A LOVE LETTER TO MUSIC
In the midst of the madness, music is here to save us from our lows and remind us of our highs.
It’s not taken the Coronavirus for me to realise the indispensable power of music. Even before all this world weirdness began, music had already saved me from myself multiple times. I don’t just mean in the obvious sense of finding catharsis in the relatability of lyrics, or being lifted out of an anxious mood with an upbeat song, but instead in it’s nuances; in the melody that strikes a chord with your brain and makes your heart feel full, in the riff that crawls over your skin in a huge rush of dizziness, or in the words that cause a surge of tingling down to your toes. Now, in the land of lockdown and isolation where nothing seems normal or real, music is here to step in once again.
The virus has reversed our world; It’s turned our lives from daily interactions and intricacies into isolation, existence and survival. Those mundane moments we took for granted, or perhaps were even annoyed by, we now crave; the drunk man on the night bus you had to wake up, the hug you gave your friend when you greeted her, or the busy bar queue you had to wait in at your local. Instead, we have been reduced to fundamentals, something we as a generation of people never considered we might face. Now, we are forced to focus on simplicities like staying healthy, eating, sleeping and breathing. For me, another essential to that list for sane survival is music. Those things keep us alive, but it’s the details that make life worth living.
Music is the detail; it's weaved into everything we do, think, say and feel. It brings us together but it’s also there when we fall apart. It’s with us when we fall in love and when our heart is broken. It’s there when we’re lonely, when someone dies, when we’re hurting, when we’re guilty, when we’re hungover, when we’re sick and it’s there when nobody’s there. It’s there when you’re walking to the tube, or sitting in the park, when you’re singing in the shower, or dancing in your room. For me, music is intertwined into everything; it accompanies almost every momentous moment I’ve ever had and forms my memories of people - and that’s really all we are, the moments we have and those we surround ourselves with.
Isolation creates space for appreciation, and having events and gatherings taken away makes you understand the magnitude of how special they are. Dancing in a sweaty club with thousands of others, singing in unison with a crowd at a gig, being helped up in a mosh by a stranger, sitting on the grass near a buzzing mainstage, huddling under an umbrella with linked arms, squashing through an audience with one hundred sorrys, dancing and running between sets at festivals holding hands with your friends. Holding hands. Hugging. Kissing. These interactions are moments of exquisite joy which you know that you’ll remember forever. These experiences are what make the lows low, because they themselves are so high. In the depths of mental darkness you have them in your back pocket, there to give you hope that one day, you’ll feel like that again. It’s particularly useful to go through this brain archive in times like these and dig out some of your best memories, hold them close and remember that it won’t always be like this.
We are all defined as people by the music that we’ve listened to. Music can be a trigger for both the bad and good; I once threw up because a song made me think of someone that broke my heart! Nina Simone’s ‘My Baby Just Cares For Me’ reminds me of being 5 and dancing around my Mum’s kitchen; Nick Cave’s ‘Into My Arms’ sits me in the passenger seat of Dad’s car on our roadtrip around Ireland; Florence’s ‘Dog Days Are Over’ takes me back to being 16 in the crowd at Reading squeezing Holly’s hand; the riff to AM’s ‘Do I Wanna Know’ sends me to a bar in Sheffield in my first year of Uni. Each song is so personal and yet so universal - that’s what makes them so powerful.
Music is evocative, and now it’s here to accompany the weirdness. There will now be songs that will remind us of the year we are trapped inside, the year that was cancelled, the year we faced catastrophe. Living through this time is particularly surreal because you become very aware that we’re in a significant moment in history, but one which we don’t yet know the ending to. On the Friday night before everything shut down, I wandered through the deserted streets of London and looked into the windows of the empty restaurants and bars, occupied only by the staff. I had T-Rex’s, ‘Cosmic Dancer’ playing on my headphones and turned it up so loud that it drowned out everything else. I felt like a character in a film in the bit where everything was falling apart. Then I remembered that I was not a character, I was real, and this is real life - for now anyway. Our lives have soundtracks to them too, and this song will form part of mine.
I hope that this time of isolation and ultimately enforced reflection will enable us to remember who we are, and be grateful for what we have experienced. Sit down with yourself and put your music on and know that out there, someone just like you is in their room, listening too. Find unity in the isolation we all feel, because if we’re alone together, then we’re never alone. Think about all the people that music has gifted you with, and those it continues to remind us of whom we have lost. Reminisce on all the amazing nights, experiences and moments it has given to us and know that soon, we will be out there having them again. After the Manchester terror attack at Ariana’s gig, I went to a vigil where someone had left a sign which read: “Never stop dancing and enjoying life” and that’s just it, isn’t it? It won’t be too long before we will be back out there, enjoying life together again. We will dance twice as hard, and smile until our cheeks hurt and move until our feet ache. We will hug and kiss and cuddle and be together and laugh and listen and move. Music will help to get us through this period, and it’ll be there waiting on the other side, ready to celebrate with us when it’s all over.
57 Likes, 2 Comments - Megan Graye Levers (@missmeganlevers) on Instagram: "Sheffield shed many a tear for Manchester tonight ❤️"
Below is a playlist full of my most life defining songs. They are by no means the best songs, or songs I listen to often, but they are songs that evoke significant memories of people or moments in my life, songs that have made me who I am today and that have mobilised me to act, or have provided a soundtrack when I couldn’t.
