Making music is one of those things that is probably more fundamentally human than most of us realize. Think about it. Every human culture in every geographic space, and in every time period for which we have evidence one way or the other, humans are a music-making species. When you find something that is truly universal, you don’t look for a cultural phenomenon. It’s safe to conclude that you’re looking at something with a biological basis. Music is in our DNA.
It’s realizations like this that make me cringe when shows like American Idol make singing not only competitive, but cause for nation-wide humiliation if you don’t do it perfectly (i.e., in the same worn-out semi-hip-hop style. Bob Dylan wouldn’t have had a prayer). Major record labels now use everything from focus groups to computer models to help predict or engineer the next big hit, which tends to sound a lot like the last big hit. Even owning music demands having the RIAA looking over your shoulder, but that’s another rant. We’ve grown accustomed to letting the “professionals” do our singing for us.
Or have we?
Turbulent, hard times seem to go hand in hand with great music. It sort of just shows up. The 1960s produced wonderful music that is still very popular among people who were decades away from being born with this stuff was on the radio. Protest music, especially, was biting, funny, profound, and emotionally rich. In the 70s I learned to play the guitar on a dare from my mother and loved to get together with friends for jam sessions. The music may not have been ready for prime time, but we poured a lot of passion and verve into it. It made for some of my best memories.
Today the community sing-along is starting to make a comeback. In an interesting article in the Utne Reader, “Be Subversive: Sing with Your Neighbors”) reports on efforts to revive community singing by Minnesota activist Betty Tisel, who explains why she is doing this:
If we’re going to draw others into the work of building a just, sustainable world, that world’s gotta look like a place we would also like to live in. We need joyful, local, participatory culture….This is eat local, buy local, sing local. It helps me “keep on keepin’ on,†and people who have attended the sings tell us that it helps them a lot, too.
Politics, as singer-subversive Pete Seeger once pointed out, is what happens when you bring people together for a purpose, whether it’s to watch football or stage a sit-in. Singing together brings people together. And there are so many ways to do this. If you play (or used to play) an instrument, dust it off and start playing. Look for others to play with. Church choirs are a wonderful way to get started in singing, and many such choirs are doing some very interesting stuff. Community singing clubs love to welcome new members, and many are no-audition groups. Caroling parties are popular around the winter holidays. Try it.
Let me wind down this post with some advice provided by your local punk rock community (left). They have the right idea. One of the great life lessons that music teaches is that sometimes you are going to make mistakes. In public. And you know what? That’s okay. It’s an important take-away point in our messed-up-yet-perfection-obsessed culture. If you can overcome the fear of making music in public, even if you’re in supportive company, perhaps you can do other things you were afraid to do. Or, you can just enjoy the wonderful vibe that flows from singing your cares away with friends and strangers.
And one final note (pun intended) for those who are thinking of learning a new instrument: it’s remarkable what you can accomplish with just three chords.
