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So, right. I think we have a couple of strands here. One of those is the use of music in public places to recall or communicate an emotion or create a shared emotional state - or _statement_ - regarding a shared trauma. Another is when and how it is appropriate - if that's a relevant consderation - to do this. And finally, there is this specific instance of this, in the sense of garyancheta's request about songs to (sincerely, let's assume) commemorate the anniversary of the 11th September 2001.
The most recent use of music in a public place as memorial, and quite an interesting one, was the decision to play thhe theme from "Z-Cars", the traditional opening music of Everton football club, by their rivals Liverpool before a European match. This was done to commemorate the death of Rhys Jones, an 11-year old Everton fan who had been shot and died shortly before the match. It's easy to call this sort of thing mawkish or sentimental, but it strikes me as a basically victim-free way to assert that a child's murder is more important than rivalry between opposing teams of football supporters, and should be mourned by the entire community. Football and music are important ways to express solidarity on Merseyside - I recall Tranmere and Everton fans singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" to show support for Liverpool fans after the Hillsborough disaster, and during the Sun's subsequent campaign of vilification.
This is an example of a recent use of music in a public space to communicate a specific message about a recent and tragic event, which seems pretty uncontentious and, IMHO, quite touching. 9/11 differs from this, of course - partly because of the numbers involved, and the time elapsed, but also because it is tied in with all sorts of foreign policy and political issues - it has a far wider context than the death of a child. So, six years on, one might find that one's original reaction - horror, sympathy, rage - has been altered. My feelings about 9/11 have been permanently altered, I think, unavoidably, by the way Giuliani and Bush have used it for personal and political gain, for example. |
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