COVID-19 X BLM
Research-Based Article
IS THE SHOW REALLY PAUSED? COVID-19, BLACK LIVES MATTER, AND HOW MUSIC PLAYS A VITAL ROLE IN BOTH
By Allen Lu
O
n March 12th, 2020, Broadway, the heart of musical theatre, abruptly paused all its current and upcoming shows from running as the SARS-CoV-2 virus spread across the globe (The Associated Press, 2020). Elsewhere in the music world, arenas, concert halls, and underground clubs closed overnight to stem this virus’s spread. Big-name artists like Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga were forced to push their album releases to indefinite dates, popular festivals like SXSW and Coachella have been cancelled or postponed for the year, and stars like Billie Ellish are grappling with cancelled tours (Hissong, 2020). Large musical gatherings as we know them remain unlikely to happen until COVID-19 cases are reduced or a vaccine is produced and distributed. Such a massive shutdown is particularly concerning when considering that humans have historically relied on music to connect. As a primary means of communication and expression, music has shaped human civilization for more than thirty-five thousand years (Suttie, 2015). Even when humans had to spend their days devoted to hunting and gathering, music’s ability to enhance social cohesion made it evolutionarily advantageous to perform music together. After all, “endorphins [that are created during singing] are the main mechanism for social bonding in primates,” said Robin Dunhar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford
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(Murray, 2020). So, when thousands of shows are suddenly cancelled for months, we lose an essential element of humanity. However, modern-day humanity has something that early humans did not: digital technology. Aided by the internet, music has unexpectedly thrived during this pandemic. Live streaming, the act of broadcasting real-time footage and audio, has risen as a viable alternative to live concerts, aided by live streaming startups (Millman, 2020) and big streaming platforms like YouTube and Twitch, with the latter targeting video gamers (Grant, 2020). By allowing users to view the same content and
COVID-19 X Black Lives Matter Special Issue
communicate in real time, these live streams allow for humans to connect, even through a virtual platform. Although musicians like Indian artist Nirali Kartik find it harder to feel the crowd’s energy in live streams, being able to connect to fans in real-time and to see them commenting, liking, and reacting to their music is nonetheless “surreal” and exciting (Mittra, 2020). Digital technology has also allowed both skilled musicians and ordinary citizens to gather and perform pieces. University A Cappella groups, such as the Vanderbilt Melodores and the University of Pennsylvania Pennchants, https://bit.ly/covidxblm
