Why We Do What We Do...

We music types are a strange and exotic lot! Although the "music biz" is probably one of the most illogical and financially unrewarding careers anyone could ever enter, we somehow keep at it despite the fact that the moniker, "starving artist," is even more literal these days. Just this week a fellow songwriter excitedly called to tell me he had received several hundred plays in Europe through one of the Internet radio streams...and had earned a total of $2.80 in downloads from his site. WOW!

Which brings us to the question, "Why do we keep doing this thing called music anyway?" Especially now when the entire industry has collapsed and no one knows what to do about it or where any of us will be when the dust settles.

I don't know about you, but over the years I have discovered that Music (with a capital M) is so much bigger than the "music (small m) business." Music is as much a part of our humanity as the Human Genome. It's the language that must express itself, whether in a slightly off-pitch 3-year-old version of "Twinkle Twinkle" or in a stunning symphonic arrangement that endures for centuries. And somehow, we all understand that language at a level that goes far deeper than the human mind can conceive.

Many Parkinson's patients, for instance, who find it hard to walk at all...can dance without a stumble when music plays. And the American Music Therapy Association states:
Music is a very basic human response, spanning all degrees of
ability/disability...The malleability of music makes it a medium
that can be adapted to meet the needs of each individual

And then we move to politics and world powers. Music (capital M) can move nations. When the New York Philharmonic Orchestra recently traveled to North Korea, the language of Music broke through the levees of hatred and prejudice and flooded the performance hall with a harmony that went far beyond the notes on the score.

Music is soul-to-soul connection unlike any other form of communication. When something you have written or played or sung touches the heart of someone else -- whether it's a lullaby that soothes a crying toddler, or a hit song that "makes the whole world sing" -- the connection IS the motivation. We who have a song in our hearts MUST express it or explode. I think that's why we do what we do? What do you think???

Let me hear from you....