Music

This week, as we discuss our documentaries and how they appeal to different rhetorical devices, I've decided to focus on music. Music has been an integral part of society possibly since the beginning of humanity. Most people can attest to that moment where the song they're listening to strikes a deep chord within them. From a psychological standpoint, music stimulates the amygdala, which in turn causes us to feel emotion. This made me wonder if music is innately an appeal to pathos by some degree. 

A point that supports the idea that music is innately an appeal to pathos is the use of music in media to support the story that is being told. It's rare to find a film without a soundtrack of some sort, and often music strengthens an audiences' experience watching a film. The vast number of genres and support for music artists also supports this idea that music appeals to pathos because it shows that people care deeply about the music they listen to. These feelings are so intense that musicians sometimes have fans care too deeply for them and their music. I would challenge readers to attempt to think of a song that does not appeal to pathos in some way.