Where is the gemara that talks about how bad music is and how it is asur to listen to music always?
How is that to be undertstood? Obviously everyone nowadays listens to music a lot….
Answer:
The Torah is very positive about music and the power of music. According to one opinion, the main role of the Levite tribe in the sacrificial order was to play music (according to the other, it was to sing); the greatest joy of the year, the Simchas Beis Ha-Shoevah, was defined by the music that was played; the description of King David as somebody musically inclined gives him an elevated spiritual air; and it is well-known that the Vilna Gaon said that the wisdom of music was second only to Torah. As the verse itself states (II Melachim 3:15), music is a tool by which a person can rise to receive the spirit of Hashem.
The Gemara never writes that music is bad, but only prohibits music after the destruction of the Temple (Gittin 7) — a prohibition that itself recognizes the great power of music. As Iggros Moshe (Orach Chaim 1:166) points out, the vast majority of authorities (commentaries to Gittin 7) write that the prohibition applies only to music played in a beis hamishteh, a bar or pub, and not to music heard on your home sterio. Even the Rambam, who writes that all music is prohibited (Taanios 5:14), and whose words are echoed in Shulchan Aruch (Orach Chaim 560), writes the contrary in a responsum. [Elsewhere Shulchan Aruch makes specific mention of music of idolatry, implying that ordinary music is permitted.]
There is therefore no problem with listening to music; however, realizing the power of music, one must beware of getting carried away on the clouds of a tune, and forgetting our continued plight in the absence of the Mikdash and the Shechinah.
