On March 28, I was scrolling through Instagram and saw Selena Gomez singing “The Blessing” with Kari Jobe. Gomez was in sweats and her hair undone. Jobe was at the piano with her hair up in a messy blonde bun. It was just a room, without a real setup. It looked like worship, and whether it was or not, it felt like worship. Gomez’s caption included a few of the lyrics to the song: “May His presence be upon you, a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children and their children . . . He is for you.”
A few days later, I was scrolling again and stopped at something Pink had posted. It was a photo of her and her son. She had tested positive for the virus, and she and her family had sheltered at home. Out of gratitude and solidarity for medical professionals, she donated $500,000 to Temple University Hospital Emergency Fund in Philadelphia in honor of her mother and $500,000 to the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Emergency COVID-19 Crisis fund. A few days later, she posted a photo of soups she had made and given away, calling out to her followers saying, “Find your local church, find your local shelter, reach out to them, get some friends together, and cook some soup. Feed some folks.”
In the middle of these posts was one of her singing “Joyful, Joyful” while bathing her son. “Faith is always a comfort and so is song, just like a sick baby in a bathtub,” she said. “I love you all. Enjoy this very casual hug from my heart to y’all’s.”
A casual hug from the heart is what music feels like these days, and watching artists of all different genres joining in this effort has been hopeful and uniting. It’s like a group hug now. Each note is another arm around someone’s shoulder, each song a prolonged embrace.
Kind of like Twenty One Pilots’ new song, “Level of Concern.” It’s a bop, so maybe instead of a group hug it feels more like a group jig. Either way, it’s a song with a purpose.
“With concerts on pause at the moment, crew members who are the backbone of live music are out of work,” said Twenty One Pilots’ Instagram caption. “That’s why we’re dedicating a portion of proceeds from this song to @livenation’s crew nation.”
Then there’s Ryan O’Neal from Sleeping at Last’s version of “It’s a Small World.” This one is a reminder that this pandemic is affecting our globe and that maybe it’s been more about “us/we” than “they/them” for longer than we realized.
“It’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, it’s a world of hopes and a world of fears, but there’s so much that we share, it’s time we’re aware it’s a small world after all . . .”
Or there’s Bon Iver’s “PDLIF,” “Please don’t live in fear,” my favorite hug so far. More than a hug though, “PDLIF” is a track raising awareness and raising money.
“In an effort to provide direct support to healthcare providers working on the frontline of the pandemic, we’re releasing a brand-new track called ‘PDLIF,'” the band’s Instagram caption said. “100% of proceeds will be directed to @directrelief, an organization coordinating in the U.S. and worldwide to provide PPE and essential medical items to health works responding to coronavirus.”
“Though recorded and produced in isolation, the track traveled far, from one contributor to the next,” the caption said. “It serves as a subtle reminder that, though apart, we’re never alone; the importance of collaboration and community remains as strong as ever.”
The importance of local collaboration and community remains as strong as ever too, as some of our Jackson artists and restaurants have teamed up to support one another and those sheltering at home. These artists and restaurants recently launched a new project called “Music and Chill.” It’s a weekly collaboration calling on community members to order takeout and watch the livestream performances of local artists including Josh Smith, William Kriss, The Kernal, Lauren Pritchard (or LOLO), The Skeleton Krew and others.
“It’s a Facebook Live video that will livestream each week at 6 p.m. on Tuesdays,” said Lauren Pritchard, a nationally known local artist who’s helping coordinate the effort, to the Jackson Sun. “And what we’ll do is have a local artist play a concert at a local restaurant, and the restaurant will livestream it from their page on Facebook. We’ll have a hashtag for it: #TuneInToTakeOut.”
Other collaborations have formed to offer tunes and “casual hugs” to creators at home. For Daniel Potts, junior communications studies major and Cardinal and Cream editor, making music is a hobby. A group called Cymatics released a package of samples and sounds donated by a long list of producers to raise money for COVID-19 research. Potts took part in the group’s effort by purchasing the package titled “Hearts,” a small part of the $10,000 raised.
Sheltering at home hasn’t meant that we’ve stopped supporting our local communities, artists and restaurants. It doesn’t mean that we have to stop being creative. If anything, we now have the opportunity to recognize more clearly the importance of music and those that create it. Some of us may be feeling especially lonely with the lack of touch and proximity to our friends and perhaps even our families, but music is still uniting. When I see those hearts and comments budding up over Facebook Live videos, or I listen to my friends jamming over FaceTime, I am reminded, “I’m not alone.”
