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?
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?
July 9th, 2009 at 01:50am