No exit from reality

Music, like all art, is a creative outlet addressing two domains: affronting reality and escaping it. The first can be witnessed in the efforts of the punk movement to criticize the values of modern society, or as a means of raising awareness and capital for charitable causes. The second aims to create an alternative reality, an escape from the mundane, numbing the ferocity of practical life.

Paradoxically, even while directly addressing current affairs, a medium such as music can’t help but recede into the latter category. What good will shouting about police brutality or state control do to those living under oppressive government? Likewise, the measurable benefit of an event such as Live Aid is as questionable as a token donation to Unicef.

Insofar as it acts as a medium of expression and an open stage for personal opinions, the freedom procured by this creative vessel has many benefits for individual and communal well-being. Unfortunately, much like a picket line in the middle of nowhere, ultimately little fruit will come of it unless it is directed in a calculated and scrupulous way. Given the vanity of mainstream media, especially when it comes to the arts, the only way of getting a message to the masses would be to infiltrate the very system which censors sound opinions for lack of marketability or for being too offensive to force upon the majority of consumers. Like any organised protest, unless the initiative attains a critical mass, it will either fall on deaf ears or slip under the noisy radar altogether.

Lady Gaga’s meat dress was about as subversive as it was offensive. While at least an admirable attempt to protest animal cruelty, her own exhibitionism managed to stifle her intentions. It was seen by most as just another outlandish dress from her eccentric wardrobe. Had she started an affiliate clothing line with a corporate butcher, perhaps the press would have clung on for a few days longer. However a public paragon of truism this episode might have felt to her, I doubt any furry animals were spared from the high street.

Music alone may not stir great upheaval, but it’s grounding in the sublime has greater power than most to affect our mood and our disposition to behave or act in certain ways. However indirectly, it is this through this character that it may cause veritable change in the real world. The subjective nature of music, as with any other medium of free expression, makes it difficult to obtain tangible, objective results. Nonetheless, it is this abstraction which allows it to touch far more profoundly the complexion of individuals, driving them to action.

A willful illusion may be the only viable escape from reality

The emotional charge of a piece of music can awaken or invigorate passions in people that may cause evident impressions in the lives of others. To this end, it should not be seen as a primary agent for change but rather as a stimulant.

The power of music may be exploited as a platform for propaganda or an enticement into action. With a decent enough backing track, virtually any message may be forced on the naïve or subservient listener. All it takes is a catchy melody and an explicit beat to leave the world at your feet, hanging on your every word, regardless of how false, immoral or ridiculous your claims may be. In a world where sexual inequality and stereotypes run ever rampant, Beyoncé’s ‘Girls (Who Run the World)’ couldn’t be any more misguided. Whether the lyrics “who run this motha?” refer to Mother Earth or someone else, she seems to have dropped way out of her depth. All the while perplexingly dressed in a fashion that, if worn in public, would likely have her arrested in certain parts of the world.

Metal is an interesting genre on opposite counts. While psychedelic music is all about taking drugs and outlandishly redefining the human condition, metal is perhaps the archetypal genre of honest fantasy. Singing about dragons and muscular women wielding swords of steel will never bring them about, but in some cases leaving imagination as a willful illusion may be the only viable escape from reality.

One subgenre which seemed to miss this existential loophole altogether is black metal, the Satanic cousin of the hairy-chested longhairs. Predominantely a Scandinavian phenomenon, the alienated youths behind the movement mistakenly wore the veil of Satanism as an shocking cover for their people’s plight in preserving the pagan culture destroyed by Christianisation. Surely a poorly chosen guise, given the trivial diabolisation of such strategies by the media. They might have been more successful in their attempts to stand up for national dignity by saying it with a straight face rather than painting themselves like Kiss and putting on an evil grimace. It’s a pity their burning of churches was seen as an act of malevolence rather than the righteous reclamation of pagan holy land they intended. This insular norwegian episode was an interesting and often confusing example of fantasy infringing upon reality, to the point of sabotaging its own intentions.

Even in misleading circumstances, the vociferous agitations aroused by mere waves in air are at least commendable for their initiative and occasional integrity, however futile an attempt may be to make a difference in a largely indifferent society.

As Gil Scott-Heron prophesied, “the revolution will not be televised, it will be live.” Ultimately, change must happen in the minds of the people. Only then will it become manifest in the real world. In this sense, perhaps the quiet character of this ghostly medium may find a place in our flickering existence after all.