by Author James Edwin Lane

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Anger, Lyrics and Empowerment

We all love a good complain.

“It’s too warm!”

“It’s too cold!”

 “These crisps are too salty!”

 “A world-wide pandemic continues to ravage the entire population whilst a profit-driven, cold and uncaring children-starving government insists our entire field of work is an unskilled and unimportant aspect of our society!”

Some of those complaints are perhaps more valid than preceding ones.

But it’s got to be said, when it comes to lyrical content generation a good complain can really get the ball rolling.

In our current Rock Band sessions we have a group of 5 – 6 young people who come together on a Friday during term time to make music together (masked/visored and strictly adhering to social distancing and sterilization protocols of course). Admittedly the majority of these young people have met and worked together before, but even on the occasion that we get a newcomer dipping their toes in to the gentle waves of sonic creativity a really good way of jumping in is literally asking the room how they’re doing.

And maybe they’re doing great! That’s an excellent response to get! Everything is exceptional lets write a wild non-sensical ska song about a man with rainbow laser hands fighting crime!

However, speaking from experience (and the influence of recent/current world-wide events) often times that isn’t the case. The world is heavy and burdensome at the moment for most, especially young people who are trying to look forward and seeing a particularly harrowing image. The trick is in turning those feelings of frustration, exclusion and discontent in to something empowering.

The group usually start by taking a word of the day each influenced by their state of mind or something that happened to them throughout the past week and then pool their resources to establish themes for a song. From there the group takes a constructive approach not dissimilar to the way one might improvise around a riff. Ideas are thrown around until a chorus is established, and then the rest of the song is built around it. The most important element is the vibe- if the songwriting is impassioned, chances are the song will be too!

 The group favours the lyrical styles often found in metal or hardcore punk for good reason- anger, hope, frustration and any number of other emotional states are very easily expressed through those genres in a really empowering manner. And it is empowering- so often anger is something that’s buried away, frowned upon or seen as something inherently destructive. Anger when expressed healthily can be constructive- a means of venting, amassing courage or being a catalyst for change- particularly in a musical context.

And I feel it’s really important that we as facilitators encourage and enable that process. It’s no good trying to generate a happy go-lucky tune on 6 glockenspiels when that isn’t what the room needs. When you’re working with a group on an overcast pandemic day, when the atmosphere is as oppressive as the clouds and everyone is feeling world weary- sometimes the most positive thing you can give the room is the opportunity to express those feelings together, and the encouragement those people need to feel valid in doing so.