We will dance again.
And just like that. The world changed forever.
Four walls contain us, more if we’re lucky. The siren went off and we scrambled for what was important. Loved ones, little treasures and lost emotions were rolled under arms and bundled into the back of cars ready for the urban exodus. Queues formed across the country waiting for the apparent necessities that would warrant comfort during the end of the world. Toilet roll being a well-documented top of the list item. Any form of pasta being a close second. Yeast in third.
We have had a bitter sip of what it would be like if the ‘end of the world’ really happened. The human race as a worldwide community is being tested. Sometimes I question if we are just reliving a really badly scripted 90’s apocalyptic disaster movie that went straight to DVD. I’m just hoping we are nearing the credits, rather than March 2020 being just the opening scenes…
With three weeks to go, and maybe a month just gone — the shackles of modern life are falling fast — we are starting to value the little things a lot more. Family, Friends, Food, even work seems to be more important than ever.
We are evolving, for the better. We have no choice but to. Forced to take a good look at our lives with a microscope. We’ve now had enough time to look at how we live out our daily routines. To notice our own little habits, and how we can improve. How we eat, what we drink, where it all comes from, how it even gets here. It’s all of peak importance. Every ingredient now has a back story. Items are never bought, they are feverishly found — either fresh off the truck, the last on the aisle, swashbuckling foaming mouthed fiends away, or forced to return an abnormal amount (three cans) of Heinz beans because you forgot it was only two per customer. We are now shamed into sharing. Or at least, excess purchases.
Separate to the food orders — We now think twice about the online shopping basket — you question if you really need that jacket or dress, because who knows the next time you’ll be out to show it off. What matters most is whether your apparel purchases are comfortable, and if you can lie in it for six to ten plus hours without getting actual bed sores.
How much we digest digitally comes into question too. Being superglued to your phone is fun and all, but there is more out there. With travel, restaurants and anything that helps you show off now being debunked, 87% of Instagram content is pretty much on pause. Roses growing from concrete, creators are clearly rethinking their content. Some of the new work coming through is great, some of it brilliant. Most of it needless.
Lockdown has allowed us to recognise the people in our lives who fuel us as well as forget us. Reaching out organically to the ones you cherish, because you genuinely miss their voice or vibe. Lockdown has its charm. It feels as though we all needed that, less text — more talk.
One thing I hope we never take for granted ~ music.
Whether you have a favourite morning tune, use old playlists as your background soundtrack while you WFH, or just need three minutes of escape. Music is your best friend.
So with every stream I have more and more respect for the music industry. Yes, they had their day — leading right up to the 90s. The fat cat record deals swelling at the waist popped when they got battered by the digital revolution. But they came back punching.
Because of their hard work, we are inundated with new music. As fans we neglected to think of the pressure of churning out music for the masses — how artists burn out for the excess of pop stardom and deadlines. How contracts depict the next album of music, rather than the creativity of the artist leading.
The work that goes into releasing a record, let alone the journey it takes artists to create their music is worth more than the three and a bit minutes, there is a whole story behind every track, and I forgot that — I can’t help but respect and love every musical note that I hear. I cherish the sound. I now react differently to bass lines; I’m listening to the words again — I want to move.
Nightclubs will change. There will be a renaissance of rave. Up and down the country, men and women of all ages dream of lockdown to end and ‘the first Friday.’ — As soon as it’s all over — That first glint of the weekend and every bar will be full to the brim — every late-night dance venue will be sold out. We will embrace our friends like never before. Will feel the cold air whip our faces from the speakers, we will meet again at ‘front left’. We’ll get lost within a crowd and not care, we will make new friends on the smoking terrace, we make new stories and adventures with strangers after far too many espresso martinis, we will enjoy the queue into the club again.
We will stay to the very, very end.
We will dance again. For all the right reasons. Out of joy. Out of a shared passion for the music genres we love. Not just because it’s another party. To be seen, heard, get some photos and fuck off home. We will be there for the music, for the moment, for the atmosphere — to be a part of a community.
So next time you put on the radio, put on that favourite album, or stumble across a new single — turn it up loud. Remember the journey this music has taken to get to you. Think of journey you’re going on through lockdown.
Stop everything — Just listen and move with the sounds. It won’t be long before you are surrounded again by the people you love listening to your favourite music live.
