Where do we run to when the music leaves us?
4 min read
Talking about clubbing and festivals amidst lockdown is entangled with the same sensitivity as talking about an ex-partner. Those bittersweet memories release sparks of love, adrenaline and endorphins, but subside only too quickly into a nostalgic, blueish melancholia. It seems as though we are now as distant from these past experiences of festivals and dance events as we are from their future happening. This calcifies as a sobering reality.
The reason being is that music gatherings are part of our identity and have shaped our culture for millennia. Attending music events over months, years, or decades is a process that sculpts friendships and creates electric and enduring bonds between people. These are places where we are a part of something, places where we form one body out of many, and today, this body looms as no more than a silhouette.
To continue is to adapt, and so the question ensues, how are we managing without our beloved dance events?
LIVING IN CITIES
It is incredibly easy to forget that living in cities of current sizes is not a natural process for human beings, it’s something we must adjust to. Most studies on social group sizes conclude that numbers of around 150-200 people have proved optimal for social functioning. Social functioning includes being nice to each other, supporting one another, regulating crime and obtaining the essential things needed to live – food, water, love and shelter. Today, populous cities reach into the stratosphere of millions, thus making it strenuous for a sense of community to survive.
COPING MECHANISMS
Consuming often helps to alleviate our sense of alienation in the short term. We buy clothes, gadgets, or accessories and we feel good for a bit longer – they give us a new, albeit fleeting, sense of purpose. While we have nice things, this lack of identity subsides to the background again. Exercise also helps people and music is no different in its release, but the groups that form around it have a particularly primitive and effervescent magnetism.
The collectives that spawn from music sub-cultures are bonded in such potent ways that individuals involved often consider each other family. People look out for one another and whether you are a ‘he’ or a ‘she’, both or neither – there is a level of acceptance for you because you like the same kind of music. This process makes us feel a part of something and we find our place to fit in. As societies amass in the millions, these smaller groups are important to maintain.
THE DRUM
The nature of repetitive, percussion centred music like techno and house, is that they appeal to us intuitively - we know what to do without being taught. The drum stimulates a primitive desire to move to beat in unison; so we shake our bodies and the stress leaves, one bead of sweat at a time. To an alien it must look hilarious, but to us, it’s just what makes sense. This combination of exercise, freedom and a sense of fitting-in becomes an essential part of a happy life for those involved. Whether it’s Friday night or Sunday morning, once a week or once a year, you are there, you are happy, and you are together.
NO MORE GATHERING
Right now, it’s tough for these groups. They have dispersed and gently ebbed into different corners of the cities. Online interactions remind us this culture lives on, but patience must prevail in the present situation. Thoughts of festivals and weekend-long summer events are no more than a flirtatious tease to us now. These events are not gone forever, but in the meantime, we must find our variant ways of fitting in.
What do we do when the party stops? Who do we turn to when the music leaves us? Now is the time to ask ourselves this. Now is the time to find meaningful paths that continue to stimulate our musical interests. Maybe it’s time to release some music or go to your local record shop and buy the music you love on vinyl; maybe even learn a new way of dancing. These routes help embed you in the musical community in a way that will last longer than the parties ever can.
Parties will return and with them will return a sense of joyous identity. But for now, we must find alternatives. We must do other things and be creative in making sure these groups continue to thrive. We need them more than we know…
Sources:
https://academic.oup.com/cjres/article-abstract/9/2/301/1747129?redirectedFrom=fulltext
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S109051381730209X
www.journals.elsevier.com › technology-in-society
Image:
Seana Gavin - Les Nouveaux Riches Magazin. Made in Balkan