Music, eh? Perhaps the biggest Upside there is. Notes. Beats. Notes and beats put together in such a way as to make you feel. Feel enough to want to sing, dance, or even change the world.
Yes, this week we are off at a tangent, luxuriating in a new Guardian series called Reverberate, which investigates the power of music to change history.
Many of us will have a song that changed our own lives. And of course there is no shortage of songs that changed the course of music itself. Well, now my colleague Chris Michael is looking at the songs which catalysed turning points in modern history. As it’s all about sound, we’ve done it as a podcast series; but if that’s not your thing, you can always read his piece about the series here.
What could we add to the Reverberate list? When I was a student in the Soviet Union in 1990, I was struck by how many of the locals loved the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. I may have been Back in the USSR, but it didn’t last for long. Within a year, the country had disintegrated into its constituent parts, much like the Beatles themselves, to a plangent soundtrack of prog rock.
A few years earlier in the UK, they banned BBC radio from playing the song Relax. I’m not big fan of the tune, but I think it helped to make the next generation of Brits a bit less prudish. From the same era, the Band Aid/Live Aid initiatives helped to globalise narrow mindsets, while Boy George and his imitators arguably softened harsh attitudes towards homosexuality.
Anyway, those are a few songs from my youth that changed the world. What are yours? Do get in touch, in the usual fashion.
Otherwise, this week we were mildly diverted by:
• Denmark’s floating “energy hub” in the North Sea. Two-minute read
• Tributes to an unlikely hero. Two-minute read
• A tiny forest planned for a big city. 90-second read
• Lots of female film directors nominated for awards this year. See here and here
Lucky numbers
More good vaccine news: the Russian Sputnik vaccine is more than 90% effective against symptomatic Covid, putting it on a par with other leading medicines. Britain has now vaccinated more than 10 million people; the global total has topped 100 million.
What we liked
This is glorious from Oliver Gordon’s project Struggles from Below, a textbook case of writing beautifully about a great thing that seems to be going right.
The Good News Network rounded up all the world’s more positive Covid 19 news of the week, so we didn’t have to.
This is irresistible for the headline alone: scientists have taught spinach how to send emails.
This is also gentle and sweet: the album of sounds that make people happy. Via Positive News.
Finally, back on Substack, we liked this post from Amanda Ripley, who has written so powerfully about overcoming our differences through this age of antagonism.
What we heard
Thanks for all your responses to our request for stories about people starting businesses. A fuller piece will follow later in February, but for now, a couple of examples to wet the whistle.
Rachel Salisbury is an actor who pivoted deftly towards vegan cakes when the freelance jobs suddenly dried up last year:
“In March last year, every single one of my freelance jobs disappeared. I had to think outside the box quickly. I have always loved baking and am a passionate vegan, and so my vegan cake company Rach’s Best Bakes was born.
I registered with my local council and got my food safety certificate. I started trading softly by donating cookies and cakes to the NHS, some of which my dad paid for me to make. Slowly but surely, it has grown so much to the point where I am often sold out weeks ahead of time, and have five-star reviews on my Facebook page.
Sounds yummy Rachel. Do email me some pastries when you can.
Canadian author and performer Alison Wearing saw a busy calendar of writing workshops, performances and readings wiped clear by Covid.
I went from having a full calendar and a cushy projected income to zero.
I had done a lot of teaching over the years and had been assembling the bones of an online memoir writing course, but there is no motivator quite as powerful as gasping desperation, so I kicked into high gear and launched Memoir Writing, Ink in May 2020.
Teaching in pre-Covid days meant being limited to the number of people I could fit around my kitchen table (seven) – not to mention that everyone had to be able to travel to wherever I was.
Memoir Writing, Ink now has over 400 students in nine countries, and I’ve gone from being a (weirdly proud) impecunious writer to being a (weirdly sheepish) entrepreneur with a projected six-figure annual revenue.
I’ve never worked harder in my life, but it’s a hoot. I love it … Inspiration, joy and creativity in the midst of a lockdown. What could be better?
Where was the Upside?
With the advancing light, as the darkest quarter of the (northern hemisphere) year finally ended.
