tinyswirl

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it. – John Lennon

I love music, whether I’m just listening, playing along or even attempting to move in time with it.   I really believe that it can unite people and lead to strangers becoming friends.  It’s all around us – whether you’re plugged into your mp3 player, at a gig, in a supermarket, outside hearing birdsong or even just have that earworm stuck in your head.  It shouldn’t be used to create “them and us”, or be a scapegoat for societies’ problems, which is why I get so frustrated when exactly that happens.  There are actually people out there who…

• …think that they have to look a certain way because of the genre of music they listen to (bollocks to that!)
• …”claim” an artist/group because of their sexuality or ethnicity and then bitch about them being “sell outs” if they are talented enough (or just have savvy enough managers) to go mainstream (wtf?)
• … segregate genres by gender (read this).  For goodness sakes, a lass can be just as good or (gasp!) maybe even better than a bloke at playing an instrument. Just like everything else in life.
• …think that music, on it’s own, can corrupt.  Yes folks, the fact that your kid is being violent, swearing, having underage sex and whatever else is purely down to those tunes that go into his/her head.  It’s nothing to do with any other experience in his/her life whatsoever.

I really don’t know where to start with these kind of people.  I know that humans are tribal animals, we need to belong and be able to identify ourselves in some way, but music, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “..is the universal language of Mankind”, although not the proverbial magic wand, should surely bring us together…?

This deserves more pondering and more space on my blog…. while I compose myself and the words I would be interested to hear your thoughts on the the music scene and any prejudice within it….

If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music. – Thomas Carlyle