If Glastonbury proves anything, its the power of music. That may sound like a cliche and a bit of a hippie, incense burning, free love statement, but it does. There is a power to music that cannot be denied or ignored. There isn't another art form that can invoke such emotion, without considering the genre or environment.
You can be sat on your own in your front room with a record on, or on a bus with your ipod on, or at a club, or watching a movie, because lets be clear, emotion is raised in a film by the use of a soundtrack, there's even an Oscar for it. Or you can be at a concert, gig, or festival like Glastonbury.
I wasn't fortunate enough to be there this year, but i watched a fair chunk of it on TV, and it blew me away just sitting on my sofa.
Everyone will have their own personal reasons for loving a song, an album, a band, a simple line of music, because it can transcend real life. It can send you back in time, It can make you happy or sad. Remind you of a time of your life, a memory, an event.
I was watching Status Quo play "Rockin all over the world", on Sunday night and i was immediately in my mum and dads old house, Live Aid on the video player, me and brother were Francis Rossi and Rick Parfitt, swinging our guitars.
I would imagine people old or young watching Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Blur were transported to another time and place.
There is one thing that everyone had in common listening to "The Boss" doing "Born to Run" or Neil Young doing "The Needle and the Damage done" or Blur doing "For Tomorrow". They were united in that song. Their reasons were different but the song remained the same. This is what great songs, great bands can do to people.
In an NME article about the Oasis gigs at Heaton Park, Manchester last month, there were technical problems with a generator and it meant the band were off stage for 40 minutes after the first few songs. Fueled by alcohol (and in some cases, drugs) there was an under current of violence and tension, bottles were thrown about, the tone of the peoples voices were aggressive.
In less than hour these people had their arms around each other, screaming "Don't Look Back in Anger" at the tops of those same voices.
What is it that makes people unite in such a euphoric way to a band, a gig, a song? The noise, the lights, the chorus of voices back at the band, drinking every last drop of sight and sound in.
Watching back, Radiohead, Glastonbury 1997, Oasis at Knebworth 1996, these are borderline spiritual events.
It is hard to describe in words, what a feeling is. What emotion is. You can use metaphors and similes, but in the end, its beyond words. You feel love, you feel hate, you feel indifference, or enthusiasm. I've been thinking about it, and its hard to describe what a favourite song feels like. It might make you want to dance, to laugh, to cry, to scream and shout. You can't describe that.
Someone once said to me, "If you had to choose, what would you rather be, deaf or blind?" Instantly i thought blind, because i couldn't live without hearing my favourite band, or discovering new bands and songs. Then i thought, well you wouldn't be able to see them at a gig. That came back to me at the weekend watching Glastonbury, so i closed my eyes and just listened. Its easy to say it didn't matter, because i could open my eyes, but almost involuntarily you find yourself closing your eyes at times when listening, concentration or contemplation. I think i could live without sight, i wouldn't want to, but i couldn't without listening.
For a minority, music isn't important. I don't think you can live without music influencing you in some way, even if music doesn't play a daily part of your life. I know its something i couldn't live without!
No comments:
Post a Comment