Thanking Music this Thanksgiving
With the holidays approaching it brings a lot of different emotions, some happy like excitement to see family you haven’t seen all year. Some sad thinking about the family or friends you’ve lost or who just aren’t in your life anymore. Don’t worry I won’t be one of those people that starts playing Christmas music November 1st (even though all the Christmas specials already have TV promos). Let’s start with Thanksgiving next week. You could have probably guessed it, but I am extremely thankful for music. Because whatever you are feeling this holiday season there had to been a lyric, a song, or an entire album that made you feel a little less alone and/or a little more understood. To the songwriters and musicians who are brave enough to tell their stories and give me and the world something to make sense of theirs: Thank You! Let’s go through some noteworthy one’s that if you haven’t heard yet you have some serious catching up to do!
The music community came together many times this year from one disaster to another. Hurricane relief in Texas and Puerto Rico. The devastating mass shooting at the Las Vegas Route 91 Music Festival, a church shooting in Texas, and the truck running down pedestrians on a Manhattan bike path. Didn’t seem safe no matter where you were, but that shouldn’t keep people from living their lives. The country music community definitely rose up after the Vegas shooting. Keith Urban said it right when he said that was our family that got attacked, the music community wouldn’t let hate win. Maren Morris released a song she wrote with Vince Gill three years ago called Dear Hate ‘dear hate you whisper down through history and echo through these halls But I hate to tell you, love’s gonna conquer all’
Another response to ‘all of this bullshit that goes down on tv’ Old Dominion’s No Such Thing As A Broken Heart reminds us that we can’t predict the unexpected and you really just got to live and take shots no matter the odds ‘cause you can’t keep the ground from shaking no matter how hard you try// you can’t keep the sunsets from fading// you gotta treat your life like you’re jumping off a rope swing cause the whole thing’s really just a shot in the dark. You really feel the positivity of this song at their live show when it’s just the crowd screaming ‘you gotta love like there’s no such thing as a broken heart’ in unison. A moment of togetherness, and for that thank you Old Dominion & Maren.
Not all the great inspirations of the year were straight out of a tragedy, but the most empowering ones did make statements about our times, some socially and politically. Keith Urban just premiered his new single Female on the CMA Awards live Nov 8th. It’s a stand against sexism still heavily prominent in America today. From the sexual assault coming out of both Hollywood and DC Keith has something to say about the mistreatment of women. ‘When somebody laughs and says she asked for it just because she was wearing a skirt now is that how it works? When you hear a song that they play say you run the world do you believe it? Will you live to see it? His chorus is a list of beautiful adjectives that lift up what females represent, a song and message being applauded by many female artists. (And yes those are his wife Nicole Kidman’s vocals on the track).
Rachel Platten’s first single off her sophomore album Waves, Broken Glass, was a great follow up empowerment song from Fight Song. Fight Song was her personal song about not giving up on her music dream. The beauty of music is when the personal becomes the universal, because that song transcended Rachel’s journey and ended up being the campaign song for Hillary Clinton in the last election. Rachel recently opened up about her reservations of even allowing the presidential nominee to use the song politically, concerned of alienating even one of her fans. Unfortunately, there are always haters in the world and she did receive some backlash. Which is why she didn’t reveal the truth behind her new hit Broken Glass until recently in a podcast interview with Song Exploder. So what? Still got knives in my back. So what? So I’m tied to the tracks. I’m gonna dance on broken glass was written for Hillary Clinton after she lost the election. The music video only had women in it and was directed completely by women. This is Rachel’s second anthem for girls, to encourage every girl no matter how hard to make the glass ceiling crash. To Keith & Rachel for your empowering words Thank You!
Rachel Platten’s new album Waves gave us more than just another empowerment song. She allowed herself to feel all kinds of emotions, the highs and the lows, and then without judgement write about them. Personally, I am most thankful for this album. A large part of life is acknowledging and accepting our insecurities, and seeing how they affect our relationships with other people. Whole Heart touches on this sentiment ‘I think showing weaknesses is something to be proud of//God it be so beautiful to see that side of you//all the messy parts every part your whole heart. And Collide is an ode to her husband (and that one person for anybody else) who makes those insecurities disappear ‘although I’m not perfect I feel perfect in your eyes//turn the lights on baby I don’t really want to hide. Her song Hands was actually extremely personal, a song she wrote for her grandmother when she passed ‘you taught me so much, I could not learn fast enough// About how to love someone wholeheartedly //if i close my eyes, I can still feel your touch//the warm steady shake of two hands. Grief, like music, is both personal and universal. From the insecurities, to the love, to the loss, to the rising up, Rachel - Thank You for expressing all the emotions that needed to be felt on this album!
Kelsea Ballerini also knew that if all we have is our story to tell then she wanted to tell hers unapologetically. Thankfully she did just that because her sophomore album Unapologetically is her story of the last three years. As to be expected, the most honest albums do the best with the album hitting #1 on the charts just hours after it was released on Nov 3rd! The album is a deep look into loss of love, falling in love, and the insecurities felt through this ride called life. Every facet of this album is an emotion that has gone through a girl’s head at one point in time. Kelsea’s most personal song In between showcases the limbo phase of being 24 and growing up. Dumb enough to think I know it all// Smart enough to know I don’t// young enough to think I’ll live forever// Old enough to know I won’t// In between. There’s a lot of different takes on relationships and breakups out there but there are very few honest songs acknowledging the insecure feeling of not knowing what the future holds at 24, and as a 24 year old it’s comforting to hear that from somebody else. For that comfort that comes from your story, Kelsea I thank you!
Whether you needed a good cry, needed to be built up, needed to feel empowered, were missing someone, were happy with someone, or just needed to know someone else had the same feelings as you at one point in time music will always be there. So be thankful this Thanksgiving for the song, the lyric, the album, and the artist that was there for you this year. If you are still in search of your own start with my thank you list and see what discoveries you make from there! Happy Thanksgiving!
