Leave it to Good Music to Put Us Together, Pt.1

“Leave it to good music to put us together.”

When my good friend texted that to me, he was talking about Tears For Fears.  We met at one of their concert three years ago, and most of our initial communication had been about them, and music in general---oh, and steak.  (I love steak!)

This was my response:

“Put us together, keep us together, keep us "together"!” 

His one sentence said a lot.  Music brings people together.  Music keeps me “together”. (And that second part will be discussed in “Pt.2”)

Music brings people together.  That was never more obvious to me than when I was a child in my not-yet-officially-broken home. No matter the mood or atmosphere, the one thing that we ALWAYS enjoyed as a cohesive unit was music.  Music was always playing, we were always singing or talking in song.  (I went more in depth on this earlier, I (re)Write the Songs.)

And then I got older and started going to concerts.  One thing I noticed immediately was that no matter how diverse the crowd was, everyone was the same person at that moment.  We moved as one, we sang as one.  It’s an empowering and…full feeling.  I love it.  To me, music became “The Great Leveller”.  When we are all listening to the same music together, we are one and the same.  No one is better, smarter, richer or poorer.

(I also think it’s pretty cool that my friend and I were at the same Tears for Fears concert 25 years ago on my 18^th birthday, even though we didn’t know each other then!)

Last year I went to two outdoor concerts in one week while I was working in North Carolina. Evelyn “Champagne” King with Midnight Star and then two days later it was Night Ranger with Loverboy (yes, I am a child of the 80’s—and it never gets old!)  The two crowds could not have been more different, yet the atmosphere was the same; all are one.

I have some friends that the only thing we share in common is love of the same music; all we do together is talk about and/or listen to music.  And those friends are just as important to me as my best friends who listen to my angst, bitching and insanity on a regular basis.  Sharing music is just as important to me.

Next time you are at a concert, take a look around.  The music, or type of music never matters.

The audience is the same, no matter how different they look.  They dance together, sing together, smile together.  It’s truly beautiful.