Last nights CMA Awards, broadcast live on ABC, is Country Music’s night to shine. It’s by no accident that many of the award winners thanked the songwriters. For the singers know, without the songwriter there is no song to sing.
Over the last couple of months I have been privileged to take a songwriters class at the Blair School of Music in Nashville. Each week a songwriter shares his or her story and helps the class look at the craft of songwriting. Most of the members of the class are songwriters themselves and in many of the sessions they share their music for critique by the speaker and the class.
This last week Laynge Martin, who has written songs like Elvis Presley’s “Way down” and Trisha Yearwood’s, “I Wanna Go Too Far,” was our speaker.
What impressed me about Laynge was his passion for his craft and his desire to be heard. Some of his advice could be applied to us all.
About music itself he noted that in movies, music is always used to bring the message home. At the most dramatic point in the story people sing. For Layne, “songs are really accelerated meaning.” This reminds us that unlike any other form of communication, music goes straight to the heart. Lyrics, melody, and rhythm combine to take the listener to a different place of understanding and insight. The best song becomes your song because it opens a window into what is really important in life.
Another comment by Layne has importance for us in everyday communication, that “everything we say has a melody and a rhythm.” The cadence of our speech is really music without the notes. The tone of our voice, the words we emphasize, and our inflection constantly tells others the state of our emotions, what is important to us, and where our passion lies.
Daniel J. Levitin, author of The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature says the following: “Music, I argue, is not simply a distraction or a pastime, but a core element of our identity as a species, an activity that paved the ways for more complex behaviors such as language, large-scale cooperative undertakings, and the passing down of important information from one generation to the next.” In his book he says there are basically six types of songs that have formed who we are as humans: songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love.
I might add to this the following thought: before there was speech, culture, and civilization there was music. Too radical for you. If you are a parent, my guess is the first form of communication you formed with your infant child was a song. Maybe it was a coo or a soft hum. Whatever it was it made a connection that soothed and comforted. In a sense you became the songwriter as you formed a bond with your child.
Songs then are not simply noise to fill up time as we drive to work or crunch numbers on our computer. They are the stuff of life. They help us articulate who we are. They help us discover what is most important to us. The songwriter’s gift is the ability to listen to the sorrows and joys of daily existence to distill meaning into a phrase. “I did it my way.” “Love the one your with.” “Staying alive.” “Ain’t no mountain high enough.” “Amazing Grace.”
Layne made another comment during our time together that really stuck, “what you do everyday becomes your life.” Days turn to weeks which turn into months which becomes years. What you do each day has great implications for what you will become in the future. What you do each moment matters.
So the next time you listen to a song remember the muse that lurks in the shadow, for if you listen closely the secret of the songwriter will be revealed.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Millennials Find Their Voice in Obama's Win
A look at generations in this year's elections tells an interesting story. In Making God Real for a New Generation which was published in 2002, I talked about the emergence of a new Youth Boom that would hit in 2006 as the Millennial Generation, those born from 1982 to 1999, entered into their young adult and youth years. Today we are seeing the fruit of that Youth Boom in the election of President Obama. Now that Millennials are age 7 to 26 they are in their Youth Boom years.
When previous generations hit this age mark, transformation in the rest of the society took place. In the 1930s, new technology introduced color movies, comic books, and Big Band Music. Towards the end of the decade, the GI Generation fought in World War II. In the 1950s, the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Rock'n'Roll Music were the hallmarks of the Pioneer Generation. The Baby Boomers ruled the 1970s with the culmination of the anti-War movement and growth of the Women's Movement. In the late 1980s, the Postmodern Generation saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall and ushered in many aspects that are seen in the Emergent Movement and the growth of the digital age.
Now that the Millennials are coming into their own, key factors are coming into play in the wider society as seen in the election of Obama:
1. 10% of the voters were age 18-24 and 66% of them voted for Obama. In comparison, only 45% of those over 65 voted for the new president.
2. Obama tapped into the youth vote by using their primary means of communication: the Internet and Cell Phones. Notice that major announcements, like the selection of Vice-President Biden, were sent out as Text Messages before given to traditional media. By doing so the Obama campaign sought to create a personal connection with the young voters who supported him. This also allowed him to ask for donations to the campaign using the Internet as well.
