Music: Saving Lives or Generic Entertainment?

“We’re definitely a band that wants to save your life.” To some people this quote is a meaningless sentence said by a guitarist in a random band they will forget about within the next few minutes. To others, myself included, this quote [taken from My Chemical Romance’s DVD Life On The Murder Scene] means a lot more.

Music has a way of saving people’s lives. It doesn’t matter what you listen to it can still save you. I know for a fact that if it weren’t for My Chemical Romance and a few other bands, I would not be sitting here writing this essay and I know of many others who have been saved and had their lives changed by various bands and particular songs. The music people create can change the way others look at life and also change people’s lives. What is it about music that can affect people in this way? It could be the way it is sung and played.

Maybe the emotion in a singer’s voice helps listeners to understand and relate to the music better. Maybe the personal experience of a member of a band is something the band’s listeners can relate to. I know for me it was the lyrics of Gerard Way’s [My Chemical Romance] songs and the emotion in Alex Band’s [The Calling] voice that has got me through the past three years of my life and will get me further into my life. Gerard Way: Alcoholic. Has been sober for nearing three years now. Has influenced the lives of so many people. His lyrics and band have helped him through his drug and alcohol addiction so much so that he cleaned up in seventeen days after hitting rock bottom. He is an example to his fans and shows us that people will be there to pick us up when we fall.

Eight months ago my parents tried to stop me listening to bands like My Chemical Romance, Simple Plan and Hawthorne Heights because they thought that sort of music had a bad influence on me. Maybe it did, but it keeps me and others here. It’s a hard thing to explain. A friend of mine told me it pulls her away from the mass of conformists in this world. This point is true, it helps us to differentiate ourselves from a culture we don't want to be part of. We aren't afraid to be different, no matter what people might say or think. The names we get called don't bring us down; they make us stronger and more able to make ourselves noticed in this world of fashion-obsessed followers.

Society demands one thing of us, and we do the other, sometimes not deliberately but sometimes completely deliberately, just to get our point across that it's ok not to follow what society wants you to follow and people will be there to help you along the way. Another person told me it was because music is cathartic. Again, this is true. Through music people can let out the emotions they have pent up which they would otherwise bottle up or let out in a more dangerous and destructive way. It is a way of letting yourself go through someone else's voice. When a band like My Chemical Romance or Simple Plan comes into the music scene, people can relate to it and let the music say what they otherwise wouldn't or can't. They give us the power to stand up to the people who try to bring us down and the confidence to overcome our worst fears and hardest trials.

An example of this is the song "Sleep" by My Chemical Romance. Having been plagued by night terrors and insomnia, when I heard this song I immediately felt I was able to relate to it and the lyrics, "A drink for the horror that I'm in" and "the hardest part is letting go of your dreams." The song helped me realize I wasn't alone and that I could overcome what was happening to me. The same goes for a very close friend of mine who, until this song was released, hadn't told anyone about her night terrors. The second it was released and she'd heard it, she told me about it because it showed her she shouldn't be ashamed of it and she's not alone. The song helped her get over it and she now no longer suffers, the same goes for me.

Another example is "Famous Last Words" again by My Chemical Romance, "I am not afraid to keep on living, I am not afraid to walk this world alone." These lyrics are possibly the most powerful we have heard from this band, the most obvious and the ones that say the most in the shortest time. This song has helped many people stay here and live their lives without fear of rejection and with the confidence to be different and keep away from the conformists. The music lets our voices be heard. The bands who make this type of music listen to their fans and what they want to say. Through the music they create, our voices are heard and our points made. The bands can also say what they want to say to the fans through their music.

It is not only about the music though. The culture that comes with listening to bands like My Chemical Romance is so positive it keeps people going. We can look at what people like Gerard Way and Pete Wentz have been through and just the fact that they have come out of it alive makes it easier to believe you can make it out too. People on the outside of this culture assume that everyone who is a part of it is depressed and hating their lives and themselves. This is a lie. I know plenty of people who are perfectly happy with themselves but because they dress in black most of the time, others deem them as depressed. We are stereotyped as the "depressed kids" but in reality, if people took the time to look closer at us and our lives, they'd find we are generally perfectly happy. Yes, we may have had a bad past and have overcome something, but we're happy.

