By Matthew Gavin, Culture Editor -

A guy donning sunglasses and a cowboy hat, a girl in a fairy costume, and a man in drag bellow Madonna’s hit “Holiday” from a monolithic struc­ture. In a dimly lit alcove, a teenage girl timidly lip syncs to a raunchy Back­street Boys single. The Beatles come together over a spread of psychotropic portraitures. Against a white-washed wall, radiant colors writhe and contort in a discordant boogie.

These images converge in the lat­est installment of the Foster Gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, “Con­temporary Outlook: Seeing Songs.” The exhibit spans an array of media platforms that explore the influence music has on visual expression, and the personal effects that performance and song have on listeners. In an age dominated by portable media players, the exhibit is a reflection of the role that music plays in everyday life.

“Music has become very inso­lent,” William Stover, Assistant Cura­tor of Contemporary Art, said. “You walk through the world with your own soundtrack.”

“Seeing Songs” builds around these themes using prints, paintings, video recordings, photographs and wall tapestries drawn mostly from the museum’s diverse collections. Among the milieu of cultural artifacts are images of such iconic figures as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, visual expressions of renowned artists, and experimental depictions of common people interacting with music.

In a subset of the exhibition enti­tled “Music: Abstract and Concrete,” creations inspired by the sounds and feeling that music induces surround a centerpiece of prints by Wassily Kan­dinsky, the Russian pioneer of the ab­stract art form.

Kandinsky, a possessor of the condition known as synaesthesia that gives its carriers the ability to see sound, presents works such as “Klange (Sounds)” and “Violet” that feature bold colors and shapes. Kan­dinsky’s work gives sound a tangible existence and characterizes the con­tinuing influence in the abstractionist art tradition.

Reciprocal in Stuart Davis’ jazz-inspired painting, “Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors — 7th Avenue Style,” vivid reds and blues, oranges and yel­lows bend, twirl, entwine and dance. The piece so effectively captures the hustle and bustle of the musical style that you can almost hear the gentle tapping of symbols, the thrumming of a marching bass line, and the jovial wailing of brasses.

Period pieces reflective of social contexts are represented in pieces such as “The Seventies” by Nayland Blake. In a series of 12 photographs, Blake traverses the rock and roll land­scape during an epoch of evolutionary change in a series of album covers fea­turing some of the era’s most promi­nent musicians. The piece includes cover art spanning from The Velvet Underground’s 1970 album “Load­ed,” with pinkish smoke lazily wafting from a subway entrance, to punk band X’s flaming demonstration of their namesake on the cover of their 1980 debut album, “Los Angeles.” Images of a bare-chested Richard Hell and the modish Ramones capture the raw attitudes of the transitional decade between the countercultural roots melodies of the sixties to the emerging synthpop styles of the eighties.

“Music: Persona and Perfor­mance,” another gallery, features a video recording of a blonde, turtle­neck-wearing teenage girl with braces mouthing the words to “I Wanna Be With You” by the Backstreet Boys in “Annemiek” by Rineke Dijkstra. Watching her sing along while listen­ing to the suggestive pop song through a set of headphones evokes a sense of voyeurism during a moment that, if intruded upon, would prompt most angst-ridden teens to steal away to their rooms in a melodramatic fit. Averting the camera’s gaze all the while, she captures the social awk­wardness of adolescence in her shy and anxious demeanor in her meek smiles and furrowed brow.

In stark contrast, the vociferous “Queen (A Portrait of Madonna)” by Candice Breitz is a gargantuan assem­blage of 30 television screens featuring Madonna fans jubilantly performing her “Immaculate Collection” album in its 73-minute entirety. Each among the myriad of performers presents his or her own rendition of the pop god­dess’ hits as they tousle their hair, point at the camera and sway about in their digital, boxy existences.

While filmed separately, their voices fuse together in a synchronic symphony that resounds throughout the exhibit and lends itself to the per­vasive presence of music. Their rau­cous concerto reveals the duality of performers in their music, as they not only express themselves, but provide listeners with something that they can make their own.

Music can be an inspiration, an expression of time and place, and an escape. Whether eloquently reso­nating throughout a concert hall, enlivening the commute to work or accompanying the latest advertise­ments, music is an omnipresent entity that allows for both unifying experi­ences and those that are exclusively individual. “Seeing Songs” brings visitors together in an exuberant, ex­periential exhibition, exploring the different ways in which people see, hear and live with music.

“Contemporary Outlook: Seeing Songs” is on view through February 21, 2010 at the Mu­seum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston; (617) 267-9300, mfa.org.