Mju-zick.

Contents: Music: Saving Lives. Music: Improving Lives. Extreme Fans Part 1. Extreme Fans Part 2. Music in the 21st Century Part 1. Music in the 21st Century Part 2. The Pressure of Fame. The Rock N' Roll Lifestyle.

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"Never one for taking lessons or direction, I was left to my own devices and devoted every waking hour to playing music. It became my religion. The record store: my church, the rock stars: my saints and their songs: my hymns.”

- Dave Grohl.

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Dave Grohl's Key Note Speech at SXSW 2013.

This is one of my favourite videos on YouTube. It sees Grohl discuss topics such as his first applause, his first record, his first guitar, his first band, his first concert, his first recording studio and the five words that changed his life forever: "Have you heard of Nirvana?".

I particularly love (35 minutes in), when Grohl expresses his hatred for guilty pleasures:

"Fuck guilty pleasure. How about just pleasure? I can truthfully say, out loud, that "Gangnam Style" is one of my favourite fucking songs from the past decade. It is! Is it any better or worse than the latest Atoms For Peace album? Hmm… If only we had a celebrity panel of judges to determine that for us! What would J.Lo do? Paging Pitchfork! Come in! Come in! Pitchfork! We need you to help us determine the value of a song… Who fucking cares!? Who's to say what's a good voice and what's not a good voice? The Voice?!"

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As I went walking, I saw a sign there, And on the sign there, It said "no trespassing." But on the other side, it didn't say nothing! That side was made for you and me. In the squares of the city, In the shadow of a steeple; By the relief office, I'd seen my people. As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking, Is this land made for you and me?

- “This Land Is Your Land” - Woody Guthrie.

The is one of the first songs I remember hearing that spoke out against social inequality. Written in 1940, "This Land Is Your Land" saw Guthrie protest against class inequalities in America. 

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Music: Saving Lives.

Music has been used as a way to educate the masses and influence their actions for years and the combination of music and charity is a perfect example of how music has saved lives and brought attention to crises across the world.

Founded in 1984 by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, the supergroup, Band Aid, made up of the likes of Bono and Adam from U2, Phil Collins, Paul Weller, George Michael and Sting, raised more than $24 million US for the famine relief effort in Ethiopia, with their hit single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” becoming Christmas number 1 that year. 

More locally, last year Australian radio station, Triple J joined forces with Australian artists to create a Christmas charity single to raise funds for the Australian Red Cross.  The song was written by Triple J’s Lindsay ‘The Doctor” McDougall and performed by artists such as Phil Jamieson from Grinspoon, Bertie Blackman, Abbe May and Triple J presenters.  

“Christmas Number 1”, did indeed reach number 1 on the Australian iTunes chart and raised over $19,000 for the Australian Red Cross. 

A year after “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, Geldof and Ure staged Live Aid - a dual-venue concert in both the UK and the US to raise further funds for the ongoing Ethiopian famine. The concerts, which included performances by U2, Queen, The Who, Elton John and Paul McCartney in the UK and The Beach Boys, The Pretenders, Madonna, Neil Young and Bob Dylan in the US, were watched live by an estimated 1.9 billion people across 150 nations.

Combined, both Band Aid and Live Aid raised approximately $150 million USD for Ethiopia. 

Founded in the same year as Live Aid, British Charity, Comic Relief was also a response to the famine in Ethiopia and has been staged every year since. Comic Relief changes the lives of the poor and disadvantaged through fundraising efforts such as Red Nose Day, Sport Relief and Children In Need and (like Band Aid did), does so through the use of celebrity help. 

The first Comic Relief charity single was released in 1986 and saw Cliff Richards & The Young One’s rendition of “Living Doll” go to number 1 on  the UK charts. Many of these charity singles have reached number 1, such as those by The Spice Girls, Westlife and the collaboration of Cher, Chrissie Hynde, Neneh Cherry and Eric Clapton.

The most recent Comic Relief charity single, a mash up of Blondie’s “One Way Or Another” and The Undertones’ “Teenage Kicks”, was performed by boy band, One Direction last year. Like many celebrities involved in Comic Relief, One Direction were sent to Ghana to see how the charity helps the lives of the sick and poor.

Their documentary videos on the Comic Relief YouTube channel have been viewed millions of times and speaking about the boy band’s involvement with the charity, founder, Richard Curtis stated: 

“The success of the song was extraordinary. They raised well over a million pounds and the great thing is that they saw when they were out in Africa just how many individual lives that that will make a huge difference to.”

The Sunday Times' "Annual Giving List" revealed One Direction as the second most charitable music artists last year, donating $3.54 million US to various causes, for example, 90% of the funds of their new cardboard cutouts on their merchandise website went to helping the victims of the Philippines' typhoon. Elton John topped the list though, donating and raising over $40 million US, including more than $23 million for his AIDS foundations alone.

These cases are perfect examples of how those in the music industry can use their fame to help better the lives of thousands of people and educate the masses about the inequalities still found in modern society.

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Live Aid - Against All Odds.

Skip to 7:30 to see Bob Geldof discuss his initial reactions to seeing the African famine on the evening news - which sparked his idea for Band Aid.

