Are you aware of the power you have when making music? Remember the festival you attended, when you joined the masses in enjoying your favorite band play, the euphoric state they created in the audience, the energy they gave to everyone. Sometimes a show can be nothing less than live-changing. That’s the reaction that Balkan Beat Box got, one of the bands I booked, when they played in Nijmegen. The impact can be huge.
The power of music is old, it’s reflected in the legend from the medieval times of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Pied Piper offered his service to a small village with a rat plague. The village was happy to hire him to get rid of the rats. He managed it by luring all the rats and mice away with the sound of his pipe and drown them in the river. When he returned to the village and asked for his fee, as agreed upon, the village refused to pay him. He returned months later and used his pipe again. But now it wasn’t rats following him. All children from the village followed him into a mountain. They were never seen again. The German city of Hameln has build a monument for Pied Piper and uses this legend to attract tourists.
You see the huge power of music in this legend. And like every power, you can use it in a creative or in a destructive way. The power of music is known and feared by many religions. The Taliban forbids music in every form; some orthodox Jewish communities forbid women to sing; the Catholic church is known for the church choirs as a form of worship, in monasteries the only allowed form of music. The religious power of music is also seen in the lyrics of the song God is a DJ from Faithless.
Music can heal and can make enemies becoming friends, Faithless sings. Isn’t it be great, to have so much power? Let’s be aware of it, and that every power comes with responsibilities. Let’s use it in the most creative way!
picture from http://www.redbubble.com/people/mikepaget/works/1018693-the-pied-piper-of-hamelin