Ed Merson

When I was 17, my school put on a talk for the whole year. It was about the history of music. I was excited. I loved music. I used to sit outside at parties, not bothering to dance to the shit music played out of some UE Boom, listening to my own music.

The talk was by a man called Mike Hurst. He made it clear he was cool. Former singer of the Springfields, who he said had headlined instead of the Beatles. Everyone ‘ah’ed. He started to talk about the origin of music. Through Egyptians, Early Modern England. I ignored all of this. I wanted Cat Stevens.

I grew up on my parents’ music. CDs in the car, like everyone else my age. I thought I had the most individual music taste, trawling through to find the most obscure 70s musician, and when ‘Mike Hurst’ started playing a song by Howlin Wolf I was proud I knew the song. I whispered to the person next me, ‘Do you know that song?’. He said no and I reveled in my knowledge. From this point onwards I listened to the talk, counting how many songs I knew of.

But that wasn’t the point. I had missed the point of the talk, just like I didn’t understand my parent’s music. I re-watched his talk recently online. He gave one remark at the end which has almost stopped me from playing my parent’s music. My parent’s music was theirs. They experienced it, and they followed it as instructions. The music was a unifying symbol which brought social issues to their minds. They felt they could fight against the society which was holding them back.

Now I look at myself. Privately educated. Durham University. Funded by my parents. Where is my fight? Well, I could just say that I haven’t been given a challenge yet. Or that there isn’t anything to fight against. But I would be lying to myself to legitimize the life which I’m leading. I would be insular, selfish, or weak. There are so many problems which are given little to no public stage. Music created a consistent narrative which couldn’t be avoided.

There is no change in our lives. Though we have no limitations, we have no purpose, and our desire to . Instead of listening to music and adapting it as a basis of action, we read the BBC, or scroll through Instagram and TickTock. Though our parents used the medium to fight against social norms, we have no problem with conforming to the paths which society gives us. School, then university and then a job.