Between the click of the light and the start of a dream

No Cars Go blares. Not the tidy studio version from Arcade Fire’s second album Neon Bible, but the demo version recorded for the band’s first EP. 

It has an unusual, we’ll say, effect on me. It is making me shiver, not a frightened or cold shiver, but a shiver of excitement. It is making my heart beat faster and my body shake. 


We know a place where no space ships go
We know a place where no subs go
No cars go
No cars go
Where we know

My leg vibrates of its own accord, going crazy with the rhythm of the song…

Between the click of the light and the start of the dream
Between the click of the light and the start of the dream
Between the click of the light and the start of the dream
Between the click of the light and the start of the dream

Then, my favourite part of the song kicks in…

I don’t want any pushing, and I don’t want any shoving.
We’re gonna do this in an orderly manner.
Women and children!
Women and children!
Women and children, let’s go!
Old folks, let’s go!
Babies needing cribs, let’s go!

My head nods over and over again, eyes closed, nodding, nodding.

The song comes to its rough, typical-demo song close.

And I double click on it in my Media Player again. I just can’t get enough.

Music can do anything. It can make the smallest of us feel tall and the biggest of us break down. It can create social stereotypes and eliminate social stereotypes. It can unite and divide. It can create ignorance and encourage genius.

It’s amazing how music can randomly inspire us or suddenly depress us. The power it can hold over the human psyche is both wonderful and terrible in equal measure. History has given us many examples of people who have done both great and horrific things under the influence of music. Everyone has their own personal examples, I know I do, and everyone knows of the examples that were in the public eye.

The influence and power of the media (newspapers, radio, television, world wide web, etc) is often discussed and debated amongst the world’s greatest intellectuals, but what about music as a medium? It is not debated to the scale with which the literal communicating mediums are, but it is certainly ‘exploited’, the only word for it, to the same extent.

Bob Dylan, John Lennon, David Bowie, Johnny Cash, Ian Curtis, Conor Oberst, Elliot Smith, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey. The list goes on and on. All have used music to push across their messages, their ideals. And you know what? They weren’t the only ones doing it. Everyone is doing it. 

Yet why is this ignored by the planet’s greatest minds? Do they think that music as a medium of its own accord is not as powerful as the main forms of communicating mediums we are familiar with? Ignorance may be bliss, forgive the cliché, but it does not change the simple fact that bands can change lives.

This may sound ridiculous, but that doesn’t detract the truth from the statement. Music’s power stems from the fact that it can be truly subliminal, hiding the message beneath layers of instrumentals, between twisted words and newly-formed metaphors. The message seeps into the listener’s mind, ingraining upon it the point that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives (if the message is conveyed correctly that is). 

Too often, people ignore the lyrics of songs. They hear the beat. They dance to the beat. They are happy with the beat. Song ends. That’s it. No, that shouldn’t be it. There should be engagement with the song. There should conceptual understanding gained from the song. Not today. Not when band’s can write anything as long as it’s catchy. 

So why is this being ignored by the world’s intellectual minds? Why is the abuse of music as a medium not raising questions? Because its influence is not being acknowledged or respected. 

Music creates feelings no other thing in the world can replicate. If conveyed correctly, one song's message will be timeless. Those with the power need to stop abusing it for money and success and use it for the greater good. The other communicating mediums have failed in resisting humanity's constant need for gratification. Maybe music is the option. Maybe it all starts here.

Between the click of the light and the start of the dream.