Music Sticks

Brothers Chip and Dan Heath wrote a popular book a few years ago called “Made to Stick.” It’s categorized as a business book, but it offers great advice and insight to all of us about what makes ideas (good or bad) “stick.” (And I think the cover art was a stroke of genius!)

I was thinking about this book after @royeglass tweeted this morning: “While journaling this morning a song by Plankeye came to mind off of the Commonwealth CD. Thanks to @interlinc for introducing me in the 90’s” (You’re welcome, Roye!) Which then got me thinking about the songs that are stuck in my brain. Some good, some not. Some encouraging and edifying, others not so much. Music sticks. I know when I start channel surfing in the car and hit a song from my high school years, the words flood back even though I haven’t thought about it for … well, for a long time.

The same thing happened to Roye this morning – something triggered his brain to recall a song that had impacted him 15 years ago. I have an almost 3 year old, and one of the (many) pieces of advice I’ve gotten is “Make up a song with her address in it so she’ll remember it.” Sounds silly, but something about putting words to music makes them stick.

How often have we all heard a student say about a song: “I don’t really listen to the words, I just like the beat/sound/song/music”? And they may really believe that. But music sticks. And those lyrics are being processed and filed away in their brain.

That’s why it’s so important to us at interlinc to keep finding great new music for Youth Leaders Only – music that sounds a lot like what your students already listen to, but that lyrically offers them Truth, encouragement and a counter-message to everything they hear from mainstream music.Now, I wonder if I can find an old Plankeye CD around here somewhere …