What I learned from Roger Waters

Last weekend, my parents gave me tickets to Roger Waters' "The Wall" for my birthday. Like many re-touring rockstars, Waters came with a message of peace. His show featured multiple political messages and thousands of pictures of fallen soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The whole show was accompanied by dazzling 3D video projected onto "the wall".  One particularly striking sequence was shown during the song "Run Like Hell". A parody of the iPod lower case "i" concept is used to show social intolerance, stakeholders in war, and propaganda. The white headphones symbolize propaganda, belief systems, and social "traps" that prevent us from bettering ourselves and the world. If you're interested there is a high quality video from the show here:

Waters' choice to make a political statement, while inspired, was not surprising. However, the crowd's reaction to him was. Being in a crowd of 40,000+ people all understanding and angry about the injustice highlighted in the video gave me a small glimpse at the possibilities of positive media and the influence of celebrity. As a musician, I am always interested to see how celebrities and fellow musicians tie their art in with social justice issues. This concept ties in with my previous post on solutions. By nature, human beings look up to celebrities and power figures. If the people we look up to promote a message of peace, so will we take on those ideals. Unfortunately, the same can be said for people who promote violent messages. Seeing "The Wall" gave me a newfound concept of digital media and music's place in the political arena. 

Despite my best efforts, I can be very cynical. Seeing celebrities like Bono or Angelina Jolie on TV talking about peace doesn't often inspire me to listen or take action. A few months ago at a reunion show by Swedish hardcore punk band "Refused", I was actually somewhat irritated by the lead singers approach to addressing his political platform onstage. Nothing that he said was offensive or even gratuitous. I was just bothered by the way his anarchist message randomly interrupted his otherwise calm and thoughtful stage banter. Perhaps its just me, but these types of scenarios turn me cynical. However, in the case of "The Wall" the message worked. Waters' understated delivery made his political messages more palatable. The video was thought provoking and engaging. At the end of the show, after the wall came down, a teenaged Middle-Eastern girl wearing the white headphones appeared on the small remaining part of the screen. In slow motion, she removed her headphones and raised her hands up victoriously. At that point, the entire stadium erupted into applause and cheers. It was then that I realized how engaged I had been in the message and how the video had really spoken for itself without the anarchical 'rah-rah' commentary from the lead singer of the band. 

My experience at "The Wall" brings me back to my thesis on media misrepresentation. Over the course of this blog I have aimed to explain how media has the power to make or break society. I have found that there is no simple formula for successful positive media. However, what I do know is that when an audience is held accountable and engaged in depiction of global issues, pandora's box opens, we take off our proverbial headphones and the discussion begins.