The power of music to influence is undeniable. The evidence is all around us. You only need to turn on your television or watch a movie to understand the amount of sway musical choices have in affecting us emotionally. Producers know it and spend a good portion of time deciding on how to make the music matter, to be an integral yet unseen member of the cast and story they are trying to tell.

If you get all teary eyed at an emotionally charged moment in a story you're watching, chances are, those tears are flowing because of a combination of the actors doing a good job in expressing the emotion of the moment as well as the music welling up beneath the dialogue or visual imagery. You might have gotten a bit misty eyed without the music being present; with the music, the tears will flow.

But let's go to a deeper level here, a more primal level of importance.

I have long maintained, in seminars, sermons and articles I've written, that music is so fundamental to our lives that were there no music at all, no bird song, no whistling while you work, absolutely no music at all, humanity would have long ago destroyed itself, having gone mad from the lack.

Some have argued that we would have "created" something else to take the place, to fill that void, to supplant what we did not know we were missing or lacking for the absence of music. Truth is, we'll never actually know. But I don't believe anything we could do or create would ever be able to do that, to "sooth the savage beast" within, not like music does. There would still be something missing.

In the Bible, David played the harp for King Saul with the effect of calming him, assuaging the demons that beset him without it. This is the quintessential example, and the origin of the phrase, to "sooth the savage beast".

Doctors have long believed and maintained that music has a calming and healing effect on the human body, soul and spirit, just as prayer has a beneficial effect on those who are ailing and injured. It is accepted as a medical "fact". There is no scientifically measurable way to tell why or how this is so. We just have the empirical evidence of the benefits music and prayer play in a person's healing process, that it is faster for the presence of these than without.

Okay, so enough evidence of the effect music has on humanity. I think we're all agreed that it cannot be denied that music pierces to the heart in a way words cannot always do, often with equal or more powerful results.

Yes, this is going to be an ethical treatise. It has to be. For musicians and composers alike, we have to examine our motives, our drive, the impetus that compels us to perform and compose the music. You should know why you choose the songs you play, why you write the way you write.

People don't like to hear this topic as I present it. It makes them uncomfortable. They argue that music makes them feel good and it doesn't matter what kind of music it is because, well, who really cares as long as we get satisfaction from the playing, writing and listening process?

I'm not going to argue that music makes people do things. The whole Judas Priest law suit so many years ago over their "Suicide Solution" lyrics demonstrated that the song didn't make the kids involved in their horrible enterprise pull the triggers that resulted in a number of them actually killing themselves.

However... and it is important to be clear: had the song not been written, there would have been no influence. These kids might still be alive. But, and we cannot ignore this uncomfortable alternative possibility, if these kids were already suicidal to begin with, they may have simply found another "solution", another justification for ending their lives. And absent parental oversight, sadly, they probably would have.

On the other hand, I remember one story of a couple of teenage lovers committing suicide, "Freebird" blaring from the stereo of the car in which they died, smashing into a brick wall at over 50 miles per hour. The lyrics had nothing to do with death, but rather an ending of one thing and the beginning of something else. What motivated the suicide pact was never clearly understood, except the kids felt alienated from family and friends (if memory serves).

Clearly, people are going to have emotional and pyschological problems and song writers/performers cannot be held responsible for any potential for suicidal acts simply because those who died loved a certain band or song which became the "trigger" mechanism for taking their own lives.

What these two examples do demonstrate, is the premise made at the beginning of this piece: music has power and influence in our lives.

There are a lot of bands out there involved in producing the darker forms of music: death metal, thrash, and beyond. The lyrical content is not particularly upbeat and positive. It is, in fact, rather destructive, bleak, speaking of hopelessness and suffering and projecting a very fatalistic vision of the future.

That people feel this way is not the issue, though it is sad to note such bands and song writers who hold this nihilistic image of society and the future can see no other possibility. The irony for some of these bands is that, upon gaining fame and financial security, their views don't change. They have the stuff, the security that ensures a pleasant life, given they manage their finances well enough. Beyond this they are now selling an image, a false view of life - particularly since they will probably not feel the effects of the poverty stricken "masses" who listen to their music.

So they are, in effect, selling a lie, a future they no longer believe or will experience.

How can one who is successful, having attained their dream, continue to hawk such a negative view of everything, even if they don't actually believe it? Are you going to argue that the fans expect this? that it would be a betrayal of everything they "stand" for? Are you serious??

People grow. And as a result of this growth, people change. When you cease the daily struggle to survive and actually begin to enjoy some of the so-called "creature comforts" of life, you cease being quite so angry, so anti-everything (if that was your schtick). You begin to see possibilities, good things, and not retain the view that the world sucks, corporations are evil, and nobody understands.

The truth is, we all benefit from corporate existence, and the lower price point mass production creates, allowing us to afford things that once were enjoyed only by the elite in society. We have gained more than we lose. This doesn't excuse corporate malfesance. I'm just saying that we have benefitted more than we have suffered. The world sucks a little less for the benefits we've received through these companies.

As a song writer, lyricist, if you do not write your experience, chronicle your growth, you are lying to everyone - including yourself. What was it Shakespeare wrote? "To thine own self be true."

