The Power Of Music

Lucy Madaras at Concord Music Publishing looks at the power of music and how it can change perspective in crisis.

​Music has always been such a focal point in my life. 

My family have always told me that as a toddler, I cried every time I played the demo version of Hey Jude on my keyboard (I like to think of this as an early appreciation of musical geniuses). They are also quick to remind me of babbling out the wrong words to Oasis’ Don’t Look Back In Anger, something that still brings them to tears of laughter over 20 years later! Growing up, that love and presence of music did not disappear. It wasn’t unusual for my Mum to blare out old school anthems from her car (you very often heard the bass of a song before you heard her voice), my Dad introducing me to artists like The Clash, Sparks and Paul Simon on long car journeys, my sisters and I playing the ‘Guess the Intro’ game for hours on end with our treasured iPods. 

I’ve been lucky enough to be able to transfer that personal love of music into entering the industry itself. I joined my student radio station in 2014 which led me to working at a community radio station upon graduation, and completed an internship at an Artist Management agency before starting at Concord in October 2019. 

Like I said, music has always been a focal point of my life.

However, in December 2019, my whole life changed and suddenly, a life so filled with music went very, very quiet. 

For nearly three months, grief changed my entire perception and relationship with music; my car journeys were silent, I cooked in silence, the playlists I would excitedly update daily with new finds were left untouched for months. The thing that brought me such comfort was just too painful to enjoy for a time because ultimately, I didn’t feel that joy in myself.  

It’s interesting to me because I’ve spoken to people who have found the opposite; that music was something to turn to in their grief and this seems to be the common theme. I started to wonder when I would be able to find the joy of music again for myself. It’s understandable why music is such a comfort for so many in the darkest of times though. 

Music allows us to connect with our emotions and memories, allowing us to reminisce in the good times or reflect on the bad and sometimes, the lyrics of a song can epitomise the words we may want to say, but can’t seem to find. On a more widespread scale, there is an argument to be made that music allows us to connect with complete strangers who are experiencing similar feelings to our own selves. Elton John’s rewritten version of Candle in the Wind to pay tribute to Princess Diana brought strangers to tears, Don’t Look Back In Anger resurged into our lives following the 2017 Manchester Arena attack and now, during the current Coronavirus pandemic, You’ll Never Walk Alone has become an anthem of the times, which we at Concord are so proud to represent (my colleague Steve wrote a article about it here). 

I feel very fortunate that I get to spend every day working in an environment so focused and passionate about music. Whatever the weather, music will always be there to bring us joy and comfort when we need it and after some time, I found my way back to the joy it brings and ultimately, found a piece of me again - the power of music. 

Here are some tracks from our catalogue that have really brought music back to me in the last few months.