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"One Way Or Another (Teenage Kicks)" - One Direction.

"This year we decided to make a single to raise money for Comic Relief. Comic Relief are a British charity that do amazing work helping people all over Africa and in the UK living really tough lives. So, instead of spending a load of money on a music video, we decided to make it ourselves while we're on tour and give the money we saved to Comic Relief."

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"One Direction see how £5 can prevent a child from dying" - Comic Relief.

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I was very shy, cripplingly so. I wouldn’t say anything between songs, I would just stare at my feet and not move, hardly at all. I don’t know what changed, I know where it changed – we were playing a gig in Belfast and I just went apeshit on stage. Something took over me, but it was almost, like, a moment of clarity, when I realised this is… fun!

- Snow Patrol frontman, Gary Lightbody discussing his lack of confidence during the band's formative years.

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Music: Improving Lives.

Music has been found in every known culture – both past and present. It unites people, documents history, evokes emotion and inspires.

Remember that scene in The King’s Speech, when the King momentarily overcomes his stammering problem by singing? 

Studies have shown that people rarely stutter when they sing. Studies have also shown that music can evoke emotion and “bring life back” to a person. The video below is an example of this, as an old man in a nursing home, who is usually unresponsive, is full of joy when he is given an iPod. The doctor states that Henry “reacquires his identity” through the power of music.

Music gives people confidence. Some of my shyest friends completely lose all inhibitions when they are at live gigs. They jump around and sing at the top of their lungs and leave the venue with a sense of euphoria and confidence that they often lack.

Whilst giving a person confidence, music also has the power to bring minorities together. Initiatives such as Melbourne’s Choir of Hard Knocks brought together Melbourne’s homeless and disadvantaged, giving them a sense of community, something to be proud of and most importantly,  happiness. Similar to The Choir of Hard Knocks, the 2009 ABC series Jailbirds saw the formation of a choir in a minimum-security women’s prison in regional Victoria. Talking about the experience, series producer, Tarni James stated:

"Musically the journey for these women was one of really stepping out.  They took it upon themselves to learn how to sing and in doing so got far more than a good voice.  It was a journey where gaining competence led to personal confidence and that was absolutely evident in the changes in their faces and the way they approached the world. Jonathon taught the women skills, led them, set them challenges and increased the degree of difficulty in what he demanded at every turn.  They grew and they blossomed.”

Through social media, I asked people to anonymously share with me how they feel that music has improved or even, saved their lives. Here are two of the incredible responses I received: 

“When I was in my last year of high school I had panic attacks and a terrible home life - my mothers partner at the time was physically and emotionally abusive. During my finals I had a complete mental collapse and breakdown. Locked in my cupboard alone, I listened to "Mad World" by Gary Jules, Sweeney Todd’s "Epiphany" and a song called "Rotten Town" by Ludo on repeat. By 3am, I had mellowed out, felt better (or at least numb) and decided not to cut myself and to go to bed.” 

“Music has made an enormous difference to my life. I grew up in a musical family and started playing the violin when I was four, but even given that, I could have gone down a non-musical path. I'm so, so grateful that I didn't. As it is, I can't imagine my life without music: it's helped me study, cheered me up, and given me a way of expressing myself as a songwriter and violinist. Through music camps, I've met friends that I now love like a second family. Music has made my life truly beautiful.” 

There is something truly magical about the spirit of music.

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- Inside Llewyn Davis.

This scene, which sees Llewyn shocked by the power that his music has over his (usually-unresponsive) father, is truly beautiful. 

When I watched this for the first time I couldn't help but think of Henry in the nursing home.

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“Somehow through some miraculous, synaptic function of the human brain it is impossible to stutter when you sing.

“It is the only time when I feel fluent; it is the only time that what comes out of my mouth is comprehensively exactly what I intended.”

Australian musician and songwriter, Megan Washington openly discusses her life-long stutter and how her love for music has improved her life.

Until seeing this TEDx talk last week, I had no idea that Washington had a speech impediment. This is a true eye-opener!

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Musicians hit out at ban on guitars in British prisons

Click the link above to read about why musicians are fighting against the ban of steel-string guitars in British prisons.

"These guitars allows the prisoners to develop their skills and do peer to peer work which has been shown as really important as the basis for rehabilitation. A number of prison staff have told me that that aspect of them sitting down together, playing music and learning, has had a noticeable impact on individual prisoners and the atmosphere as a whole." - Billy Bragg.

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"Amhrán na gCupán" – TG Lurgan.

 “The Cup Song” was a huge viral hit after the release of Pitch Perfect, but none of the other YouTube renditions were as heartwarming as this one.

Performed by the Gaeltacht school, Coláiste Lurgan, this video has been viewed over 2.5 million times since it was uploaded last July.

The school is located in the Irish-speaking area of Connemara and this club is an innovative way to encourage Ireland’s youth to connect with their mother tongue, whilst having fun with popular music.

I think this is a brilliant example of how music encourages people to celebrate their culture. You can check out more of the school’s videos here.