3. Obama's slogan: "Yes we Can," tapped into the mindset of a generation who sees themselves as ones who want to make a difference in this world. Rather than fear, his message of hope connected with young people who desire a positive direction for the country and the world.
4. Obama also connected to another major aspect of the Millennial Generation, the ability and desire to reach across racial, ethnic, and national lines. A great number of the Millennial Generation are the children of immigrants from countries around the world. A look at the crowds that were seen at Obama's rallies shows us the new face of America, one that is multi-ethnic and young.
As Millennials make their voice heard the church has much to learn from the Obama campaign.
1. Millennials want to make a personal connection and do so through digital media.
2. Millennials are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural generation. Churches that will grow and flourish in the future will be ones that reflect their diversity. This is the greatest challenge churches now face as the vast majority of congregations worship in mono-ethnic gatherings.
3. Millennials are attracted to a message of hope and desire to be part of something bigger than themselves to make a difference.
The Millennials are just starting to let their voice be heard. The church, like it has in eras past, has a choice to make. It can listen deeply and look for ways in which God is speaking through the Millennials to challenge us to grow in faith and maturity. It can put up walls and ignore them or forbid practices that seem so unGodly (like dancing, wearing make-up, or watching movies). Or it can ignore them completely, going our separate ways until the Church itself has lost its voice.
My hope is that the church and the culture at large will listen and learn, and look for ways to connect to this new generation as it influences us all.
When previous generations hit this age mark, transformation in the rest of the society took place. In the 1930s, new technology introduced color movies, comic books, and Big Band Music. Towards the end of the decade, the GI Generation fought in World War II. In the 1950s, the birth of the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Rock'n'Roll Music were the hallmarks of the Pioneer Generation. The Baby Boomers ruled the 1970s with the culmination of the anti-War movement and growth of the Women's Movement. In the late 1980s, the Postmodern Generation saw the collapse of the Berlin Wall and ushered in many aspects that are seen in the Emergent Movement and the growth of the digital age.
Now that the Millennials are coming into their own, key factors are coming into play in the wider society as seen in the election of Obama:
1. 10% of the voters were age 18-24 and 66% of them voted for Obama. In comparison, only 45% of those over 65 voted for the new president.
2. Obama tapped into the youth vote by using their primary means of communication: the Internet and Cell Phones. Notice that major announcements, like the selection of Vice-President Biden, were sent out as Text Messages before given to traditional media. By doing so the Obama campaign sought to create a personal connection with the young voters who supported him. This also allowed him to ask for donations to the campaign using the Internet as well.
3. Obama's slogan: "Yes we Can," tapped into the mindset of a generation who sees themselves as ones who want to make a difference in this world. Rather than fear, his message of hope connected with young people who desire a positive direction for the country and the world.
4. Obama also connected to another major aspect of the Millennial Generation, the ability and desire to reach across racial, ethnic, and national lines. A great number of the Millennial Generation are the children of immigrants from countries around the world. A look at the crowds that were seen at Obama's rallies shows us the new face of America, one that is multi-ethnic and young.
As Millennials make their voice heard the church has much to learn from the Obama campaign.
1. Millennials want to make a personal connection and do so through digital media.
2. Millennials are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural generation. Churches that will grow and flourish in the future will be ones that reflect their diversity. This is the greatest challenge churches now face as the vast majority of congregations worship in mono-ethnic gatherings.
3. Millennials are attracted to a message of hope and desire to be part of something bigger than themselves to make a difference.
The Millennials are just starting to let their voice be heard. The church, like it has in eras past, has a choice to make. It can listen deeply and look for ways in which God is speaking through the Millennials to challenge us to grow in faith and maturity. It can put up walls and ignore them or forbid practices that seem so unGodly (like dancing, wearing make-up, or watching movies). Or it can ignore them completely, going our separate ways until the Church itself has lost its voice.
My hope is that the church and the culture at large will listen and learn, and look for ways to connect to this new generation as it influences us all.
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