to say or a nice thing to hear. No, let me let me see your hair. No, it it does look nice. So, yeah. It's music to my ears, it's like something I'm pleased to hear about. So today, what music events do people like? So we should be up to date with the situation in the world. Everybody enjoys pop music, right?

Rory: I think so.

Maria: And we can say like different music festivals in New York, London, like large-scale events, like large music festivals, massive festivals with pop music. And like top global music festivals include festivals in Belgium, for example, in like Burning Man could be like a music festival in the USA, yeah, like a famous Burning Man. Then there is some in the UK actually. Glastonbury or something?

Rory: Glastonbury.

Maria: Yes, you can say that there are different music festivals all over the world. For example, Burning Man. And just small concerts, right? Like music concerts of pop artists. Artists, right? Like singers, we can call them pop artists.

Rory: Or pop icons.

Maria: Icon, icons. Yeah, because an artist is someone who paints, draws, makes sculptures, but also who performs music. Then music events in your country. Right, dear listener, do you have any music festivals, any music concerts, maybe something massive? Like, oh, we have a massive music festival. Or we don't, we don't have anything. Or just like local concerts or gigs. Rory, what's the difference between a concert and a gig?

Rory: That's a good question actually. I don't know. For me they're kind of the same thing. What is the difference?

Maria: So, a gig is a single performance by a musician or a group of musicians. Or it could be by a comedian. So kind of like stand-up comedy could also be called a gig. So they did a gig in London. Could be music, could be stand-up comedy. A concert is only music. Musicians, singers. So a pop concert, classical concert.

Rory: Oh, okay.

Maria: But you can say like, oh, like small gigs, small concerts in different pubs in my country. And we can say like we have pop concerts, we have folk music events. So I think these days folk is really popular, like traditional music, yeah? Folk music. Folk is like traditional.

Rory: Yeah. Bagpipes if you're in Scotland.

Maria: Hm. Traditional, traditional music. Yeah, in your country, like what is traditional. So folk concerts, folk folk, festivals, folk singers, folk music events. Live bands play all over the place. So bands, like groups, music bands. Live bands. Like live music is popular. We also have bigger concerts with orchestras. Orchestra, okay, pronunciation, orchestra. Orchestra when like different instruments play. A large group of musicians who play many different instruments. And there is a conductor. So we have an orchestra and a conductor. So for example, concerts with orchestras are popular. We have operas.

Rory: You can, yeah. I don't think they're as popular as they are in other countries, but we definitely have them.

Maria: Yeah, dear listener, so you can say like we have jazz festivals, opera festivals, heavy metal festivals, hip-hop festivals, I don't know, electronic music festivals, concerts, classical music festivals, opera festivals, anything. Jazz, rock festivals, reggae.

Rory: Oh. Like, the music Bob Marley made.

Maria: Yeah. Very nice choice. Musical education is when you have lessons on music. Maybe you are, you are taught how to play an instrument. So children should be taught how to play an instrument, like play music instruments, yeah, maybe. And you can say it's good to be able to understand music.

Rory: Be able to.

Maria: So if you can understand music, it's good. It's good for kids. And you can say that musical education enhances cognitive abilities in children. So it kind of improves thinking, it improves brain, okay? And it improves social skills. So children communicate with each other. Yeah, they play music, they communicate, with music, their teachers. And you can say that yeah, to explore children's talents, they can learn to play music. So what do we do? Like we play music, we do music?

Rory: Well, we play music if we press play and something produces music. We might record music if we're in a band and we make songs, for example.

Maria: Yeah, and musical education includes what?

Rory: Good question.

Maria: They take music lessons.

Rory: They take music lessons and learn about music.

Maria: They learn rhythm, notes. And teaching children music reduces stress, dear listener. People's music preferences. So preferences, what they like. And we can say that older people seem to prefer old-fashioned music. Like folk music, classical music, opera. While younger people, so contrast, while younger people tend to like pop music. Yeah, newer music or louder music.

Rory: I suppose that's just because they hear it, they're more immediately.

Maria: Modern music. And here you mean like louder pieces, like not loud music, but louder in what meaning?

Rory: Louder pieces, like louder songs.

Maria: It's just loud, it's not quiet.

Rory: Yeah. It's louder than the ones that older people listen to, for example. But piece is a performance or like a piece of music, for example.

Maria: Yeah, but louder in terms of volume, right?

Rory: Yeah, the sound.

Maria: Yeah, so young people prefer to listen to loud music, while older people prefer quiet music like jazz, blues.

Rory: I think so. But I suppose that's just the older people now. Older people of the future, who are the young people of today, may have different tastes.

Maria: Yeah. And here you use a contrast. So older people, blah blah blah, while younger people tend to like, right? And we talk about trends. So older people seem to prefer classical music, while younger people tend to like modern music.

Rory: So here we're not saying younger people prefer, but younger people tend to prefer. So not always, there might be some young people who prefer to listen to quieter music.

Maria: And that's okay. We can listen to music at home or at a live concert. Careful, dear listener, listen to, always, listen to music, listen to Rory, listen to podcast, listen to, to, to, to, always, yeah? And listen to live music, not a recording, but you go there and the orchestra is playing, you listen to it live. And then Rory uses by and large. Which is a strange expression. How do you use it, Rory? By and large.

Rory: It's a binomial. You use it when you're talking about things and people in general.

Maria: So instead of say, in general, you say by and large. It's C one, dear listener, it's an idiom.

Rory: Ooh.

Maria: So pretty much like, in general, the sound is better at a live concert, or by and large, the sound is better at a live concert.

Rory: Yeah. Like generally speaking. And indeed, Maria, you have noticed what I've done with the other answers because in part three, we don't give answers about our personal life. We give answers about people in general. So ways that we can do this are very simple things like generally speaking, or usually, or what people tend to do. But there are more complex expressions like in general, or by and large, or as a rule. So all of these can be used to talk about people and things in general.

Maria: When when you listen to things at home, you have control over the environment. You control the environment, you control the choice in music. Whereas at a live concert, see whereas or while, contrast, at a live concert, you are at the mercy of other people. So to be at the mercy of somebody. So to be under control of some other people. To be at the mercy of someone, it's C2, band nine.

Rory: Oh my God.

Maria: To be at the mercy of someone, to be in a situation where someone has complete power over you. So you go to a concert, you don't control pretty much anything. So you are at the mercy of

Rory: other people's choices.

Maria: the organizers, yeah, of the musicians. You just there.

Rory: Yeah.

Maria: Yeah, when you fly to some other country, you are at the mercy of the airline. So they have power over you. Or, I'm at the mercy of the government. Right? I'm at the mercy of the weather. We can't do pretty much anything about the weather.

Rory: So we are at the mercy of the elements.

Maria: Yeah. Make efforts. So people make a lot of effort while doing sports, while working out. So they want to dissociate.

Rory: But that's just like disconnect from your body. It's probably not a very good thing.

Maria: So they don't want to be in the moment.

Rory: They don't want to be consciously aware of what's going on. It's not a healthy thing to do. It's just something that we refer to when you're not focusing on something.

Maria: Yeah, so they want to dissociate, separate. That's why they listen to music to get distracted. They want to dissociate from doing exercises. Yeah, that's a nice idea. And these days, we have music in the palm of our hands or hand?

Rory: In our hands, I should say.

Maria: Yeah, or you can say like, you have music in the palm of your hand. It's an idiom. So pretty much under your complete control. You have your phone, so it's in your hand, literally. So you have music in the palm of your hand. So under control, in your control. So like handy.

Rory: Close by. And it's usually used to talk about phones, for example, or some gadget that you can have in your hand. I think it used to be MP3 players, if you're old enough to remember those. But now it's about phones because we all listen to music on our phones, or most of us do, by and large.

Maria: By and large.

Rory: Yes. Do you think we've covered everything by and large?

Maria: Yay. Thank you very much for listening. We'll get back to you in our next episode, okay? Bye.

Rory: Bye.