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layout:	post
title:	"Music is power."
date:	2017-04-06
---

  ![](/img/1*A7Wh84CHLKs5vVcAvPHx8Q.jpeg)Earlier this week I finally got to see Lindsey Stirling live. It was all that I had hoped it would be, and more.

From a technical standpoint the show was crazy impressive. Several huge screens working in sync — that must have taken some clever backend work and a hell of a lot of graphics power. Screen projection was used carefully to magical effect. Even a few classical magic tricks thrown in for good measure. But that wasn’t the point of this.

Her music is some of the very first I can remember listening to. Certainly the first that really spoke to me on a level deeper than words. That’s why I say music is power. As with other artforms, it transcends the simple word, communicating deeper things. It means more than words on a page like these.

During the performance Lindsey spoke about how she had faced rejection every step of the way to get where she is now. After all, she was taking an existing precedent — how one ‘should’ play the violin — and throwing it out of the window. Creating something so utterly different, so new, so unique. Talent agencies, recording studios, Piers Morgan all could not see the diamond in the rough she presented to them. Nevertheless, she persevered.

To paraphrase her words, as no doubt she was paraphrasing someone before her, those who are successful aren’t such because they never failed, in fact quite the opposite. They’ve failed over and over, again and again. The difference between a winner and a loser is the winner keeps failing until…they don’t. Until failure gives way.

Music can be…is…something more. Music is power. It opens a pathway between the hearts of the listener and the performer.

Lindsey’s songs mean something. She’s very open about this too. Shatter Me, my personal favourite, is about her battle with anorexia. Gavi’s Song is of course about the heartbreaking loss of Gavi. Other songs can’t be pinned down to a particular concept. But you can still feel the meaning when listening to them.

Everyone in that sold-out theater certainly could.