One thing is certain; the world could do with some fixing. Whether socially or economically, there is a lot of imbalance and instability in the world today that needs to be addressed urgently so.
The biggest crisis of all has to do with climate change. Social and economic issues do not have nearly the same cataclysmic effects of climate change if these were to become as frequent and severe as they are headed towards being.
While world leaders continue to drag their feet and pussyfoot around the issue, there should rise a new form of advocacy to try and get those who are downstream to change their habits. This is musical advocacy.
Music and music artists enjoy a special relationship with the masses all across the planet. Seen as ambassadors for unity, musicians are widely accepted as neutral parties to the climate change debate.
Neutral parties that command a significant following and which the masses are more willing to listen to and accept as far as various messages are concerned. But this has not been exploited to the extent of its tremendous inherent capacity and more needs to be done.
One of the biggest advantages musical advocacy has is that it can reach young people and influence their thinking, long before they become the business and political leaders of tomorrow.
Catching young people while they are still excitable, innocent, and impressionable is one power of music that can and should be harnessed more effectively. But what challenges does musical advocacy face if it has the power to be so effective and yet isn’t?
Concerted Efforts
Trying to make a difference on a country-by-country basis is not effective. While artists are mostly trying to make a difference in their home countries, the challenges of global warming and climate change are too large to be handled on a country-by-country basis.
When you think of the wide-reaching effects of climate change, there is a need for any advocacy to take global proportions.
While organizations such as ONE are trying to do this, they enlist too few artists from across the world and most have fairly high running costs to truly make a global impact.
What would make more sense is to hold awareness concerts across the world, something again that ONE did but more can still be done on various other platforms.
Bringing together dozens of artists from across the globe and convincing them to lend some of their popularity to addressing planetary issues is a better way forward.
Voices United
Musical advocacy has the power to compel change even in the most hardened of societies because of its pervasiveness. There is seldom a community that has no music and this music has to be created by some sort of musician.
If we can reach out to these artists and request them to become global ambassadors, there is a good chance there will be an influential and well-respected ambassadors in every community on earth. But addressing the challenges of actualizing this is where the dilemma lies.
There’s no question this is easier said than done, but the hope and promise such an effort holds and the potential for change that it can far outweigh any challenges anticipated. If we can all look towards music and performing arts as a globally unifying force, we can be the difference we all want so badly.
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