It's more than drums and chanting.

I believe that there is no right or wrong way to display and share history. As humans, we have emotions. Those emotions cause us to feel so strongly that we can manipulate our own minds to remember events differently. Without emotions, we wouldn’t feel, wouldn’t be human. Music is all emotion based. While one person may listen to a song and feel heartbreak and sorrow, another individual may listen to the exact same piece and feel happiness and warmth. Take for example the song Glitter by Tyler The Creator. While one may listen to this song and feel an aura of yellow, happiness and playfulness, and want to go out and find someone who makes them feel as though they are alive and on a constant adventure, another person may feel blue and lonely and see the song as a message of emptiness and feel cold. I think that’s what nonlinear narratives are supposed to do. They’re supposed to allow us to reach into emotions that are beyond us and make us question ourselves and our thinking, make us say “what if?” and “why?”.

Although feeling emotions is very powerful, so is just plain, cold, hard facts. While some individuals resonate better with emotions, there are those who connect better with just having concrete proof. To them, emotions are messy, untrue. They see emotions as a way of distorting the truth, but not in a creative and artistic way. Music can be like that. Not every song is easily going to be up for interpretation. Take for example the piece “Somebody Else” by The 1975. The song is clearly creating an image of a brokenhearted  person who constantly finds themselves thinking about their ex. Although music is full of emotion, the message is very straight to the point. There’s no questioning what the artist is trying to convey, just like there is no question about what the historian is trying to convey when they spew out facts left and right to justify controversial events that take place in history.

All in all, I believe that you need both a nonlinear narrative and linear cenotaph to properly convey history. It’s almost as if you need them to please people, to too show “true” history. To quote from of of the readings I’ve done “absence is rendered in a way that constitutes gigantic presence” (Booth).  In order to convey that absence correctly, you need both powerful emotion and cold, hard facts. Once that happens, the presence of those fallen and gone is filled and appreciated. Music also has the power to bring emotion and facts and human nature all into one to convey a message, a purpose, a song, a presence.