If you haven’t already seen Benjamin Zander’s passionate talk at TED 2008 you should take a look! Without seeing it first you’ll think I’m a nut while reading this post. 

My son (Owen) is 18 months and I spend a lot of time watching and helping him discover the outside world. From an early age he was mesmerized by music; as a baby his favorite activity was putting iTunes on shuffle and turning on the visualizer. One of his favorites has always been the piano movements in Beethoven’s Für Elise.

So what does this have to do with Zander’s talk? Putting aside some of the controversy surrounding the Mozart Effect and IQ enhancement (Bridgett, D.J.; Cuevas, J. (2000)…Life, like music is experiential so if you can help someone develop a passion for music you also teach them how to experience a life of excitement and purpose. 

Owen has been visually interacting with music since he was an infant…and while I can’t definitively state it has made him any smarter he certainly enjoys expressing himself while “feeling” the groove, which I hope will have a spillover effect on the rest of his life…barring that he might have a future on So You Think You Can Dance! 







Beyond being entertaining I think these videos provide an interesting portal into the future. In the past few years we have seen major changes in how music and entertainment is consumed and there are no signs that the pace of change is slowing. As the level of sensory stimulation increases, in an era of increasing localization and targetted advertising, younger generations are going to demand deeper immersive experiences. The current crop of media upstarts, like Last.FM and imeem, are just scratching the surface…