Do You Believe There is an Antisocial Music

I read Plato's Musical Idealism, and was asked to respond to what I read and was prompted the question, "Do you believe there is an antisocial music?" Immediately, Plato is slanted in that he opens with separating "Second-rate and commonplace people" and "men of worth and culture" as those who hire extraneous voices in their conversation with such nonsense and warbling, and those who can enjoy each other's company "without such frivolous nonsense." I responded to this with surprise as to the bluntness of Plato's words. At first, I didn't realize that music was a much more board encompassing idea that what I was used to.

Plato, when talking about law and society, which is on what I'll base the majority of this post, mentions that there were four distinct genres of music that were the norm: hymns, paeans, laments, and dithyrambs. He mentions that "...these and other types were definitely fixed..." and that it was not permissible to mix them. Plato parallels the uneducated mixing and misusing these types of music to those who misuse and bring disorder to law. So, Plato believes that music can be 'antisocial' in that it will go against social order.


I believe that there is definitely music that contributes to social disorder. Some popular bands such as Green Day and Blink 182 are all about rebelling against authority and mixing what used to be inappropriate, and making old thin lines a little more blurred, as Plato suggests.