Ordinarily, I would have absorbed the shock by playing
something. On this occasion, it would certainly
have been Gary Moore’s Still Got The Blues because she played the album as
background music the last time she hosted us. But just by remembering the Moore album, which
I then thought an odd choice for a dinner party hosted by a woman well into her
60’s, was sufficient to think about her funky apartment, the wonderful food and
the laughs we shared.
A series of lengthy meetings, later it was time to catch up with
“M” as she was having drinks with her work colleagues. I’d given her the option of opting out of our
dinner but she was determined to go ahead as her way of coping with the news
and so we went dining at a favourite restaurant in the City. Normally, we have
a great time but it wasn’t fun. The news
was undoubtedly a factor but for me there was another factor, the background
music.
I’ll explain. To me
having music in my life is akin to having food, drink, love, family, good friends and
work. Miss out on all of these and you cannot be born, nurtured or
sustained. Music fits into the last category.
It is something you seek and find that you think will enrich your life, give expression
to how you feel or validate your view on life.
Good music nourishes me. I don’t mean here that it influences my
beliefs or attitudes; this is a figment of the imagination of fanatics or the
deeply bereaved who desperately (and in the latter case, understandably) want
to believe that music, like violent media, holds some form of power that prevails
over inevitably weak minds, breaks down non existent rational thought processes
and causes previously unimaginable thoughts and deeds in otherwise sane individuals . Whilst some rock stars will write
songs about issues and publicly endorse them, they are seeking to influence you
thought process not ccast a demonic spell you cannot break if you tried.
Instead I see things like this. There’s a hell of a lot of music out there. By this, I’m not speaking in terms of genres
or labels but rather its role and context in life. There are forms of music out there that attempt
to influence how you think in a given context.
Just off the top of my head there are political forms (think national
anthems and the like) and business forms (e.g commercials, jingles, muzak in
elevators, anonymous “calming” music on complaint phone lines etc) among many
others. You cannot escape from these. On the other hand you can choose whether you
want to engage and the degree of engagement in the various genres of music as a
form of enjoyment, relaxation or validation. In other words, I believe that
people gravitate towards the form of music with which they fell comfortable or
which expresses how they feel. If they
don’t feel an attachment at all, they’ll leave it alone. This is what those who want to set controls
on certain forms of music fall to appreciate.
A teenage who has, say committed suicide while listening to song like Suicide
Solution has not been driven to kill themselves by the song. More likely they found something which,
irrespective of whether they have correctly interpreted its true meaning or
not, they think will best communicate to anyone why they have taken the action.
I need to hear music on a daily basis. But more importantly it is music that I want
to hear. I don’t know about you but for
me one of life’s little pleasures is hearing something you really love cropping
up in a place you never expect to hear it.
Think about favourite tracks you may have that pop up on a movie
soundtrack, in a commercial, over a shop PA, on a radio station overseas, etc
and you get the general idea. And ultimately that’s what got to me last night. I’d had the busy day and the sad news and
ultimately when I needed something to help me make sense of the world, I was
left at the mercy of playlist. Hearing Roxette’s Greatest Hits was never
going to help.
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