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"Deaf People at Live Music" - Triple J Hack.

"I think that lots of people tend to rely on their hearing and the sounds that they are actually hearing. They forget about feeling."

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Extreme Fans Part 1.

I’ve been completely obsessed with bands such as Foo Fighters and Snow Patrol since I was a young teen, but my obsession with Dave Grohl has nothing on the obsession teenage girls have with the boy band, One Direction.

Before I moved out of home in 2012, I had never heard of One Direction. It wasn’t until I moved into a house with two strangers who just happened to be “Directioners” that I discovered the world of “extreme fans”.

I was always impartial to boy bands growing up, and for about three-quarters of 2012 I tried to stay well away from the world of One Direction. By the end of 2012 however, I was completely infatuated by them and this was a surprise to not only myself, but also everyone who knew me because, until then I had always showed quite an aversion to pop music (i.e. I was a giant music snob).

So yes, I am a huge “Directioner” and I used to be kind of ashamed of this fact but now I just embrace it - I’m in farrrrrr too deep and I don’t care about being judged, because One Direction are great.

One Direction fans are on a completely new level of fandom and they both scare me and impress me with the love that the show for the group. Instead of focusing on the completely mental side of this fandom, however, I’ve decided to discuss the way in which “Directioners” really impress me. 

1. It’s because of their fans that One Direction became a worldwide phenomenon.

Simon Cowell may have put them together on the 2011 season of X Factor, but it was because of a group of what he calls “super fans”, that spread the word about the band across the globe.  

During their first year of being a band, Louis Tomlinson stated;

“Let’s be honest, if we were around, say 10 years ago, people would have no idea who we are, because obviously, there wasn’t Twitter, there wasn’t YouTube, there was none of that. We’ve come over to a country where we’ve done absolutely no promotion and just through the power of the Internet, that’s why we’ve got such an amazing fan base out here”

2. “Directioners” are obsessed with EVERYTHING related to One Direction.

Harry, Niall, Zayn, Liam and Louis aren’t the only ones with fan clubs, with their family, girlfriends and crew members all part of the One Direction obsession.

Harry’s older sister, Gemma Styles, has a solid fan base on social media, with over 2.5 million followers on Twitter. There is even a Facebook group dedicated to her titled, “Gemma Styles Is The Better Styles”, which has over five thousand “likes”. The band’s hair and makeup artist, Lou Teasdale, has a similar fan base and her fans have dubbed themselves “Teapots”. “Teapots” also dedicate their time to obsessing over Teasdale’s twin sister and baby daughter. The amount of support and interest One Direction fans have shown to the celebrity makeup artist has lead to Teasdale recently releasing her own DIY Hair & Beauty book, The Craft. 

3. “Directioners” are incredible at technology.

One Direction fans have hacked into airport security cameras and the personal social media accounts of the lads in the past and their research skills are amazing.

I frequently notice on Tumblr that two minutes after a member’s girlfriend, sister or female crewmember uploads a picture of herself, “Directioners” will have direct links to where you can buy the exact outfit.

They’ve developed web skills, such as coding HTML, in order to maintain their online presence and to create their own fan bases and it’s incredible - I definitely didn’t learn that kind of stuff in my Year 9 Web Design classes! Their use of Tumblr and similar blog platforms is impressive itself and whilst it’s creepy, the “fan fiction” that some these fans write about the boy band is actually really well written.

And hey, if it’s One Direction that encourages a young person to use their imagination and develop their writing skills, then I’m fine with that. 

4. These fans are true friends.

Whilst the amount of arguments that take place between members of this fandom is ridiculous, these fans are generally really supportive of one another. They show true determination in helping each other out with finding not only tickets to shows, but with meeting the band members and whenever someone meets a member of the band you always see tweets saying “I’m so glad you finally met [insert name here] – You deserve it so much”. Which, to an outsider looking at this fandom, might look absolutely ridiculous, but I think is really cute.

As previously discussed, music brings people together and it might sound incredibly lame, but I have made two of my best friends because of this boy band and we had an amazing time seeing them in Sydney last year.

Here is a snippet from One Direction’s film, This Is Us, which explains just how the boy band has brought people together:

The One Direction fandom is utterly crazy, but I love it. These fans are truly dedicated and outsiders always mock them, but they could be addicted to something much worse, such as heroin, or y’know, Chris Brown.

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As much as we tried to avoid them, the Satanists never stopped being a pain in the arse. About a year after the first tour, we were playing a gig in Memphis and this bloke wearing a black coat ran on stage. Under normal circumstances, if a fan climbed on stage, I’d put my arm around him and we’d have a good old head bang for a bit. But this bloke looked like one of the satanic loonies, so I told him to fuck off out of it and pushed him away, towards Tony. Before I knew it, one of our roadies was running on stage with a metal bar raised above his head, and he twatted the guy in the face. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. ‘What the fuck are you doing, man?’ I shouted. ‘You can’t do that!’ The roadie turned around and said, ‘Yes I fucking can. Look.’ The satanic bloke was lying on the stage with his cloak wide open. In his right hand was a dagger.

- Ozzy Osbourne.