For all the bad things this pandemic has brought us, it has also given us time. Time to question ourselves and time to re-evaluate the way we live and work. For me personally, it has placed lots of things in perspective and has shown me that things which I considered to be 'normal' were in fact just circumstances or things which were labeled as normal. Due to the pandemic, circumstances and certain habits changed, which provides an opportunity to change the meaning which is given to the word 'normal' too, perhaps moving towards a 'normal 2.0'.
I guess we suddenly realised that enjoying and creating music has an important social aspect.
The reason why I am bringing this up obviously has to do with music. The music business was one of the many industries which took quite a hit because of the pandemic and all of the economical consequences. Starting in March, almost all concerts got cancelled and many concert halls and venues had to close their doors for at least a couple of months. Orchestras stopped performing and tours which were so carefully scheduled months in advance went up in smoke. Musicians who were planning on earning a considerable amount of income during festivals and courses which were scheduled for the summer saw their whole schedule get wiped clean. Some musicians had to work in a completely new line of work, just to make sure they could provide for their families. This pandemic reminded us of the vulnerability of the music industry, that's for sure. However, not only professional musicians were affected by this pandemic. People who weekly sang in choirs and played in orchestras weren't able to meet with their friends anymore and enjoy making music together. Audiences who looked forward to seeing their favourite musician perform weren't able to.
I guess we suddenly realised that enjoying and creating music has an important social aspect. Being together and becoming 'one' while sharing our love for music is perhaps something we took for granted before the pandemic.
Let's start a next chapter, a normal 2.0
Soon after many countries went into lockdown, musicians around the globe desperately were looking for ways to still create and share music. However, many musicians found new ways to work together while maintaining social distance. Concerts were recorded and broadcasted online, some started performing outside, others started teaching online. Musicians who had never worked together started to collaborate, composing new pieces and using modern day technology while building bridges between different genres and cultures. Others also decided to use this time to learn more about their craft and the world in which we live. Musicians started to share personal stories and held conversations with their audiences and fellow musicians in an attempt to inspire others now that they couldn't do that in a live setting anymore. Because there are so many restrictions in the 'outside' world due to the many lockdowns, it seemed like there is more time and space to dream. Dream about what the music industry could be like. Preconceived ideas have come fluid in a world were everything is different than it was before. As a musician, this creates an opportunity to develop new ideas and projects and to come up with new concepts about what the world around us could look like and how we could make that happen. Hopefully we will soon be able to leave this pandemic behind us, but once we do, let's not return to our normal day life. Let's make those new ideas and concepts we dreamed about reality and let's share the growth we have made during the last couple of months. Let's start a next chapter, a normal 2.0. Where some might be as they were before, but only as a foundation to built something more beautiful.
