6 Lessons I’ve learned about music’s role in cities and places…
This is my first medium post.
I write as much as I can for newspapers and websites, usually arguing the same thing — we need to value music differently. By this I don’t just mean the industrial part of music — the making and disseminating of music for commercial gain — but ALL music. Music in our schools, our nursing homes, our public squares and private lobbies. I call this way of thinking a ‘birth to death music strategy’, where if we understand and evaluate the role of music from the moment we’re born to the moment we check out, we can not only improve our lives, but also the lives of all around us. When I put these thoughts into cities and urban centres, the discipline is called ‘Music Cities’. We have conferences about the topic now, and lots of cities are exploring the role of music in their development. Just look here, or here, or here.
If we don’t look at music differently, we’re missing the point in how it improves our quality of life. If we don’t value it, then we question if it is worth paying for. If we don’t value it, then we don’t provide the spaces and places for it to emerge, fail and improve. If we don’t value it, we lack expertise to use it to the best of its abilities, whether it is in tackling early onset dementia, making us workout better or providing the moments that define who we are.
So, here’s some lessons I’ve learned that I’d like to share.
- Stop thinking that music is only ‘my music’ — When we think of the word music, a certain genre, artist or experience comes to mind. I’ve learned this can cloud how we use music in our daily lives. One person’s music is another person’s noise, and exploring the role of music in something you know nothing about re-contextualises its value. There’s genres I will never understand, but if someone does and appreciates them, there’s an opportunity to use music to improve their lives. And when infrastructure appears to benefit one genre, it’s a sign that an overarching strategy is not benefitting everyone it should.
- What we take for granted needs a strategy — Every week in most cities the rubbish is picked up. Streetlights go on, crosswalks work, potholes are filled (we hope), buildings stay up and airplanes don’t crash. For each of these to function, an intricate complex ecosystem exists behind it, ensuring it works when we expect it to. If you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all. Music is seen to be omnipresent and ubiquitous. It’s always there, like our roads, schools and hospitals. But the systems that get it there are hidden in the background and as such, we take them for granted. As a result, if we don’t strategise this ecosystem, we lose chunks of this value chain. If streetlights don’t work, we notice. Same goes when music venues or studios close. We take music as a whole for granted. If we’re going to continue to do that, we need a strategy to protect it, because music, like everything else, is infrastructure.
- Everyone has to start somewhere — Last week a musician named Gord Downie passed away. He was the lead singer of The Tragically Hip, Canada’s national band. I, like most Canadians, am in mourning. But Gord Downie and The Hip (as they are called) didn’t just appear famous. They worked for years, from small-to-medium venues, establishing their fanbase. They weren’t immediately successful. And across all forms of music — from practitioner to enthusiast — we’re losing sight of this. With The Voice and American Idol, we ignore this. By not investing in music education, we ignore this. We’ll always have stars, but we’re losing the ability for musicians to be sustainable. And musicians, like all of us, are taxpaying residents of our cities, towns and places. If we don’t invest in our talent development pipeline, especially at a granular, grassroots level (school, after-school, rehearsal facilities, church groups, small venues, musician networks), we’ll become a culture that mine its music heritage, rather than plants the seeds of the future. This is critical right now in all our cities, towns and places.
- We need to change how we value what we all share — land. Music is no more important than anything else. It should be seen equally to other art forms, as well as to science, engineering and maths. And around the world, this is not recognised in the most important resource we all share — land. In most places we work, the value of the land is more important than the value of what happens inside the building. Despite the growth in Innovation Districts and Cultural Quarters, if we do not reorder how we value land, music (and all art) will suffer, or simply become a tool to increase land value for land value sake. If we truly want places to live for rather than just places to live, this has to change.
- Crisis is what creates change and that’s disappointing — We have to be better at preventative intervention, rather than wound management. In London, it was venues closing. In New York, the same. In Vancouver, it’s house prices and foreign investment and in Sydney, it’s antisocial behaviour. We tend to only fix things when their breaking is made public. We need to be better at managing music within our spaces and places, not simply plugging holes when they appear.
- We need to look at music in the context of everything else — Music is our only universal language and a terrific equaliser. When we’re at a concert, it doesn’t matter who we are — it matters what we feel. Turn to that stranger and you’ll share an experience. And that experience matters. But music is also a productive canary in our urban development coal mine. Musicians are often first to inhabit an area that requires ‘redevelopment’. Festivals are essentially small towns, put up and taken down in a week. Music is — I hope — one of the first languages children learn. And if it is pushed out, or de-prioritised, it usually means other aspects of development aren’t working, whether it is affordability, education policy, fairness or equity. I have dozens of examples of this, all of whom I wished I could call at the earliest stages of development to say — ‘pay attention and take care of what you have now, or it’ll come back to challenge you in the future’.
I do foresee our cities continuing to improve their cultural offers for everyone, and music strategies are part of this. But if we don’t recognise we need one first, we’ll never know how much value it’ll engender. So I hope this helps. Don’t take music for granted. Ever. Because it is not ubiquitous. It requires a system, a policy and structure to flourish, and that is down to our local governments and businesses to create.
If we prioritise music — and culture in general — we’ll make our towns, cities and places better. If you disagree, you’re wrong.
thanks,
Shain
