The Power of a Melody

La La La: Two songs, Two Perspectives, One Story.

I’m still obsessed with Hadestown, but a new song has come out which is in no way related to that musical. That said, La La La by Noahfinnce provides a contrast to the hopeful message of Orpheos' refrain in Hadestown. And I think that is worth exploring. Possibly. The fact that one is from a fictional universe somewhere in time, and the other is very much real and contemporary should not matter that much.

World Collapsing; look how pretty it burns...

The world of Hadestown and the current real world are very alike. Climate Crises, lowering standards of living, a lack of hope about the future. Into this void come two melodies: Orpheos sings lalala as a message of hope, that the world can be healed. His song possesses magic, a song so powerful that it can reunite the gods and return the world to balance.

When Orpheos sings lalala, the world joins in. He makes us see what the world could be.

Noah shows us the way the world is. It's a much more cynical song and reflects what society would love us to do. To ignore everything bad in the world, that is about to happen and is already happening. With a world that is so bad, and seemingly on the edge of collapse, why shouldn't we stick our fingers in our ears, look the other way and sing a happy song instead?

When Noah sings lalala, the world joins in too. But they are not hopeful lalala's.

It's a Song from long ago...

Orpheos's song comes from somewhere; gods or nature or his own inner knowledge. Noah's was written after he 'spent all Thursday trying to write a happy song.' The two motivations and influences could not be different.

And yet, lalala is constant.

Orpheos, the struggling artist and poet, is trying to put the world back in order. He knows the darkness and the cold.

Noah is not struggling, he is an artist on the way up. His career is on the edge of breaking out. But he knows our world as well as Orpheos knows his. And our world is not a happy place right now.

But, both lalala's reflect our reality.

These lalala's do raise the question though; should we sing to put the world in order, or should we sing to show how the world is?

Of course the answer is we need to do both.

You cannot solve the problems of the world, without knowing what they are.

Give the people what they want...

What people need and what they want are not always entirely different things.

People both want and need an entirely better world; that's not controversial at all. People also want and need to just live their life without being constantly reminded of every crisis going on everywhere in the world. Once again, not controversial but also problematic.

The desire to just turn off the world and ignore it is strong. But we are a social species and we, generally, do care about each other.

Artists have the luxury, or curse, of dealing with this seemingly contradictory set of wants and needs as well. The stories they tell through their art need to both reflect the world, but also need to provide a form of escapism for thier audiences.

Plus, artists have to live off their art, and as Noah sings, 'all this yelling isn't selling much...' So happy songs to put on TikTok seem to be a much more profitable route to go for a modern artist.

Orpheos suffers from the same conundrum. While he's working on his song to put the world back into order, the world doesn't stop. His obsession with saving the world means he doesn’t notice the storm that blows in, and he can’t save those he loves, or provide shelter, from ‘the wind, the wind, the wind…’

Hermes' insistence for him to 'look up' from his work is an insistence that he has to actually survive and live. Solving the problems of the world through art is one of the most important things you can do, but it can't be the only thing you do.

It's a sad song, but we sing it anyway...

The world is in an unhappy, unhealthy and unhelpful place right now. On the edge of both a world war, which will probably be avoided, and a climate crisis, which won't be.

Into this world come two lalala's, one hopeful and one cynical.

Both are important. Both should be sung as much as possible.

Both reflect our world, one reflects what it could be, and one shows the way that it is. And this is what the world needs.

And so we should raise a glass to both:

"To one who sees what is, and one who sees what can be; may they forever live in harmony."

A bit of a postscript:

Right when I was finishing this off, I had a twitter interaction with a few people arguing that art only has a monetary value, and nothing else. This reductive and depressing position has only reinforced some of what I have written here. If a simple lyric can transform lives, do we really want to reduce art to only a money making pursuit?

I would argue that doing so would destroy art.

Art will continue to reflect the world as it is, and as it can be, with or without monetary compensation to the artist.