NOISE.  PAVING PARADISE?  
Ah the summery days and balmy nights, don't they just spell magic! It's the festive season, family fun, backyard BBQs, swimming pools, freshly mown grass and sweet summer storms that bring such delight. There is only one thing missing in this wondrous season... oh yes, celebrating life with NOISE! The festival season is upon us with global acts making presence in our backyard - ye-ha! But I am left to ponder… are festivals the same now as way back when? Do we appreciate the music, the love, the passion, the 'I-can't-live-without-it' attitude? Or are we just a scream, a glow stick and a fake ray-ban frame away from not knowing what we got until it's gone? By Ilsa Wynne-Hoelscher.

Music: Is what feelings sound like.
Woodstock: Three days of peace and music.
Modern-day music festivals: Nightclubs held in the sunny outdoors.
Slight difference from the hippy sixties to present, don't you think? So what does music say to you and how does it affect your world?According to that fictional band Stillwater in Cameron Crowe's seminal rock film Almost Famous (2001): “Some people have a hard time explaining rock 'n' roll. I don't think anyone can really explain rock 'n' roll. Maybe Pete Townshend, but that's okay. Rock 'n' roll is a lifestyle and a way of thinking… and it's not about money and popularity. Although, some money would be nice. But it's a voice that says, 'Here I am… and fuck you if you can't understand me.' And one of these people is going to save the world. And that means that rock 'n' roll can save the world… all of us together. And the chicks are great. But what it all comes down to is that 'thing'. The indefinable thing when people catch something from your music. …what am I talking about? The buzz. The buzz, and the chicks, the whatever… is an offshoot of the buzz.” And so it appears to me the contagious 'buzz' associated with the world of rock is not a new notion, feeling, experience, whatever… but I do ponder… is it, or will it become, an old one… or worse, a forgotten one before too long?

Today's summer season of festivals has raised my awareness about this comparison of old-school meets modern-day. Are they humming the same tune? Of course a concert, gig, festival etc. is a mighty fine time focussed heavily on the music and effect it has on the individual (their relationships and their view to the world at hand), but are the new generation of rockers and groupies fully committed to this passionate escapism, heated motivation and thrilling inspiration? Woodstock. Wow! What an era - rock'n'roll in the 60s… I only wish I was alive then; I think I quite possibly would've been in musical heaven. I know talking about festivals then and now is like comparing a Les Paul to a Fender Strat - both great, different reasons - but I feel an absence of epic and loud influences that capture not just a community but the planet. And, are we ever so 'paving paradise to put up a parking lot'? Will the zeal of music to tell tales of old and new, politics and passion, love and hate, stay alive or will we all eventually become numb to the soundtrack of our lives?

Woodstock was a rock music festival commonly referred to as 'the most famous event in rock history'. Held on a 600-acre farm in the town of Bethel, New York from August 15-18, 1969, it came to be an ever lovin' crowd of half a million people there for the musical performance of a lifetime. And it was on this cow paddock that rock'n'roll made its breakthrough into the daily lives of everyone - addressing politics and culture, not just musical contentment. Joni Mitchell once said: “Woodstock was a spark of beauty, where people became a part of a greater organism.” Joel Rosenman was the man who conceived and co-created the three-day concert Woodstock. “The vibe was an expression of the times,” he said, “energised by repugnance for a senseless war and for the entrenched discrimination of the establishment; a spirited but non-violent counterculture was sweeping the country. That counterculture burst into bloom like the mother of all Mother's Day bouquets at Woodstock.” Sound familiar? A senseless war (or now in 2010 a 'forgotten' war), discrimination and abuse to not only the establishment but to one another, and not to mention the accumulated idiocies that modern day has bred like a fungus, eating us up inside? You bet it does! Sound alien? “A spirited but non-violent counterculture was sweeping the country” (or globe)? You bet it does! Now I am in no way saying that our modern day music doesn't passionately sing out loud about the world and human behaviour. What I am highlighting is the unquenched thirst to unite and elevate peace. Why the hell not? You and I are both wondering what's this game we're playing. There seems no end, and there's certainly no winner.

What was striking about 60's and 70's rock, what made it magical history, is not just the music but the people and the drive to direct hope and peace as one. So why not rewind, get back that groove and 'everyone's a winner, baby, that's the truth (yes, the truth).'

Times have changed and music festivals offer a smorgasbord of musical delights to please every palette; dance vibes, rock, pop, reggae raves or funky folk - come one, come all and let those spines tingle! Music will always touch the soul of any listener, so what is the music really saying in you?

And maybe if we can channel just a little of that Woodstock spirit, surely we can become a little less self-absorbed and maybe just a little less trashed and revel in a world rich with hope and beauty? It sounds damn fine to me. An endless summer indeed! Daisy chains, peachy sun-kissed skin, hand-holding and all.
So amidst the end of an era and the beginning of a new decade, let us not forget the power and unity in such fabulous, skin tingling sounds that we call music! Be 'in it for the band', or whatever rocks your socks… just keep in mind the power behind the noise. Music festivals/gigs: a community of fellow lovers or a place to unleash the rage and drink your worries away? You decide.
“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace,” Jimi Hendrix.
Let us not forget the past, let us unite, let us love the music and create a damn fine future. It's time to shine… peace, baby.