I have always believed in music’s healing power in hard times. Artists often share stories about fans who have told them their songs saved them or got their lyrics tattooed on them.
Personally, music has helped me many times, first with Shawn Mendes’s Understand during the worst time of my life, then with 5 Seconds of Summer, especially Jet Black Heart. I sang that song with my whole heart at their concert. Finally, EDM (electronic dance music) had and still has an impact in my life: people usually think it’s a superficial genre when in reality it offers a lot of deep songs that help me ( and many others) during bad days.
Wanting to know how other people considered music, I asked friends, people who go to university with me, and followers on social media what music meant to them. Did they find comfort in it?
The average answer was that music plays a huge role in people’s lives. It is something they listen to every day, something they can’t start their day without. These are the most meaningful answers I received…
“Music helped me during hard times. Every day I wake up and the first thing I do is put on some music because it helps me get through my days with a smile on my face.”
“Music speaks for you when you can’t find the right words. Song lyrics, if we focus on them, tell our story. If we think about this long enough, it’s easy for us to say: this songs speaks to me.
Music makes us feel understood like books do and music can spread good and bad messages. Sometimes the music we listen to reflects our emotions and we listen to it to fight against bad thoughts like when we are sad or angry. Music calms us when we’re down and gives us a lot of energy when we’re happy. Music is the most beautiful way to express our hopes, thoughts, worried and more.”
“When you grow up having almost no friends and there are only few people who could really relate to you…then in times like that discovering Shawn Mendes music really meant a lot to me ‘cause it has always served me as a solution of the problems I got in life and helps me cope with them more efficiently.
Listening to his music does help me to deal with pain, loss, grief and sadness. It reminds me every time I listen to it that there are people who understand what I feel, who understand my state and for me that’s enough to make me feel like I’m part of my people who suppress the feeling of feeling lonely.
Also I think having his music in my life has made it so much better. It has made it more magical and most importantly taught me what music really is.”
“I think music is a universal language capable of making you feel emotions through sounds and words. I think it’s the most direct and democratic form of art. Music has been with me all my lifelike a soundtrack that helps making experiences better, doesn’t matter if negative or positive.
It helped me making me feel less alone and with its sounds and words I can find myself with the themes and the song characters, succeeding in canalize my feelings making me feel understood and comforted, sharing my experiences and feelings.”
I decided to write this article because it’s what BANDED is all about: how people experience music and their love for it. I asked a lot of people what they thought about it and to hear how many people feel the same way I do about music made me really happy. Music not only helps to heal but unites people in a wonderful way. It doesn’t matter which music genre you listen to, there’s always someone who feels the way you do.
