Some people say music doesn't have to express a message; that it doesn't have to mean anything at all. That notion couldn't be farther from the truth. Everything you do or don't do matters. Ask any good blues or jazz musician, what you don't play is almost as important as what you do play. Sometimes a song just doesn't need anything extra; sometimes a silent pause can be far more effective than anything else. B.B.King is a master of the understatement. Influenced by T-Bone Walker, he credits the New York big bands of his youth for helping him to develop his unique sound. When you listen to B.B., you'll seldom hear a chord. B.B. King invented the talking single note guitar style.

Ours is a culture of followers. Somehow we seem to expect more from our leaders than we expect from ourselves. Artists have become leaders by default. Like it or not, the world is listening to you and looking to you for leadership. Bono discovered that. Your silence on certain issues can speak volumes. If you don't speak out for what you believe in, the world will follow your example. Social consciousness is something every artist should consider.

"Protest" didn't enter the mainstream vocabulary until the sixties when political messages began making their way out of coffee houses and hootenannies onto the airwaves. Music festivals doubled as peace rallies. Folk songs inspired the civil rights movement to question the authority whites. Protest songs challenged the student movement to question the authority of universities on political issues. Singers like Joan Baez encourages the women's movement to question patriarchal authority. The sixties was brim full of artists like Bob Dylan questioning authority and fueling the expansion of social consciousness. The Beatles were a major influence on Dylan who went from being a cultural rebel to a socially powerful voice for change.

We live careless lives. We don't mean to be callous or cold. It's just that life can be brutal. Sometimes we'll get hurt, so we develop a thick skin to protect us from the pain. If we're not careful, we can become insensitive. Insensitivity is an artists worst enemy. It can cause us to miss opportunities. Before we can be truly glad, we must know what it is to be sad. Before we can write meaningful songs that ring with truth, we need to experience everything life has to offer the good and the bad.