Music is the Message

     Music, for musicians, as with any form of media, is an extension of oneself. As Marshall McLuhan states in "Understanding Media," "[...] the personal and social consequences of any medium [...] result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves [...]" That is to say that instruments are an extension of a musician's self, and this self extension is known as "media," and media convey messages.
     But not only instruments or music can be classified as "media." Anything can be media if you think about it. Even speech carries a message, which starts in the thought process, which then gets expressed through voice. So even speech is derived from something else.

     Now back to music. There is often a mix of messages within music, within a particular song (within a band's image, even); it's more than just noise. Words often hold a poetic, or maybe not so much a poetic meaning, while the instruments set the mood and play with it.

     Let's take U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday," for example;

"You know people are dying every single day through bitterness and hate, and we're saying why? What's the point? And you can move that into places like El Salvador and other similar situations - people dying. Let's forget the politics, let's stop shooting each other and sit around the table and talk about it... There are a lot of bands taking sides saying politics is crap, etc. Well, so what! The real battle is people dying, that's the real battle."

     In Derry, Ireland, on January 30, 1972, there was an incident known as "Bloody Sunday," (or sometimes, "The Bogside Massacre") twenty-seven civil rights protesters and bystanders, including seven teenagers, all of whom were completely unarmed, were gunned down by British soldiers.
    
    It's worth noting that U2 is of Irish descent, so there is obviously some extra sentimental appeal to their choice in subject matter for the song. The album the song is from is "War," and, as stated by the band, the title has an alternate non-military meaning.

"[...]War is intentionally more direct, more specific. But you can still take the title on a lot of different levels. We're not only interested in the physical aspects of war. The emotional effects are just as important, 'the trenches dug within our hearts.' People have become numb to violence. Watching the television, it's hard to tell the difference between fact and fiction. One minute you see something being shot on The Professionals, and the next you see someone falling through a window after being shot on the news. One is fiction and one is real life, but we're becoming so used to the fiction that we become numb to the real thing. War could be the story of a broken home, a family at war."

     The song being released in 1983 served to be a reminder of the "unjustied and unjustifiable" events that happened just 11 years prior.

     Although lyrics can give direct message, there is also more to the song. The slow guitar riffs and electric violin give the song a somber tone. The drums can be described as "military-esque" and the snare hits even seem to mock-imitate gunshot noises, and giving the verses and choruses power and aggression, while the refrains drop the snare and guitar, focusing on the vocals, giving the song an uplifting undertone. As Bono stated, "love is [...] a central theme" of the song. It's meant not only to mourn the deaths of the innocent, but also to realize injustices, and to stand up for your rights and freedoms.

 And this is how music is the message. It's not just noise. It holds feeling, meaning, and purpose, all of which are an extension of the artist's self.

-John R.