How The Muppet’s Cover of Bohemian Rhapsody Thwarted A Vendetta Amongst My Siblings

The singular most effective way to spark an argument between my siblings and I is to put us together in the same room and instruct us to wash a pile of dirty dishes. Yet for some reason, every night after dinner my brothers and I are given that very task. Let me preface this by saying that my brothers are amazing people. We all get along pretty well, and actually enjoy being around each other. But for some reason, us washing dishes together always looks like the start of the vendetta. You see, washing dishes is supposed to take two people: one to wash and one to dry. There are three of us. And we all prefer drying the dishes to washing them. So every time we are faced with a pile of dishes, a debate will start over who has to start washing, how many dishes we each will clean before we switch jobs, and whether or not the person washing is doing a good enough job. Nearly every time ends with someone crying, someone yelling, and someone grudgingly stuck washing their fair share of dishes after the others storm out of the room.

A silver lining to the pandemic is the fact that, for the first time in years, my entire family is home together for more than a week or two. The first night we all were home we had a great time hanging out and eating dinner together. But as dinner neared its close, my mom assigned us with the foreboding task. We began divvying up the tasks and, as usual, started getting impatient with each other. That is, until I picked up my phone and began blaring the Muppet’s version of Bohemian Rhapsody. Both brothers stopped arguing instantaneously. One began dramatically washing dishes along to the music, I joined the other in drying the dishes. The three of us finished the dishes in record time and in good moods, all thanks to the Muppet’s impeccably made music. Every night since, the three of us have been washing dishes together in harmony, solely because we listen to the Muppet’s Cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, and other catchy and equally ridiculous songs.

The ability music has to alter the listener’s emotions is almost magical. Songs have the power to make people feel and internalize the emotion they portray. Anne K. Rasmussen’s book, Women, The Recited Qur’an, and Islamic Music in Indonesia, demonstrates music’s power within Islam. Rasmussen writes that, while learning the Qur’an by rote, students are “interiorizing the inner rhythms, sound patterns, and textual dynamics-taking it to heart in the deepest manner.” Essentially, the melodic properties of words are what allows the students to connect with the feelings and deeper meanings held by those words. Rasmussen goes on to write that listening to the recited Qur’an “May trigger in the listener the physicality of recitation.” Through doing this, the listener is transported by the music from their normal state into one of prayer. Music truly has the power to alter people’s internal state. Much like how music allowed my brothers and I to shift our mentality from one of frustration to one of joy, it also helps those listening to the recited Qur’an transform their internal state into one of prayer.