Do Your Homework

Your Homework!

One of the most enjoyable and rewarding projects that I’ve worked on as Production Manager for the station is The Story Behind The Songs segments. As someone who’s worked in the industry for 16 years (yes I’m that old), I’ve gotten to know a lot of bands, but this project took it to a whole new level. It’s more than just knowing that the guys from Family Force 5 love Transformers or that Jason, the lead singer from Hawk Nelson, is the only one in the band who likes hockey; no, it digs much deeper.

Writing on a range of topics from the serious to the absurd; we get a bird’s eye view of the artist’s struggles, thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc about what they go through, what we all go through, on a daily basis. You find out that they’re people just like you with families and kids and mortgages who like to watch or play sports and go out to movies and eat artery clogging food; and they struggle with heavy things like past drug addictions and losing loved ones to cancer and financial difficulties all while trying to work out their faith and find out who God wants them to be and what he want them to do. And they write about all of this stuff, not just one facet, but every facet of their lives.

A lot of times we listen to a song and we get this preconceived notion about who the band or artist is. If they don’t fit a certain mold or a certain idea, we automatically write them off. I’m just as guilty. However, over the years I’ve learned to do my homework, to research the lyrics to find out what a song is about or to research the artist if I question what they stand for. I’m going to go out on a limb and challenge all of you to do the same. Dig deeper. Check out the band’s website, read the articles written by Jesus Freak Hideout and CMSpin and all the other publications out there, really pay attention to Ashley’s reports on our Music News feature. Find out who someone really is before you form an opinion on them and do your homework. I look forward to comparing notes.

April O’Brien