Gratitude Friday 07 26 24 Glastonbury 2024, the World Singing, in Perfect Harmony

“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” ― Bob Marley

I love music. Particularly live performances. Music is a force that brings people together. I found a piece by Charles Macnish, The Sonic Connection: How Music Unites the Human Tribe that talks about how live performances create a sense of belonging in the form of a subculture. A shared connection based on music. Music is a healing force for many of us. It may be one of the things that can bring us together when it seems so much is pulling us apart.

I got to thinking about this when I watched the YouTube video Coldplay - Fix You (Glastonbury 2024) a sea of humanity brought together by the music. At the concert, Micheal J Fox, a remarkable person facing immense challenges who I wrote about in May 2023 in Grace Under Extreme Duress played guitar. If you go no farther in this post, watch the Glastonbury link above, tears will stream down your face, they did mine. I felt the connection just watching the video. Thousands of people, all with challenges, worries and struggles, yet singing, crying and holding each other, as one. It is so very powerful. We desperately need moments like this in the difficult days we find ourselves in now.  

Seeing all the people come together moved me more than I had anticipated. Music and trauma: the relationship between music, personality, and coping style speaks to how people use music as a healing force. It describes a community musician in Kenya who used music to recall and experience the trauma, incorporating humor into his work with survivors to help them deal with the distress associated with the initial violence as well as the resulting displacement. Shared communal healing. While little research has been conducted in relation to trauma survivors outside of music therapy contexts, the literature indicates that “various self-determined musical activities including listening, playing, singing, dancing and songwriting, are commonly used for coping and mood regulation among both adolescents and adults.”

It reminded me of the “Buy the World a Coke” 1971 video. As a child of six, it registered differently than as an adult of 2024. I perceived the world in those moments as a child place of safety and permanence when the truth of our world in that era was race riots, assassination of political leaders, generational conflict and a great deal of strife. Watching Chris Martin and Micheal J Fox and the thousands of people in Glastonbury come together registered to me as a moment in history similar to the 1971 song and video. A moment of coming together for a world that feels like it is pulling apart.

The commercial had a tumultuous production history. It was to be filmed on the cliffs of Dover, but could not because of wind and rain. Instead, over budget and nearly being cancelled it was filmed on a Hillside in Italy. It was a soda pop commercial that hit a chord across the world. “Hilltop” – and “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” – were both immediate hits. Coca‑Cola received more than 100,000 letters praising the ad, and radio stations across the country were flooded with requests for the song. At a time when conflict was dominating headlines, “Hilltop” became a rallying message of tolerance and hope. It is widely considered to be one of the most iconic ads ever created.

We need fixing as a society, and we would do well to focus on helping each other thrive than ripping each other into pieces, which seems to be the norm of our difficult times. A light to guide us home. As Martin wrote:

“When you try your best, but you don't succeed

When you get what you want, but not what you need

When you feel so tired, but you can't sleep

Stuck in reverse

And the tears come streaming down your face

When you lose something you can't replace

When you love someone, but it goes to waste

Could it be worse?

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you” - Coldplay Fix You

Can we imagine a world unified through music, even for a few minutes? I am grateful for musicians everywhere who work to do this, today and every day. Every time music has us come together and sing and dance and cry, we all heal a tiny bit. I am grateful for such moments.

What are you grateful for today?