It is a natural product of youth to be rebellious against the things our parents hold true, even sacred. It is normal to be suspicious of government (a healthy thing even as you grow), corporations and pretty much everything you don't understand. But as we mature, we grow in our understanding, our knowledge and, hopefully, our wisdom. We grow in our ability to see another side of the story, not a continuing banging of the drum of our one dimensional view of life.

Our passions often drive our motivations. If we believe in something deeply, it is where we focus our attention and energies. As musicians and writers, we will express these passions through the music we write or perform. Whether ecological or regarding love, and all subjects in between, we write about what we care about. If we continue to write about adolescent crushes at 30 years of age, we are not expressing genuine concerns we face every day. We deceive ourselves for the lack of growth we demonstrate by refusing to talk about it.

Taylor Swift is enjoying great popularity right now in her identifying with the youthful, pre adult audience she attracts. But if she doesn't begin to move on from these adolescent crushes and subjects, she will lose her audience, sound disingenuous and become pointless. Love is a perennial subject, sure, but as we mature, so too should our views, opinions and expressed experience. And if we don't bring our audience along with us, our stories will remain flat and even inauthentic - because they are.

You know this story: Metallica came out of the speed metal genre and eventually rose to great fame - and fortune. They were anti-establishment, suspicious of everything corporate. Right? Okay, now they own a whole city block in San Francisco, have zillions of dollars, families and security that is the envy of most normal people.

And, as you may recall, they threatened their own fan base with law suits over stolen music downloads that were not paid for. They took the very same steps to protect their interests (financial) that any corporation would and does take. Why? Because Metallica is now Metallica, Inc. You may not like to hear this, but it is the factual truth.

Apart from this aspect, we look to their music and see the fact that they have grown a little less angry, a little more socially conscious, a little less "everything corporate and government is evil" in their positions. They've.... matured. They have come to learn many things over the years and gained greater understanding of how the world works. And, they do understand the power of music in our lives.

I could list other examples, U2, Bruce Springsteen and more, to make the point. But you get it. These people, Bono, Bruce, all of them, when they enter into making statements political, social and otherwise, must take responsibility and must be held accountable for their expressed views - even if not made in the form of a song. Everyone in society has to bear this two-fold mantle, to be responsible and accountable. The more influential you are, the more accountable you become. If you endorse a political cause or candidate, you are peddling influence. You may not like this assertion, but it is true. You are using your celebrity to push a cause. That is the very definition of influence peddling.

When people listen to you, give your words added weight, even to the point of helping them decide which side of an issue they support, you have a responsibility for that. I'm not saying you shouldn't express your views. Just understand the facts, that you are an influence upon people and some will make their decision based solely upon your sayso.

So, here is the object of all this...

We song writers and musicians have a responsibility to society. We should be held accountable to some degree for the influence peddling we engage in when we make the choice to write and perform the music we create or copy. I am not saying we should be held legally responsible - there is still freedom of speech and freedom of expression in the United States (and to lesser degree, elsewhere). But that is not an excuse to be able to say anything we want.

There are limits to speech and expression. The most familiar is that you cannot yell "Fire" in a crowded theatre where no fire exists. You cannot slander a person without cause or simply because you can.

And if there are limits to speech and expression, we artists cannot claim exclusion clauses for the sake of our "art". We cannot claim to be exempt from any and all responsibility and accountability because art must be allowed to be unfettered and expressed without restraint. It's a specious argument and demonstrates a reprobate mind in anyone who claims their artistic freedom would be compromised if they were held to a standard of ethical and moral responsibility.

I am not going to deny that my Christian beliefs dictate my personally imposed limits on expression and speech. I choose not to use profanity. I choose not to encourage licentious behaviours. I choose not to endorse evil.

Let me be even more specific: I do not advocate any law to further limit speech or expression.

Look, sometimes life does seem bleak and the outlook doesn't look all that encouraging. As I write this, in September of 2010, we are in the midst of a bona fide Depression with close to 18% unemployment (including them not "officially" counted because they no longer draw benefits). It's a painful time for many families who are facing eviction from their homes, poverty, starvation and worse.

The last thing these people need is fuel on a fire that re enforces the idea that doom and gloom is all that lies ahead.

A most telling story comes from one famous musician who wrote some pretty depressing stuff. He said he would never let his kids listen to it.

So why does he think it's okay for other parent's kids to listen to? He got famous and rich on that misery he sold and sowed into their lives.

And I guess that's what I'm saying here: if you wouldn't want your kids to listen to this stuff - because of the negativity it brings with it - why on earth would you ever think it okay to inflict upon other kids simply because they're not your own? Doesn't this tell you something, that perhaps you shouldn't? Just because you can do a thing is not a reason to do it.

We cannot escape personal responsibility and accountability for our beliefs, actions and behaviours. This isn't about what's lawful vs. what's illegal. It is about what is ethical and moral versus what is unethical, immoral and clearly evil.

If that makes you squirm, good. If it makes you not like what I'm saying, too bad.

This series is a philosophy rooted enterprise. We have to address the uncomfortable subjects, the things we would rather not think about. To not consider the possible consequences of our actions - whether good or destructive - would be a greater crime against not just others, but ourselves and our own sense of right, wrong, justice and righteousness.

And if you have a problem with that, well, there's a lot more wrong in your life than just your skewed idea of liberty and freedom.