The Transformative Power of Music – Image by kenne
“Before we were ever different, we were all human beings.” Mark Johnson, co-director of Playing for Change – Peace Through Music
By now, most people have probably seen the video, Playing for Change – Stand By Me (over 16 million on YouTube), or seen the music documentary, which demonstrates that music can help bring about change. “Perhaps nothing can do more do connect a planet so divided by war, economics, religion and race than MUSIC!!” (Mark Johnson)
It was just a little over a year ago that I first learned about Playing for Change in a Bill Moyers Journal segment. Moyers began with a line that is still very apropos to today: “All over our country people are hurting. The statistics of unemployment and foreclosures reveal the magnitude of the distress but not the individual experience of people who lose their paychecks one month and their home the next.” He went on to talk about personal dramas being played out. “During lunch, I overheard people at a nearby table talking about the ugliness of our politics, and while I know this, too, is a recurring theme in American history, I tried to imagine how foreign this campaign must seem to the reality of everyday life for the Alvarez family, Willie, Corinne, James, and the others among that “fellowship of suffering” for whom life right now is a series of sighs and a stream of tears. How foreign and fraudulent the politics of sleaze, the polarizing almost savage pursuit of power that strokes the paranoia in us to divide and conquer,” Moyers said. Watching the segment, it became apparent that all this was a lead-in to introducing his next segment – “So it seems a good moment to introduce you to someone of the next generation who hasn’t given up on either our humanity or our future together,” at which time he introduced Mark Johnson.
Although the world is changing, for better or worse, much remains the same. So, in this season of peace and love, I share the transformative power of music again. “Let’s get together and feel all right!” – Peace Through Music.
— Kenne
(Photo Source: Ken & Mary’s Blues Project – October 2008)
Reblogged this on Becoming is Superior to Being and commented:
In this time of peace and love, I share this posting from December 23, 2009. PEACE!– kenne
Thank you so much, Kenne, for sharing the transformative power of music! Let’s stand by one another, and feel ‘peace and love’!