"If You're Going through Hell"

I'd love to develop a seminar on the positive psychology of country music.  It would be fun and easy!  Except, of course, for copyright  and licensing problems, which I suspect are virtually insurmountalbe for any reasonable investment of time, energy, and legal fees!

If I ever do this, one aspect I'll focus on is the role of positive psychology constructs in the face of adversity.  Many of the constructs -- Seligman's attributional style theory, Dweck's theories of intelligence, and Snyder's hope theory -- really come into play when we face adversity.  Perhaps the old saying should be revised to state, "When the going gets tough, the positive get going."  Or, even more accurately, the positive never slow down.  And, in that vein, I'd use Rodney Adkins' "If You're Going through Hell" as the musical interpretation.   If you haven't heard this song, you can listen to a clip in the Amazon widget above or try here.  (If you're a Firefly/Serenityfan, the video's a bonus.  If not, well, maybe you'll become one!) (If the link doesn't work, youtube's taken that video down.)  Here are the key lyrics:

Well you know those times
When you feel like there's a sign there on your back
Say's I don't mind if ya kick me
Seems like everybody has
Things go from bad to worse
You'd think they can't get worse than that
And then they do

You step off the straight and narrow
And you don't know where you are
Use the needle of your compass
To sew up your broken heart
Ask directions from a genie
In a bottle of Jim Beam
And she lies to You
That's when you learn the truth

If you're going through hell
Keep on going, Don't slow down
If you're scared, don't show it
You might get out
Before the devil even knows you're there

The title of this song comes from a Winston Churchill quote, "If you are going through hell, keep going."  Churchill certainly faced uncontrollable negative events, and he responded in positive way.  "Not me, not always, not everything" -- he didn't see himself or England as responsible, didn't think the causes of the conflict would always exist or that they would tarnish everything.  This is positive attributional style, a/k/a "optimism", from the work of Marty Seligman.  Churchill did not know exactly how England would win through, but he seems to have had confidence that they could figure it out.  This is Carol Dweck's incremental view of intelligence.  And, he clearly envisioned the goal of defeating the Nazi war machine, generated alternative pathways toward that end, and deemed himself and England capable of traversing those pathways, however rocky and winding they might be.  That's Rick Snyder's Hope Theory.

At bottom, that's the power of habitual positive thought patterns and the regular experience of positive emotions -- those habits work!  As Barb Fredrickson has shown, the survival value of positive emotions is in helping us broaden our behaviors and build connections with one another.  That "together" idea is another good reason for the muscial metaphor.  Solos are great, but we generally find the greatest music performed by groups.

What's your music for the positive?

Comments

[Becky Shirk]

I love the song "when your going throw hell" well right now my family is going throw hell. My mom and dad are getting a devorice and right now my mom breaks down every dad because she just doesn't know what to do right now. Everytime she hers this song she prays and hopes to GOD that we all do get out of hell. But at times we have problems with my older (16 year old) sister because sometimes (alot) she skips sckool, lies to get her way, cruses my family (mostly mom). Yeasterday (11/11/06) i playing with my cat and she comes in the room and gets the cat then throws it off the bed. Then i got up and we started fighting (fisted) and i was beating her down to the ground and pusing her all around and she almost broke a hole in my wall but she didn't. I let all my anger out right then and there. I was Pissed off. but i just hope for the best and anyone who reads this plaes keep us in prayer.

p.s. but what ever you do girls don't forget to party like a real southern girl!!!

[Kevin R.C. 'Hognose' O'Brien]

I'm a pop guy, and for me it always was the Beatles. They're not personal role models, but their music is an unalloyed positive force -- particularly the stuff written by McCartney and Harrison.

Indeed, in the 70s there was a brilliant spoof of the Beatles by Neil Innes and Eric Idle, "The Rutles." Something always bothered me about the Innes's generally dead-on send-up of Beatles stylings, and I finally put my finger on it: Neil is too cynical by half. His music has an art-school, smirking sensibility to it. It's brilliant (as is much of his other work) but it isn't informed by that same joie de vivre as the Beatles's stuff.

Even when the Beatles sing nonsensical lyrics, they manage an emotional uplift, and at their best they communicate a childlike, innocent joy.

Enough reading of blogs, dammit... time to listen to music.

