Can Bands Truly Save Lives?

I think it's a little cynical to say a song or lyrics can't save your life. I agree that they can influence you to save yourself, etc., but let's imagine:

A girl is sitting on the floor of her bathroom with the radio blaring outside of the room. Everything in her life seems to be going wrong. Her parents got a divorce, her boyfriend broke up with her, her friends hate her… details aren't important here. She doesn't want to live anymore, so she takes the gun/knife/razor and is about to simply off herself when a song comes on that radio. As she listens to the lyrics, it feels like they're destined for her. It feels like this person is singing directly to her. She's so overwhelmed with the truth of these words, that the gun/knife/razor clatters to the floor and she sits there shaking, replaying the song in her head for the rest of the night.

This is by no means derived from personal experience, but it does happen. Music inspires people. And maybe it did just spark the will to live inside them, and maybe they really did save themselves, but that song did to a certain extent play a part in the realization. It gave them a reason, and they used that reason to live. So yes, I believe it can, if only from a distance. If the song had not come on at that exact time, who knows what could have happened?

Ooh. I just realized this thread said bands.
Not bands necessarily, more so a song or a lyric. A band can't save a life, but the music they make can.

Unless, of course, My Chemcial Romance, meaning all five members, pulled you away from a murderer in a dark alley. :file:

No. They have the power to write a song or give a speech that makes you want to continue living but at the end of the day they are not the ones who save you from whatever danger that could kill you.
They give hope but they don't save lives.

Technically they do not save your life. But in a way they can.
Their lyrics definitely have an impact on peoples lives.

Corney, but true. Good Charlotte "Saved My Life" one night. I'm not going into long boring details but for some reason at the last possible second my computer music player switched to the song "Hold On" by Good Charlotte and it made me realize some things. I ended up not killing myself that night.

Yes, it was myself that stopped. So I saved my life, but I don't think I would have stopped without that song.

loverfayce:

Ooh. I just realized this thread said bands.
Not bands necessarily, more so a song or a lyric. A band can't save a life, but the music they make can.

Unless, of course, My Chemcial Romance, meaning all five members, pulled you away from a murderer in a dark alley. :file:

But it was those five members who wrote the songs.

I don't see how people see a difference with the music and the band saving your life.
If the band hadn't wrote the song, then the song wouldn't have inspired you.

I don't think so. I Just think that music gives advice.

bands sometimes can make you think, or make you stop long enough for the feeling of wanting to quite to go away,

but when i get really depressed guitar is usually the one thing, spare a few very sentimental songs i have found that are on my i-pod, that actually make me feel better or refrain from doing something drastic.

so in a way music in general can save lives

No, they can't actually save your life.
Unless you know them personally, they're not there when you really need them to help you put the razor down but, with their music they can influence you to stop. To really think things through.
Indirectly, they can, but not physically. Just emotionally/mentally, they can give you that push in the right direction. That is, if you think about them when you're attempting against your life :|

Not physically.. I mean, for some people maybe. Some lucky people. But I think they can help you talk you down from things sometimes through music, or they can help you understand that there is more to life than just hurt and pain.

I believe that music can save lives. Without getting technical about it- if somebody has found hope in a bands music, I find it a great thing. I understand people think that they don't save lives. But if a personally truely believes it, people shouldnt be so harsh about it.

When you have no hope, for some people takes music to help you realize not to do it, and that their is hope. which is why I believe music can help save a life. So really,I dont think people should be harsh against people who say music saves lives.
I am clinically depressed and anxious, and I have it really bad. There is something that happened almost..2 years ago I think. I'd never forget it. and if it werent for MCR, I would not have had the courage to stop. Last year, I was in a deep depression. Without TH, I would have lost it, completely. Since then, I have gotten better, but I have relapsed this year. And again, without the hope this music gives me, I wouldn't be here, most likely.

I know many people who have had their lives 'saved' by music, and I wonder what my life would be without those people sometimes. I am grateful many have found hope in music and to continue living their lives.

Many start to get technical, saying "Oh. Did Gerard Way put the razor down?"
or
"Did Bill Kaulitz take away your gun?"

But really, what about the influence the music has on the mind that would stop a person, and encourage them that everything will be okay?
That's what makes me believe Music can save lives.

I don't particularly think so.
You can only save yourself. Maybe you relate to the lyrics or the things that the people in the band says but it's the person hearing them that saves themselves, for they believe in the words. You have to believe the words. If the person really wants to die and have that much low self esteem they're not going to believe anything that anyone says. It's the persons decision whether to find the hope in the words or not. There's only one person that can save yourself and that's you.

Does that make sense? Sorry, it's late it probably doesn't.

I personally think that when you're down, listening to music that is really meaningful can help you up.
I know when I used to have tons of terrible feelings about myself and my life I would listen to All Fall Down by One Republic and it sort of made me deal with the current situation, even if it didn't make me better.
Sure if you're standing on the ledge of a building ready to jump I'm not sure music can help you. You gotta save yourself there.

I don't think I a band could physically save your life, though that could be cool in retrospect :XD but I do believe that their message can do a lot for a person I think it was Pete Wentz who said-

'We hear you telling us that we saved your lives, but it's not like we pushed you out of the way of a bus. It's not us. It's you. You've saved yourself, just taken inspiration from our music and lyrics.'

I think that pretty much sums it all up for me.

varkatzas.:

Can bands truly save lives? A question I think that's on a lot of people's minds lately. I want to get your guys' opinions on the matter.

Personally, I don't think they can actually save lives because they don't take the razor/drugs/alcohol away from you. Or any other addiction that you may have, do they? They help you feel better but it's not actually saving lives in my opinion.You do that yourselves.

I agree 100%

varkatzas.:

Can bands truly save lives? A question I think that's on a lot of people's minds lately. I want to get your guys' opinions on the matter.

Personally, I don't think they can actually save lives because they don't take the razor/drugs/alcohol away from you. Or any other addiction that you may have, do they? They help you feel better but it's not actually saving lives in my opinion.You do that yourselves.

They might not take the weapon of choice from your hand, but they can put lighter thoughts into your head and make you reconsider. MCR, for example, comes with lots of thoughts and opinions, besides their music, and they helped me in that way.

They have also increased my confidence, made me believe in my dreams and fight for them to come true. Saving my life in yet another way.

Bands can definitely save lives, by other means than just the music they make.

I don't think a band could necessarily save a person's life. However, I do think that a band's music could be the inspiration to keep on living, or give a person a certain hope in life. Music is something you can turn to, something that won't judge you, no matter what.

That's a really hard question to answer. I mean I don't think that the music can physically and literally. But the music, the lyrics, what ever gives you hope/insperation/strength to help ourselfs and it encourages us to pull though.

I think that the band's music could help save a life, but in the end it's not the actual band members saving you...:think:, so no.

^It is the actual band members saving you because it's the actual band members who wrote the music that's saving you.

Yes, but we have to think too: did they write the music with the intent of saving a life?
Also, what about the bands who don't write their own lyrics?

You also have to take into consideration the fact that in the end it's not only the lyrics saving you. CreepyCrawler__x said earlier that they were going to commit suicide and Good Charlotte's Hold On came on and they realized some things, as in the lyrics helped her think about it again and made the right choice, but did not do it for her.
The lyrics can make you think twice about it, but I don't really think the lyrics themselves can stop you altogether.