It may not seem like it but we are more confident than the people who follow the fashions and do what the magazines tell them to do. Why? Because we're different and proud of it. The music we listen to keeps us in the world. It maybe the reason we dress like we do and we are the way we are but the important thing is that it keeps us here. If you go to any My Chemical Romance gig, you will find an army of people, all there for the same reason. The band saved them, helped them, changed their lives and gave them a confidence they didn't know they had. Knowing smiles are frequent between the fans and we are all there because we love and want to support our idols. We fight our fears with each other and help each other along the way. In the words of Muse, "Together we're invincible".

The music that helps people is not always rock music. The rock music world is only a part of it, but it's the one I know the most about and am involved in. There is a lot of this culture in R&B and rap with the artists talking about their backgrounds and how hard growing up in certain areas can be. Their lyrics give people growing up in these situations a hope and a glimmer of light, a reason to live and fight their way out of their situation. The music makes listeners aware of what life can be like and helps them understand how it isn't always easy and things aren't always just given to you when you ask for it. People who make this music can get their point across easily and let loose their emotions in a less destructive way than they otherwise would. The lyrics can be political as well, which gives an artist the chance to voice his or her opinions freely and get them noticed. For example, recently a French rap artist, the name escapes me, released a song about the French politics and how it is time for a change in an attempt to get the younger generation interested in voting and thereby helping the country's democratic system.

Charities gain a lot from music as well. Songs such as "Perfect Day" which was covered by various artists including Bono for a children's charity, help people become more aware of the issues there are in the world. So many people live such a sheltered life that they are not in touch with what is going on and the problems our world has. These songs help people to become more aware and maybe compelled to do something about the issues. Live 8 raised a huge amount of awareness for poverty in the world and another, similar concert is being planned in New York and London to raise awareness for the environmental issues we must face up to. Since no one seems to listen to what is going on, this is the only way of getting people to realize we do have problems and our lives are not perfect. This is a classic example of music changing people's outlook on the world and their lives. Just the fact that a concert can make people aware and give them the desire to do something about what is happening shows that music is powerful enough to make someone give a little more back to the world.

There are a lot of people who disagree with this argument and it is fair to have this opposite point of view. To some people, the songs are just a bunch of words thrown together to a tune so that a band can make some money and live comfortably. Sometimes this is the case, but frequently it's not. To be perfectly honest, I cannot think of an opposite point of view to mine because mine is so strong. It is exceptionally hard for me to find a different point of view when I'm speaking from my own experience. I guess the reason why some people think the opposite to me is because they listen to the type of music which is purely there for enjoyment like the generic pop that is churned out by the record companies in a desperate attempt for money and fame.

Either that or they can't relate to the lyrics because they haven't had an experience which gives them the chance to. This is probably for their own good since these types of experiences are never fun. I find it incredibly frustrating when someone claims that music can't help or save people because I know it can from my own experience and someone constantly disagreeing with the point I, and thousands of others, are trying to make is like saying we shouldn't be alive, or we should conform to the world and follow, like sheep, what the magazines tell us to do and what society demands of us, or tries to demand.

No matter what people say, music can help people. I make this, admittedly one sided, point from experience from my own life and from talking to the people I've met through the bands I love and who have had the same sort of experiences. So many of my friends wouldn't be here without the music we have and I am forever grateful to the people who create the music we have. It has become a part of us and our lives. There isn't a day that goes by without at least two songs from these bands go through my head just from someone saying a simple sentence such as "we'll just carry on."

I know these bands, My Chemical Romance in particular, will always be a part of me and my life. They will always be with me and I will always know them as the band that saved my life and kept me walking this world, fighting through the expectations made of me from today's society and not being afraid to be different. Where would I be without them? Rotting in a wooden box in the ground, to be utterly blunt. They changed my outlook on life, they gave me a confidence and a lack of shame about being different.

They lowered the amount of pills I planned to take, the number of scars I wanted to make and they taught me not to be ashamed of the things I have done before and to just carry on, enjoying life as I go and taking each day as it comes. Without mainly them, but numerous other bands, this essay and its author, along with a number of others, would not exist.