individual songs ("From a Distance", "We Shall Overcome", "Blowin' in the Wind") have had much impact, but songs alone are unlikely to be enough without ensuing dialogue; it was a very powerful experience for me to write a song of empathy based on conversations with a Palestinian-American colleague and then perform it with the backing of a diverse 20-person middle eastern music ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhk35Htcc0) that included a few people with Palestinian background and I'd like to think it touched many hearts even if it didn't change the world
I don't think it can "end" conflict, but it can certainly shine a bright spotlight on injustice. There's a reason despots around the world have been terrified of socially conscious music- why Rai musicians in Algeria were assassinated, why Medici had the police storm major festivals and lock up musicians in Brazil, why the possession of some Western music was banned in the Soviet Union, etc.
Musicians have the power to reach us with songs they perform or write and, maybe even more importantly now, with whom they perform. https://youtu.be/qg27VjNh_g8
Yes, totally. Music is a language, but it's a universal language, and open to everyone. It provides an opportunity to establish relationships with people you may not understand, or even like very much, and to discover the commonalities intrinsic to everyone.
individual songs ("From a Distance", "We Shall Overcome", "Blowin' in the Wind") have had much impact, but songs alone are unlikely to be enough without ensuing dialogue; it was a very powerful experience for me to write a song of empathy based on conversations with a Palestinian-American colleague and then perform it with the backing of a diverse 20-person middle eastern music ensemble (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEhk35Htcc0) that included a few people with Palestinian background and I'd like to think it touched many hearts even if it didn't change the world
I don't think it can "end" conflict, but it can certainly shine a bright spotlight on injustice. There's a reason despots around the world have been terrified of socially conscious music- why Rai musicians in Algeria were assassinated, why Medici had the police storm major festivals and lock up musicians in Brazil, why the possession of some Western music was banned in the Soviet Union, etc.
Musicians have the power to reach us with songs they perform or write and, maybe even more importantly now, with whom they perform. https://youtu.be/qg27VjNh_g8
another example: https://www.amazon.com/East-Jerusalem-West-David-Broza/dp/B01F9PI516
adapting a teaching from Sanhedrin 37a, if we change ONE person, we have changed the world, so we can now give your question an emphatic YES!
Yes, totally. Music is a language, but it's a universal language, and open to everyone. It provides an opportunity to establish relationships with people you may not understand, or even like very much, and to discover the commonalities intrinsic to everyone.