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The response of musicians to two recent tragedies and the Christian responsibility to do justice through music.<\/strong><\/p>\n Each Tuesday in Music Matters, Matthew Linder looks at happenings in the music realm and why they matter.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Can music do justice? We might think that moments of seeking justice through music are rare but when disaster strikes, music is always the first to respond. In the 1980\u2019s, musicians participating in Live Aid and USA for Africa\u2019s \u201cWe Are the World\u201d raised hundreds of millions of dollars for Ethiopian famine relief. This week we remember the civil rights movement of the 1960\u2019s and at so many of the protests, including the March on Washington, a song, \u201cWe Will Overcome\u201d, led the way. Stretching\u00a0further\u00a0back to the early days of\u00a0Protestantism, Luther and his followers sang at protests, \u201cA Mighty Fortress is Our God\u201d defending their faith and changing the face of Christianity forever. A few weeks after the twin towers fell,\u00a0musicians\u00a0gathered at the Concert for New York City raising $30 million for families of the victims of the attacks but ultimately, they brought healing to a nation through song. Therefore, it is not\u00a0surprising\u00a0to find music yet again at the forefront of helping those\u00a0affected by two recent American\u00a0tragedies\u2014Hurricane Sandy and the Sandy Hook School shooting.<\/p>\n Musicians of all genres and locales across the country have gathered their resources together to host a plethora of benefit concerts for both incidents. However, the\u00a012.12.12 Sandy Benefit Concert<\/em>\u00a0featuring Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Roger Waters, Kayne West, Alicia Keys, Chris Martin and many others was the most publicized and financially effective. Ticket sales for the concert raised $50 million and donations continue to come in as the funds are being funneled to the communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy.<\/p>\n Bruce Springsteen, no stranger to the benefit concert, opened with songs of hope, leading an audience impacted by Superstorm Sandy in songs of healing. His song \u201cMy City of Ruins\u201d engrained in the American psyche as the song of 9\/11<\/a>, he reappropriated within the context of this disaster, calling it \u201ca prayer.\u201d The other New Jersey natives, Bon Jovi, likewise with their performance were able to bring the audience to their feet as they shouted down the horrors of the storm in the jubilant choruses of 80\u2019s hair metal. In between, Roger Waters took the melancholic refrains of Pink Floyd and as he recently remarked on The Daily Show <\/em>of Floyd\u2019s \u201cThe Wall\u201d<\/a>, \u201cIt\u2019s no longer about that miserable, self-serving, sniveling, nasty little Roger we hated all those years ago. It\u2019s more about . . . the rebellion that is trying to understand the world and, if possible, help people occasionally.\u201d<\/p>\n http:\/\/youtu.be\/fOmn9iWcG5g<\/p>\n While the overall musical response to Hurricane Sandy was pure musical triumphalism, the reaction to the Sandy Hook shooting took an entirely different tone. It was not \u201cwe will overcome, we will rebuild\u201d but \u201chow could this happen, what can we do to stop this from happening ever again?\u201d A quick search on YouTube reveals a bevy of independent artists memorializing through music those were we killed that day. From covers of tried and true classics on grief and hope (i.e. Leonard Cohen\u2019s \u201cHallelujah\u201d, see \u201cThe Voice\u201d tribute<\/a>), to originals remembering the children whose lives were cut short (see \u201c26 Angels\u201d<\/a> by Bailey Jeffko). Perhaps the most moving of these musical tributes is the one led by indie rocker Ingrid Michaelson with children from the Sandy Hook Elementary School choir singing \u201cSomewhere Over the Rainbow\u201d (organized by former Talking Head members and\u00a0Connecticut\u00a0natives, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz).<\/p>\n http:\/\/youtu.be\/TCCqeV-qfuU<\/p>\n Good Morning America Performance<\/strong><\/p>\n