[pbjosh]

Well, there still is some on the other side of the tracks. On my playlist (and I listened to it right after this post) is Crossfade's 'No Giving Ip Now':

so you found out today yo life's not the same
not quite as perfect as it was yesterday
when you were just getting in the groove
now you're faced with something new
i know it hurts and i know you fell torn
but you never gave up this easily before
so why do you choose today to give it all away
well it's not so bad ya'll together we all fall
just as long as we get up we'll stand tall
we shouldn't waste another day
thinkin' 'bout the things that we forgot to say
i'm hittin' back ya'll kickin' these four walls
just as hard as i can 'til i can't crawl
i won't waste another day with all
these silly things swimmin' in my brain

the's no giving up now
do you really want to give this all away
can't you ever see things in a different way someday
such a beautiful thing to throw away
you should think things through over and over again

so your scars fade away you soaked up the pain
a better person cause you lived through those days
and now you know what it's like to prove
you can overcome anything that get to you
well it's alright we're saying our goodbyes
to the past and everything that aint right
we won't waste another day
with all these silly things in our way

you should think things through
before you give it up now

i know we have givin all that we can give
when there's nothing to lean on i'd remember this
all we make of this lifetime has always been within
and remembering that's why we should never give in

Enjoy!

Josh

[Greg Brooks]

I'm a bit biased because I've listened to country all my life, never completely giving it up even during my forays into New Wave, Pop, Rock and such.

But if I'm biased, then I'm also someone who's listened to a *lot* of country music, and that leads to my riff on Dave's riff: If you take the positive themes of country music as a whole, you end up with a recurring theme of redemption.

Things are bad but can be fixed. Mistakes are made (and their consequences made clear), but they don't have to negatively define your future. Who you are is much more than the lowercase-y you; it's that plus the lives you touch, the people you love, the ideals you hold dear.

Sappy stuff, but also powerful stuff. It's why I keep listening.

[Allen]

Lonesome Bob's "I Get Smarter Every Drink"

[copswife]

I remember the year I started listening to country music with a more open mind; 1986, when my first child was born. Those 2:00 am feedings were difficult, and I needed something entertaining (but no plot, I did not want to stay up to see the ending) on the TV to help me stay awake. I tried MTV first(remember when MTV was mostly music videos?). When I saw how music that I knew and liked was presented for videos, I was appalled. Flipping over to Country Music Television, I saw videos of people in denim, not leather; happy people with kids and dogs and parents. Even the troubled people were coping. It was my life. Today I don't like all country music, but when I need positive energy, I find the country stations in my car.

[Mike]

Vienna Teng, "Hope on Fire." Possibly the best positive song you've never heard.

gotta move gotta choose
you've got a difference to make
don't watch it happen again
gotta change rearrange
something's bending to break
it's just a matter of when

ooh you're gonna make your mark this time
ooh you're gonna set your hope on fire

[Garry K]

My favorite "inspirational" song is "Life Sucks--Then You Die" by The Fools.

Why is it inspirational? Because the guy singing the song has *so many* problems that mine pale in comparison!

[tom]

A weird list, but these are the ones that jump out for me...

triumph - fight the good fight ( I like this one because it's not just about keeping positive, but doing so while doing the right thing)
triumph - hold on

van halen - dreams

Bill Deasy - I'll rescue you (and just about anything else he's done tends to have a ray of optimism, even in songs that set up the most difficult circumstances)

[Melissa]

I love it! Why, oh why, didn't they give Firefly a chance? Just when the song pumps me up, the video is over too soon.

And to your point, I do think that Country Music has been given a bum rap in the past for being negative. Remember the research where people committing suicide listened to Country Music before offing themselves?

[_Jon]

I agree - it would be a good study.

I've never been a big fan of Country (or Western). My preference has been Rock and Pop.

About two years ago, I was at a client's office fixing a computer problem. They were playing country and I was stuck listening to it for at least 10 hours.
What struck me about the music was the (mostly) positive message contained within the songs. There was a *lot* of these themes:
- Loyalty
- Love
- Family
- Church
- National Pride
- Military Support
I will grant that there were many songs that were sappy or dealt with loss or sadness. But very few of them were angry, bitter, or mean - quite a difference from Rock or Pop.

If you want to get a good feel for what songs are popular in Country Music, I recommend visiting Launch.com's Top 100 Video Page in the Country Genre. The songs listed there are ranked by customer ratings and viewings. It isn't just radio play or album sales.
Also, I have seen videos and heard songs weeks before they have been on broadcast radio by listening to Launch.

[jayrob76]

Oops -- make that "Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day"

(left out the apostrophe)

[jayrob76]

This is especially interesting to me because I've been theorizing this on my own for the past year or so.

With the advent of digital music players and the ability to load my entire music library into iTunes, I've been putting together positive music lists for myself -- and more recently for friends to try to help them through difficulties.

Never have been a big fan of country -- but will take it any day over some of the "anger" music I hear kids listening to these days.

My positive songlists include:

Doobie Brothers - "The Doctor"
Dire Straits - "The Bug"
Randy Travis - "Don't Ever Sell Your Saddle"
Boomers - "Art of Living"

Some older, more-obvious ones:

Carole King - "Bitter With The Sweet"
Poco - "Keep On Tryin'"
Dan Fogelberg - "Part Of The Plan"
Seals & Crofts - "We May Never Pass This Way Again"

And my all-time favorite since childhood:

Monkees - "Tomorrows Gonna Be Another Day"