COMMENTARY: HOLD ON, WORLD

Like most Americans, we worked only intermittently after the horrifying events of last Tuesday, and when we did try to do work, there was no way to avoid wondering what the point was.

Here, we took some comfort—and alleviated that nagging sense of abject helplessness—by manning the website, just in case anyone wanted to grab hold of something familiar in the midst of all that was alien…which, I suppose, was why we were going through the process ourselves.

We gathered and slapped together info that seemed relevant to the music community (the term "industry" didn’t seem apt last week), agonizing over every headline, photo, caption, pull quote and turn of phrase. We’d never felt so responsible, no matter whether anyone was logging on…or so humble in the face of this untold human anguish.

Now, like most Americans, we’re looking for the focus that will allow us to get back to some approximation of normalcy. But it’s clear that we’ll never feel normal in quite the same way. As CNN’s Aaron Brown so aptly expressed it, we’re all wondering what the new normal will be, and when it will start.

Until the answers to those questions become apparent, we’ll continue to struggle to attach some meaning to what we do for a living—that phrase itself taking on a primal new connotation.

What you in the music community can know for sure is that you’re working on the pipeline that delivers music to the world. You’re doing your part to provide the full range of comforts, from diversion to catharsis. And that ain’t chopped liver, folks. You got a better idea right now?

Hold on, world
World, hold on
It’s gonna be all right
You’re gonna see the light
—John Lennon