Why The Venezuelan Concerts Demonstrate What’s Wrong with Music and Development
The issues in Venezuela are beyond comprehension. Again, a national government has failed and its people suffer. Millions have fled the country for neighbouring Colombia and Brazil and the economic crisis- staggering inflation, a loss of jobs and civil liberties — is undeniably, a human rights violation. Now, with the United States, EU and other countries recognising opposition leader Juan Guaidó, tensions are at a breaking point on both sides of the border. So what are we do to? You guessed it, stage two competing concerts.
I believe that music — and access to all arts — are a basic human right. I’ve written about this a lot, arguing here that the arts in general — including music, are misused in development circles all the time. This is one of the most stark examples of this. And it is frustrating.
I understand the joy that each concert brought to the participants, or the sheer mammoth of a task it is to stage a concert of such magnitude in a week, warts and all. I commend Richard Branson and his team for staging it, as well as to those organisations supportive of Nicholas Maduro, who staged their own concert. Whatever one believes politically, attendees on both sides enjoyed a welcome reprieve and a jolt of endorphins to the pleasure centers of their brain, which is what music does to us physiologically. And I’m sure they had fun.
But these concerts demonstrate the mammoth misunderstanding that exists in development, when thinking about music. Instead of looking at music as infrastructure — the hard and soft wiring entangling civic society that needs investment — it is ignored and dismissed as a nice-to-have, only to be used when it suits a political aim. The money (and I assume it cost millions) spent on each concert could have been strategically invested, bit-by-bit, in intentionally delivering music (and other arts and culture) programs and infrastructure in towns and cities, in hopes to bridge divide and create more humanity in all of us. I know it is an assumption, but providing national music education, engaging communities in music programs and staging smaller, more frequent events could have, over time, been used to foster positive change. Especially in the country that spawned El Sistema, one of the best examples of music’s soft power, this is even more disappointing.
A concert cures all, it seems. But it fails to deal with the root of the problem, which includes — among other things — a lack of utilising music’s impact on all of us. Let alone, the concert will go away; infrastructure will packed up and shipped off. But our cities and towns, and those who live in them, will remain, left no richer by music because what went into producing the events is no longer there — cities still bereft of cultural infrastructure and policy to support its development.
Here is yet another example of music demonstrating its power and being taken advantage of in the process. It was remarkable watching Michelle Obama talk about music’s impact at the Grammy’s, but music education is in decline around the world, including in the USA (like here in California). Global education reforms belittle music, with priorities going to STEM subjects, rather than STEAM. It is left to well meaning initiatives to pick up the slack, as no master plan — nor government policy — realises music’s impact on all of us.
I understand attending such a gig is meaningful to the gig-goer, but global trends to support music development demonstrate that this money could have been better spent. At the same time, more restrictions are being imposed on music festivals (such as in Australia), access to music education (as in the UK) and still, no known policy exists in donor circles to include music in how we improve places and people. We laud its health and wellness properties. We all welcome it in our lives. But we do little to protect it. Instead, we hold ephemeral concerts, prioritising showcasing the front-of-house, rather than the back-of-house, which is why there is a front-of-house to begin with.
I sound frustrated. That’s because I am. Music is our universal language. It improves all our lives. But our governments and institutions — en masse — do little to support it as infrastructure. Instead we stage ephemeral moments that while important, are just that — ephemeral. A concert is amazing, but it does not produce substantive change. I hope the money raised through it will be used to use music as infrastructure, but I bet we’ll just see more concerts.
