Art & Creativity Quote by David Gilmour

Gilmour’s line reads like understatement, but it’s the kind that’s earned. Coming from the guitarist who helped turn Pink Floyd’s slow-burn atmospheres into mass emotional events, “powerful effect” isn’t marketing; it’s a quiet admission of responsibility. He’s not claiming music “saves” anyone. He’s pointing to something more unsettling: music can rewire perception before you’ve decided to let it.

The phrasing matters. “Change the way they feel about things” dodges ideology and goes straight for the hinge where beliefs actually move: mood, memory, the body. That’s a musician’s truth. You don’t argue someone into catharsis; you lead them there with a chord, a tone that lands in the chest, a lyric that suddenly frames their life differently. Floyd’s catalog is basically a case study in this kind of emotional engineering - the slow escalation, the sonic negative space, the way a guitar line can feel like a thought you didn’t know you were having.

Then he adds the soft brake: “sometimes that can be a good thing.” It’s an almost nervous caveat, acknowledging manipulation without dramatizing it. Music’s power is morally indifferent. Anthems can unify, propaganda can seduce, nostalgia can trap. Gilmour’s restraint is the subtext: he’s wary of pretending the artist is a benevolent guide. The intent is modest but pointed - to remind us that music doesn’t just accompany feelings; it produces them, and that production comes with consequences.