I believe music and art can have an effect on human consciousness both positive and negative and no-one knows this better than religion.
Religion, monarchies and regimes have used both. Outlawing certain types of music and art because of the way it can affect people either to incite to revolt or inspire obedience. Religion in paricular created it's own art and music whilst demonizing the secular to make sure people stayed well and truly subdued, obedient, and "asleep."
The lyrics to songs combined with music can open the mind, generate memories, influence mood and decisions and they say listening to classical composers like Mozart and others can actually make you smarter at maths because of the mathematical structure of classical music.
Art before TV, radio, internet etc was very symbolic and whole stories or protests or secrets could be revealed in a painting. At various times in history when oil painting was becoming popular certain colours like blue which was very expensive and dificult to produce could only be used for the elite and royalty or for religious paintings etc. It was considered too good for common artists common people because who doesn't love blue.