What Is Music For?
Creating space for community & connection in and through a collective appreciation and experience of artistry, performance and expression
What Is Music For?
I know it’s exactly the kind of deep, philosophical question you were looking to think about as we kick off the weekend. Whoops.
It’s a question I put out on some of my social media channels a week or so ago, but in true 2024-style, it didn’t reach as many people as I hoped it would to generate the kind of interactions and encouragement that can be important for many of us - whether as creators or as committed followers of the arts and artistry.
So…here we are. I should have put it here on Substack first, as I love what this platform offers for this kind of longer-form interaction. As such, I’ve taken the opportunity to add some further, elongated thoughts, for which I know you’ll be extra grateful 😉
Anyway, back to it.
I’m sorry to say I don’t have a life-changing answer to the question so many of us have and continue to ask. I sometimes have enough trouble remembering my own pieces of music, let alone something as existential.
There’s a reason why musicians have not traditionally been invited to be put in control of *important* things, although life as an independent musician and artist in 2024 does feel like having 4-5 full-time jobs.
Where musicians usually excel, though, is being able to create songs/pieces of music which have intensely powerful meaning, or creating those special in-the-moment moments in which the collective experience goes beyond simply “having a good time”.
What is crucial in this, though, is that we’re able to acknowledge this goes beyond what has happened in the past, and is something which is fundamentally present-tense, ongoing thing.
A way to engage.
A way to connect.
A way to be present.
A way to be human.
Whether we view it through a lens of something approaching a “spiritual experience” or simply taking the view that art, artistry and performance - and the collective experience of it - is one of the most fundamental parts of being human; it is in, and because of, the full-bodied, full-minded expression of ourselves that makes it such a vulnerable and powerful thing both for artists to do, and for all of us to experience.
Regardless of your views on existence, meaning-of-life, what this is all for, who/what “made” us, and why we are here (yeah, too much for me, and definitely not what this page is for!), if we take the view that the appreciation of our shared humanity and how we can all “learn more” about ourselves, others and the world around us - and that music is, and can be, a fundamental driver in this pursuit - perhaps we get closer to finding an answer for What Music Is For.
Perhaps a better reframing of the question might be:
Why Is Music So Good?
Even if we struggle to find simple answers to the largest and most complicated of questions around meaning, I find it is usually our feelings which offer the greatest insight into the why.
There must be something inherently awesome about music that keeps us so many of us playing, writing, listening, attending, spinning, touring, practicing, supporting, following, promoting, buying, broadcasting, filming, recording, studying.
Music, for me, is connection. Of course, there is so much more to it than that. But, that is what does it for me. It will be other things to other people, no doubt.
In the last year, I’ve played more shows and performances than in any other twelve-month period. These have taken place in both some of the most unique, unusual and breathtaking spaces, alongside some of the most “normal” and inauspicious rooms and venues. This isn’t a false equivalence - each is as precious and an important encounter as the other, because it is about more than having a great photo for Instagram - it is the opportunity for connection, through music; my most treasured medium, form and method of communication.
Whether it is…
on a fancy grand piano on a big, concert-hall stage; or a slightly jangly - yet treasured - family upright in someone’s home
in a former underground swimming pool - now-gallery - in Düsseldorf; or a cosy Finnish log-cabin in central Warsaw, sent to Poland as part of WW2 reparations, now-functioning as a gathering place for creative communities
in an ornate, centuries-old, reverberant church; a Scottish village hall; an arts centre in a parochial English market town; or your favourite, award-winning, centre-of-the-community grassroots music venue
…it is where people are; where people come to be; where people come to be free.
To be amongst others - like-minded music fans, and the friends they’ve yet to make; supporting the artists who mean something to them, and to know they are just people like anyone else; going to special musical places, together; not separate or apart, or in some other realm or state, but being present; being there…now.
Sharing stories.
Good music.
Good people.
Good times.
Today, I start a lovely run of four shows in five days across the UK, with news coming soon during May, of an extensive UK Autumn Tour during November later this year.
I will be continuing my quest to come to places which are not often included on regular touring schedules, and in attempt to fulfil a low-key target to play at least once in every English county and unitary authority in the space of two years.
In early 2025, I’ll also be heading back to Europe, so do keep an eye out for all that is to come. For the music-in-physical-form fans, there might even be something new and fun to look out for soon as well 😉
See you out there!
Hi.
Interesting.
My question is, does music have to be for anything?
It just is, isn't it?
I think making and listening to music has a number effects, for us as humans and for other species too - I'm thinking of birds here.
My guess is music preceded verbal communication for us as a species and precedes verbal communication for each of us as individuals.
I think we test and assess its effects in different contexts, for example, in times of sorrow or joy, and, of course, in (public or private) performance.
Birds probably asses the effects of their music in terms of finding a mate and marking territory, but I suspect sometimes they sing just for the fun of it.