Val Saksornchai

Has a song ever come up on the radio that made you stop and listen? Like really stop and listen?

I like music. I like songs. I like listening to them. I like singing them. I identify with a lot of the songs, especially the ‘tear-jerking-I-still-love-you’ kinda songs. As I once said, I’m a dramatic person. (Literally – I did say it, and only once. I’m that kind of person. Urgh. I know.) The queen of all things dramatic. (See? I couldn’t even resist writing the preceding sentence using dramatic phrasing. I could have said ‘queen of drama’. Or ‘drama queen’. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough.)

But not many songs reach me at a deeper level. Here’s three of them:

p.s. (Pre-Songs) If you’ve never heard the following songs before, I suggest you listen to them before you continue reading. If you have, listen to them anyways. Except if you’re in a hurry. In which case do save this post for when you have time for a leisurely read. You only live once – better not do it in a rush.

Passenger’s ‘Let Her Go’

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ ‘Same Love’

Lennon’s ‘Imagine’

p.s. (Post-Songs) Have you listened to them? All of them? Good. Thank you. We can continue.

I think music can change the world. Call me naive. But I really do. Each of the three songs above has changed me, in different ways. I don’t up and start living in a manner prescribed by the songs. But the songs are like a lens through which I see myself, my life, my actions, my thoughts and feelings. And in these three cases, the lens happens to also change the way I see the world.

I don’t know why. I don’t understand the process well enough to describe it to you. Not just yet. Maybe one day I will. And I shall get back to you. A wild guess would be that these songs echo feelings and thoughts I harbour deep within me. And hearing them being sung and realising that they’ve been written by someone else make me feel connected – first to the author/singer of the songs, then to the world.

A lot of what I do is driven by connectivity. Maybe it’s because I’m the kind of person that needs to feel connected, that draws energy and inspiration from being connected to others – be it family, friends, or (even) foes. Maybe that’s why feeling connected through these songs gives me the courage to change the way I see the world. To believe I can do things. To believe I can influence others as these authors/singers have influenced me.

And if this can happen to me, why not to anyone else? If a song can change me, why not one of my friend, two of my friends, three of my friends? Why not a stranger in Canada? And if a song can change people, then surely music – of which songs are a subset – must do too? And isn’t the world composed of people? If songs – and by extension, music – can change people, then surely music can change the world?

I know it’s not much of a reasoning. But I’m allowed a bit of wishful thinking, surely?