If you have to express yourself personally, join a band.
If you have to make a social commentary, join a band
If you have to make a political statement, join a band
If you're looking for a higher power, join a band.
If you're looking for self destruction, join a band.
If you're looking to break the grip of conformity, sterility, repression, oppression, join a band.
If you're looking for the meaning of it all, join a band.
Pulitzer Prize winner Jared Diamond in his book 'Guns, Germs and Steel' credits 'the band' as the first 'social' structure formed by humans.
The 'band' experience has an advantage over more complex social relationships in that it is designed and created by it's relative members. A band must continuously balance the dynamics of harmony and dissonance between members and the unified expression being created.
This intimate social process eventually presents itself as a performance at which audience and the band exchange instant emotional responses and feedback. The band has as its potential the power to repel or attract an audience exponentially. The audience has the potential to be completely transformed and engaged in the performance.
This kind of direct emotional social communication far exceeds an individuals expression within institutionalized mass cultural media. The experience of feeling vulnerable in the process of creation and performance enlightens the individual to a more visceral reality.
Playing in or hearing a band live is being alive. It's how we gather as potential brothers, sisters, friends or enemies. It's where we come to sing, dance, hope and dream. It's an act of liberty, a fight for freedom, a mythology of monsters and heroes.
Turn on, plug in, turn up!
Join a band..........
John Sullivan 1/14/09
