The Value of a Song

We all experience anxiety, some more than others. Self-help books become best sellers because people want to feel normal. What most of us do not realize normal includes anxiety some times. Instead of spending money on more self-help books, spend it on MUSIC! Science says music affects our overall mood. Happy music improves our feeling of well-being and happiness. Music can pep you up and get you moving in the morning. Music can make you want to get up and dance (great excuse for exercising). Happy songs have been around since people started singing. Who cannot watch a Disney movie and find themselves humming, whistling, or singing one of the songs in the movie. Many of the original Disney songs found in the movies help to tell the story, add to the plot, or provide you with the insight into a character’s mood or personality. An example is the song, “I’ve No Strings” from PINOCCHIO. Pinocchio tells us his strings held him down, but now he is free because he has no strings. In the movie MONSTERS, INC., the song, “IF I Didn’t Have You” gives us insight into the friendship between Mike and Sulley. Disney movies also have lots of songs containing “silly” words. Take for example the song “Oo-De-Lally” (which mean “yippee”) in the movie ROBIN HOOD. Then, there is the song “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” from CINDERELLA. The title and the lyrics of this song are total nonsense, but who has not found it to cheer them up when they hear it or sing it.

The song, “Hakuna Matata” in the LION KING is a song people cannot get out of their head. It is a song that will make you feel happy and the beat will get your feet moving.  The song title comes from the Swahili language and means no trouble or no problems. Did you know supercalifragilisticexpialidocius is a real word? It was in the Oxford English Dictionary in the 1940s and made popular because of the 1946 film MARY POPPINS in which the song with that title appears.

Disney movies also teach us life lessons. THE JUNGLE BOOK song, “The Bare Necessities” makes you feel like skipping as you listen to it, but it has a positive meaning for all of us too. It reminds us to look at the things that have been given to us like the honey from the bees. It tells us to leave our worries behind and be content with the simple things.

There are so many happy, I like to call them “feel good songs,” Disney movie have given us: “Everybody Wants to Be A Cat” from THE ARISTOCATS, “Heigh-Ho” from SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS, “Almost There” from THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG, “Life’s a Happy Song” from THE MUFFETS, “A Spoonful of Sugar” from MARY POPPINS, “I Want To Be Like You” from THE JUNGLE BOOK, “Almost There” from the PRINCESS AND THE FROG, “Why Should I Worry” from OLIVER & COMPANY, and so many more.

Many Disney movie songs bring out your emotions, many have life lessons, and many can make you feel better during these times of anxiety. Look up the lyrics of your favorite Disney movie song, and sing, sing, sing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_I_Didn%27t_Have_You_(Disney_song)

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g26886855/best-disney-songs/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuna_matata

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo