September 27, 2022 • 21 mins
We dig deep into cross-cultural exploitation and global pride. Thank you again to my guest Sgt. Major Denver Dill from Westpoint Academy for some powerful examples of how music unites us in good times and in bad.
To listen/watch the examples listed in this episode, here are some links:
Andriy Khlyvnyuk, lead singer of the Ukrainian band Boombox ended his World Tour early to fight for his country. When the streets were bare in Kiev, he took to Instagram and recorded himself singing the Ukrainian folk song The Red Viburnum in the Meadow in the empty streets of Kiev.
This was the result.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cae5TydPAxh/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu8m5FA2nL8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saEpkcVi1d4
Here’s the article explaining how Pink Floyd got involved: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pink-floyd-hey-hey-rise-up-1334338/
The amazing little girl singing Let it Go in a Ukrainian bunker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VpDjKSSJQ8
Here’s the link for the theremin story:
What happens when you mix sound and national identity? I learned some fascinating info when I spoke with Sgt. Major Denver Dill from Westpoint Academy about music and military.
---
For more on sound in marketing, sign up for the Sound In Marketing Newsletter http://eepurl.com/gDxl6b.
For further inquiries, email Jeanna at mailto:jeanna@dreamrproductions.com
The Sound In Marketing Podcast is produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by Jeanna Isham. It is available on all the major podcast channels here https://pod.link/1467112373.
Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more on brand.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannaisham/
https://twitter.com/Jeanna_Isham
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner
and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound In Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate
brands and individualson the power of sound in marketing.
Now back to the show.
We pick up where we left off
talking with Denver Dill about Sonicbranding and sound in the military.
(00:26):
In this episode, I've got all sortsof great musical examples
sprinkled throughout,so enjoy. The opinions of Sergeant Major
Denver Dill are his ownand don't represent
the United States Military Academy,the U.S.
Army, or the Department of Defense.
Kind of wanted to, shift
gears a little bit about, you know,kind of the elephant in the room.
(00:47):
Like, how does the military use sound
and song in strategyin in the way that it functions?
We're talking about the waysthat it can strengthen
us and it can create an identity.
But how can wealso use it to our advantage?
Duringthe Civil War, there were pieces of music
(01:09):
that were banned because they were causingpeople to desert.
Right?
You would think about your momor your sister or some other trouble
and, you know, wasn't technologywasn't the same then.
And so you just run offand, you know, now we're down a troop.
So the idea thatif you can connect to an emotion,
you can get an outcome, well, that'sthat is the lifeblood of music, right?
(01:30):
That's specifically what it's for.
And you think about those, those eventsto which,
where we, we have the military andwe have the civilian population together
because we're representing both ideasin congruence.
Think of like Inauguration Day, right?
That's the perfect example.
The civilian leadership of the country,the military leadership is there as well.
(01:54):
You know, all the political leadership,
it's all it's all intertwined into whatwe call this democracy in America.
And it's the music that we all cometogether.
Those are the moments that a speechdoesn't necessarily capture
the energy of what'strying to be expressed.
You need a poet, right?
So we brought a poet to that event.
We will rise from the lake room citiesof the Midwestern states.
(02:15):
We will rise from the Sunbaked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile and recoverin every known
nook of our nationand every corner called our country.
Our people, diverse and beautiful,will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade,aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
(02:38):
For there was always light.
If only were brave enough to see it.
If only we were brave enough to be in
Or we need a song.
We need amazing grace.
Or we need, you know, the anthem again.
Or all these aspirational piece of music.
Because music communicatesemotions and ideas
(02:58):
that only you knowthe best poets could communicate, right?
We're all striving to how do we get youto this place? For the services,
When we take our musical presenceand we take it
overseas, we're promoting our strategicnational narrative.
The idea that there's rule of lawin the United States,
the idea that you can prosperif you work hard.
(03:21):
Right.
The chance for prosperity
and safety, you know, safety, those ideas,like they're all coming together.
And when you see
and hear American performances,that's what you think about, right?
You think about Louis Armstronggoing overseas at a time
when there was segregation in the South,but the State Department was taking him
overseas because they knew, hey,we're going to get over that.
(03:41):
You know, we are going to get over that.
And so he wasthere is our aspirational voice,
and representing the country,as I think to myself.
What a wonderful world.
(04:11):
So it's really about how we project that.
I did a Psy-Con talk where I talked aboutK-pop and how they've done this in Korea.
Right.
And so now BTS's and K-pop bandsrepresent South Korea.
They're able to be this ideaof uniquely Korean identity.
And that's amazing, right?
They have the millions
and millions and millions of followersthat they're able to leverage
(04:34):
and talk to and affiliateand create a sense of inclusiveness.
And I think that that's
that's a lot of the spacethat we're in is like, how do we do that?
And if our music is the opposite of that,if it's non-inclusive, if it's racist,
if it's sexist, well, those aren'tthe ideals that we want to promote,
and we should be sensitive to thatand we should give it analysis.
It's not just lyric analysis, right.
(04:55):
It can be any other form.
If you go to Ghana and I just startdrumming carelessly, right.
I could be offensive
not to just be wishy washingto really care about all of those things.
So care about civil
affairs, care about cultural affairsto be really astute in those areas.
I think that that's in our nation'sbest interest to continue to do that,
to continue to work on public diplomacy
(05:16):
and to think about all of these areaswhere our culture is borrowed from others.
And there's is borrowed from us,and it just keeps cycling
because we're all just humanson the same planet.
We've been talkingabout the power of unifying
through musicand bringing cultures together.
How does the opposite happen?
How can music and soundcreate bias and conflict?
(05:38):
You know, for music to create a bias, it'snot like the word bias,
you know, has a lot of possible meanings,So Leon Theramin
was this great Russian, scientistin the, you know, electrical engineer,
basically Thomas Edison of Russia, andhe invented many, many interesting things.
But his instrument that later became,you know, was known as the Theremin.
(05:59):
Well, he was a virtuoso of that instrumentin the early 20th century.
He's over here in New Yorkplaying with the New York Philharmonic
on his instrument until he'saccused of possibly being a spy.
Ship him off to Russia,and he goes to the Gulag.
Well, eventually.
And this is like the late 90s where thisfinally comes out to the American public.
But a very, very, very effective
(06:21):
tool of espionage was usedthat he likely invented.
And so what had happened was he had
created a, a devicethat if you shot radio waves at
it would it's like a microphone behind
a seal in the US embassy in Moscow.
And for seven years, this clandestinelistening device was undetected.
(06:43):
So can you imagine thethe access that something has like that?
And I feel like only a musicianscoming up with it only.
And musicians like, hey, you know what?
I'm going to figure outhow to, you know, connect.
And it didn't have any power.
It wasn't like it needed batteriesand didn't need all this stuff.
It's just a very practical,you can look it up on the internet.
You can see, you know, the US
at the UN, United Nations revealing thisthing to the public to talk about that.
(07:05):
But there is that aspect of,
clandestine activity with, with music.
Humans are going to make music no matterwhat happens, no matter what's going on.
And I find this as a fatherto be particularly true.
If I leave my two children alone,they end up chanting,
or they end up saying nothinglike they're just doing gibberish.
(07:26):
But it's in rhythm together.
Or they,you know, match each other's excitement.
And then it's like, you're really crazy
loud and I have to put my noisecanceling headphones on.
Something like that. Right.
Well, take a conflict likewhat's happening in the Ukraine right now.
Really early on, we all kind of gasped
as we watched this tiny little girlsinging Let It Go in a bunker.
(07:48):
The idea of frozen
coming into a warzone, and it's a five, six,seven year old girl who's just.
That's how she's processingwhat's all around her.
And you can see it in the roomof all the adults, you know, like, wow,
(in Ukraine)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(08:08):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(08:30):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
But then you'll also see,Well, this, this strange phenomenon
that happened herewith, Hey, hey, rise up!
On February 27th, 2022,
(08:51):
Andrii Khlyvnyuk, lead singer of the Ukrainian band
boombox, ended his worldtour early to fight for his country.
When the streets were bare in Kiev.
He took to Instagram and recorded himselfsinging the Ukrainian folk song
the Red Viburnumin the meadow in the empty streets.
The result was powerful.
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:14):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:36):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
So now all of a sudden, it's on Instagramand it's on TikTok,
and then other people are like,yeah, hey, hey, rise up.
And so it becomes this Ukrainianrally crew.
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:57):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(10:18):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian) David Gilmore of Pink Floyd heard about it and was so moved
that he got the band together
to record a songand a music video in solidarity with Khlyvnyuk.
To create a new song calledhey, hey, Rise Up.
Andriy’s original video was projectedon the wall of the Pink Floyd music video.
(10:39):
Proceeds went to the UkraineHumanitarian Relief Fund.
The group hadn't performedor recorded together since mid 90s.
It's this
huge idea that music is able to beelinethrough all of that, right?
That's a ton of red tape.
That's a ton of emotions.
(11:00):
That's a ton of that's weird.
It's all of those things together.
But if you go look it up, you'll see like,
whoa, one personwith one cell phone had that effect.
These unbelievable but true narrativesemerge because of music.
You'll see Ukrainian bandsthen start playing hey, hey, rise up.
It's just this thing that catches on.
Nine of the top ten most viewedvideos on YouTube are music videos.
(11:24):
So if you add up all of thatYouTube content that's driven
by music and then add up all the streamingservices Apple Music, Spotify,
you know, on and on and on and on, hey,everybody is thirsty for music.
All of a suddenit doesn't seem like this nice to have.
It seems like something of importance.
And that's part of why we teach itand why we need to be in that space.
(11:45):
We don't need to be passive, like, well,that's a nice to have.
Now, if you don't teach it,what's going to happen?
You know, and soldiers and, and leaders,what they're going to do
is they're going to put their earbuds inand listen to who knows what.
And they could be ingesting really toxicnarratives or, you know, countercultural
or extremist or any of these thingsthat if we don't address
it well, you know, it's low riskand it's not low risk.
(12:07):
And that's the idea is when you're tryingto be your best, everything matters.
And this is part of what you ingest.
And I think about that all the time when Iwhen I see people at the gym,
I just think, oh, I wish I could knowwhat you were listening to
and we could talk about it, you know,why does that motivate you?
You know, all those things or maybe you'renot even thinking about motivation.
You're thinking about healing.
(12:28):
You're thinking about other things.
Yeah, that brings up a lot of thoughtsin my head because I think about,
I wasn't around in the 60s, and the 70s,but the music of that time
period is so iconicand not just for the people
that experienced it, but like,you know, when I hear, the Byrds,
you know, that I
(12:49):
that makes me think of Vietnam, you know,and I wasn't there.
But it's just so rooted in that.
My dad told me recently that he heardthe song bridge Over Troubled Waters
for the first time after he came backfrom Vietnam, and I'm like, wow.
Like, so powerful.
2020 pandemic.
Social unrest, all sorts ofcompeting things going on, right?
(13:12):
It's an interesting time to be alive.
And you look at our biggest eventslike the Super Bowl,
and then we did have an election.So like inauguration.
And that is when it mattered the most.
If you go backand you look at that Super Bowl
we're leading off with, let's liftevery voice and sing, lift
every voice and sing to the earth
(13:37):
and Heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
(14:00):
high as the listening sky.
Let it resound
loud as a rolling sea.
We got to come together.
(14:22):
And we can do it through song. And.
And the same thing isjust perpetually happening.
And people, especially in America,
but all over the globe,look to music to be that unifier.
And I think it's the whole of bodythat is required
of participating in this, in the singing.
So the idea of it's embarrassing.
(14:42):
You might not be the best singer,you might be self-conscious.
There's a social dynamic ofis really everybody sing, everybody sing.
I better sing too, because everybody sing.You know, like there's peer pressure.
There's all these dynamics at work
that once you give inand you commit to it, then it's a we.
It's not an I.
And how else do you describe that in the Army,you know, team building is doing PT
(15:03):
right.
We're out working out together
you know overcome obstacles togetherand then, you know, get done.
And you everybody's sweatyand you're like, you high five.
High fiving is a weird thing,but not in the context of
you've just worked out for an hourand you're ready to drop.
Music is that same idea.
It's a it's that collective,and it is what brings people together,
and it's the default,even though we don't necessarily teach it.
(15:26):
Where do you think that West Pointis going in the future
with with your research center,with your coursework?
What what do you seeyour next exploration, your next “aha” moment
right nowthat's a one semester course.
And so we're just refining everythingthat happened last semester.
So we've been looking at like, okay,
we got these angles that we could talkabout here and these angles over here.
(15:48):
We are working with the history departmentand possibly
making a music and history course,but it's not a
we're not a university like, we'rea leadership development institution.
So I have agreed to helpso long as at the end of it,
we're contributing to better leaders.
And that's that's really the mission here.
And so we're being slow and intentionalwith how we might build that course.
(16:11):
Because again, talking about
I want a better leader at the end of it,cadet life is not normal.
I don't know where you went to school,but I went to a state school
and a conservatory,and there is nothing like what
these young men and womenare going through.
Their time is such a premium.
And so as an instructor,I'm just grateful to have them in my class.
I take that responsibility, like, gravely,because they have no free time.
(16:34):
This is not a normal college, right?
This is.
You got to be excellent academically.
I feel like most of the classeshere are actually graduate classes.
Even though they're undergraduate,
they're all required to be athletes.
Can you imagine that?
Everybody's required to be an athlete.Every kid is an athlete.
You are on some sort of team doing sports.
I would have failed. Oh, right.
(16:56):
So they have all of thethey have the military component.
They have the academic component,
the physical componentthat they have to be experts in.
And, you know, to be part of thatmix is just like humbling honor
because they truly are inspirational.
That's my favorite part too, isI hear what some of them do.
Now that I've been here for a long timeand I'm an old man,
they come back and they teachand it's like, wow, you did what?
(17:18):
While you were gone.
That's amazing, you know? And you're just,you know, you're proud.
Even though I don't know thatthat's the right word.
You're humbled to just like, wow,these people are truly like selfless
service galore.
I mean, it's it's an amazing group.
It's it sounds like you're doinga fantastic job.
And I,I wanted to sum up with one last question.
What in your 19 yearsthat you've been there now, what is it
(17:41):
that makes you the most humble, the most proud
and humble of your influence, or whatyou have seen come through that time?
The consistency
and theintegrity of the institution is crazy.
I mean, I I've been fortunateand unfortunate
(18:03):
to see some of the eventstranspire, right.
And also at a timewhen the country is at war.
Well, we've seen differentpolitical parties go through office.
I mean, West Point
is truly what it what it's supposed to be.
I mean, they are just amazing.
From classroom to classroom,the consistency of the instructors
(18:24):
just giving ridiculous amounts of timetheir evenings, their nights,
you know, for the cadetswho might need extra time,
the institution writ large, just beingcompletely apolitical, just making
sure that they're focused on developingtomorrow's future generation of leaders.
It's, it's so consistent.
It's amazing. And it's humbling.
(18:45):
I get to work with someone who.
Whose, analysisled to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
What?
You know what I mean? Like, what world is that?
You know, the list goes on and on about
the arsenal of wonderful,intelligent, experienced leaders here.
And, you know, basically,if you just listen and pay attention, it's
(19:06):
this wonderful environment for everybodyto learn and to learn from each other.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the thing.
If you could ever visit, you could see whyGeneral George Washington
picked its location on the Hudsonfor its strategic value.
You know, it's it's 200 years
of trying to build Americain one institution.
And it's,
(19:27):
you know, from the cadet to the instructorto the seasoned professor to the dean,
to the commandant, to the superintendent,everybody super consistent.
And just you just get anywhere nearany of those individuals and you're like,
oh, I can keep I can keep marching.
I can do this fromeverything that I've read and,
at know about West Point, it'sjust an unbelievable
(19:49):
rich history of our nation.
I mean, that's all that I could say
and I, I want to thank you for, bringing to light.
I know it wasn't just you, but thank youfor bringing to light the importance
of music and sound, to our future leaders of America.
(20:09):
Well, thanks for having me.
I mean, again, happy to talk about thisany time, but,
yeah, if you can make it to the EastCoast, we'll give you a great tour.
I'm going to have to figure outhow to do that
because that sounds that sounds fun.
That sounds like a really good time.
Well,thank you again, Denver, for your time.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you had as much fun as I did.
I did thank you so much for having me.
(20:31):
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
(20:54):
All links will be provided in the show.
Notes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner
and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound In Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate
brands and individualson the power of sound in marketing.
Now back to the show.
We pick up where we left off
talking with Denver Dill about Sonicbranding and sound in the military.
(00:26):
In this episode, I've got all sortsof great musical examples
sprinkled throughout,so enjoy. The opinions of Sergeant Major
Denver Dill are his ownand don't represent
the United States Military Academy,the U.S.
Army, or the Department of Defense.
Kind of wanted to, shift
gears a little bit about, you know,kind of the elephant in the room.
(00:47):
Like, how does the military use sound
and song in strategyin in the way that it functions?
We're talking about the waysthat it can strengthen
us and it can create an identity.
But how can wealso use it to our advantage?
Duringthe Civil War, there were pieces of music
(01:09):
that were banned because they were causingpeople to desert.
Right?
You would think about your momor your sister or some other trouble
and, you know, wasn't technologywasn't the same then.
And so you just run offand, you know, now we're down a troop.
So the idea thatif you can connect to an emotion,
you can get an outcome, well, that'sthat is the lifeblood of music, right?
(01:30):
That's specifically what it's for.
And you think about those, those eventsto which,
where we, we have the military andwe have the civilian population together
because we're representing both ideasin congruence.
Think of like Inauguration Day, right?
That's the perfect example.
The civilian leadership of the country,the military leadership is there as well.
(01:54):
You know, all the political leadership,
it's all it's all intertwined into whatwe call this democracy in America.
And it's the music that we all cometogether.
Those are the moments that a speechdoesn't necessarily capture
the energy of what'strying to be expressed.
You need a poet, right?
So we brought a poet to that event.
We will rise from the lake room citiesof the Midwestern states.
(02:15):
We will rise from the Sunbaked south.
We will rebuild, reconcile and recoverin every known
nook of our nationand every corner called our country.
Our people, diverse and beautiful,will emerge, battered and beautiful.
When day comes, we step out of the shade,aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
(02:38):
For there was always light.
If only were brave enough to see it.
If only we were brave enough to be in
Or we need a song.
We need amazing grace.
Or we need, you know, the anthem again.
Or all these aspirational piece of music.
Because music communicatesemotions and ideas
(02:58):
that only you knowthe best poets could communicate, right?
We're all striving to how do we get youto this place? For the services,
When we take our musical presenceand we take it
overseas, we're promoting our strategicnational narrative.
The idea that there's rule of lawin the United States,
the idea that you can prosperif you work hard.
(03:21):
Right.
The chance for prosperity
and safety, you know, safety, those ideas,like they're all coming together.
And when you see
and hear American performances,that's what you think about, right?
You think about Louis Armstronggoing overseas at a time
when there was segregation in the South,but the State Department was taking him
overseas because they knew, hey,we're going to get over that.
(03:41):
You know, we are going to get over that.
And so he wasthere is our aspirational voice,
and representing the country,as I think to myself.
What a wonderful world.
(04:11):
So it's really about how we project that.
I did a Psy-Con talk where I talked aboutK-pop and how they've done this in Korea.
Right.
And so now BTS's and K-pop bandsrepresent South Korea.
They're able to be this ideaof uniquely Korean identity.
And that's amazing, right?
They have the millions
and millions and millions of followersthat they're able to leverage
(04:34):
and talk to and affiliateand create a sense of inclusiveness.
And I think that that's
that's a lot of the spacethat we're in is like, how do we do that?
And if our music is the opposite of that,if it's non-inclusive, if it's racist,
if it's sexist, well, those aren'tthe ideals that we want to promote,
and we should be sensitive to thatand we should give it analysis.
It's not just lyric analysis, right.
(04:55):
It can be any other form.
If you go to Ghana and I just startdrumming carelessly, right.
I could be offensive
not to just be wishy washingto really care about all of those things.
So care about civil
affairs, care about cultural affairsto be really astute in those areas.
I think that that's in our nation'sbest interest to continue to do that,
to continue to work on public diplomacy
(05:16):
and to think about all of these areaswhere our culture is borrowed from others.
And there's is borrowed from us,and it just keeps cycling
because we're all just humanson the same planet.
We've been talkingabout the power of unifying
through musicand bringing cultures together.
How does the opposite happen?
How can music and soundcreate bias and conflict?
(05:38):
You know, for music to create a bias, it'snot like the word bias,
you know, has a lot of possible meanings,So Leon Theramin
was this great Russian, scientistin the, you know, electrical engineer,
basically Thomas Edison of Russia, andhe invented many, many interesting things.
But his instrument that later became,you know, was known as the Theremin.
(05:59):
Well, he was a virtuoso of that instrumentin the early 20th century.
He's over here in New Yorkplaying with the New York Philharmonic
on his instrument until he'saccused of possibly being a spy.
Ship him off to Russia,and he goes to the Gulag.
Well, eventually.
And this is like the late 90s where thisfinally comes out to the American public.
But a very, very, very effective
(06:21):
tool of espionage was usedthat he likely invented.
And so what had happened was he had
created a, a devicethat if you shot radio waves at
it would it's like a microphone behind
a seal in the US embassy in Moscow.
And for seven years, this clandestinelistening device was undetected.
(06:43):
So can you imagine thethe access that something has like that?
And I feel like only a musicianscoming up with it only.
And musicians like, hey, you know what?
I'm going to figure outhow to, you know, connect.
And it didn't have any power.
It wasn't like it needed batteriesand didn't need all this stuff.
It's just a very practical,you can look it up on the internet.
You can see, you know, the US
at the UN, United Nations revealing thisthing to the public to talk about that.
(07:05):
But there is that aspect of,
clandestine activity with, with music.
Humans are going to make music no matterwhat happens, no matter what's going on.
And I find this as a fatherto be particularly true.
If I leave my two children alone,they end up chanting,
or they end up saying nothinglike they're just doing gibberish.
(07:26):
But it's in rhythm together.
Or they,you know, match each other's excitement.
And then it's like, you're really crazy
loud and I have to put my noisecanceling headphones on.
Something like that. Right.
Well, take a conflict likewhat's happening in the Ukraine right now.
Really early on, we all kind of gasped
as we watched this tiny little girlsinging Let It Go in a bunker.
(07:48):
The idea of frozen
coming into a warzone, and it's a five, six,seven year old girl who's just.
That's how she's processingwhat's all around her.
And you can see it in the roomof all the adults, you know, like, wow,
(in Ukraine)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(08:08):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(08:30):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
But then you'll also see,Well, this, this strange phenomenon
that happened herewith, Hey, hey, rise up!
On February 27th, 2022,
(08:51):
Andrii Khlyvnyuk, lead singer of the Ukrainian band
boombox, ended his worldtour early to fight for his country.
When the streets were bare in Kiev.
He took to Instagram and recorded himselfsinging the Ukrainian folk song
the Red Viburnumin the meadow in the empty streets.
The result was powerful.
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:14):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:36):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
So now all of a sudden, it's on Instagramand it's on TikTok,
and then other people are like,yeah, hey, hey, rise up.
And so it becomes this Ukrainianrally crew.
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(09:57):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian)
(10:18):
(singing in Ukrainian)
(singing in Ukrainian) David Gilmore of Pink Floyd heard about it and was so moved
that he got the band together
to record a songand a music video in solidarity with Khlyvnyuk.
To create a new song calledhey, hey, Rise Up.
Andriy’s original video was projectedon the wall of the Pink Floyd music video.
(10:39):
Proceeds went to the UkraineHumanitarian Relief Fund.
The group hadn't performedor recorded together since mid 90s.
It's this
huge idea that music is able to beelinethrough all of that, right?
That's a ton of red tape.
That's a ton of emotions.
(11:00):
That's a ton of that's weird.
It's all of those things together.
But if you go look it up, you'll see like,
whoa, one personwith one cell phone had that effect.
These unbelievable but true narrativesemerge because of music.
You'll see Ukrainian bandsthen start playing hey, hey, rise up.
It's just this thing that catches on.
Nine of the top ten most viewedvideos on YouTube are music videos.
(11:24):
So if you add up all of thatYouTube content that's driven
by music and then add up all the streamingservices Apple Music, Spotify,
you know, on and on and on and on, hey,everybody is thirsty for music.
All of a suddenit doesn't seem like this nice to have.
It seems like something of importance.
And that's part of why we teach itand why we need to be in that space.
(11:45):
We don't need to be passive, like, well,that's a nice to have.
Now, if you don't teach it,what's going to happen?
You know, and soldiers and, and leaders,what they're going to do
is they're going to put their earbuds inand listen to who knows what.
And they could be ingesting really toxicnarratives or, you know, countercultural
or extremist or any of these thingsthat if we don't address
it well, you know, it's low riskand it's not low risk.
(12:07):
And that's the idea is when you're tryingto be your best, everything matters.
And this is part of what you ingest.
And I think about that all the time when Iwhen I see people at the gym,
I just think, oh, I wish I could knowwhat you were listening to
and we could talk about it, you know,why does that motivate you?
You know, all those things or maybe you'renot even thinking about motivation.
You're thinking about healing.
(12:28):
You're thinking about other things.
Yeah, that brings up a lot of thoughtsin my head because I think about,
I wasn't around in the 60s, and the 70s,but the music of that time
period is so iconicand not just for the people
that experienced it, but like,you know, when I hear, the Byrds,
you know, that I
(12:49):
that makes me think of Vietnam, you know,and I wasn't there.
But it's just so rooted in that.
My dad told me recently that he heardthe song bridge Over Troubled Waters
for the first time after he came backfrom Vietnam, and I'm like, wow.
Like, so powerful.
2020 pandemic.
Social unrest, all sorts ofcompeting things going on, right?
(13:12):
It's an interesting time to be alive.
And you look at our biggest eventslike the Super Bowl,
and then we did have an election.So like inauguration.
And that is when it mattered the most.
If you go backand you look at that Super Bowl
we're leading off with, let's liftevery voice and sing, lift
every voice and sing to the earth
(13:37):
and Heaven ring.
Ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
(14:00):
high as the listening sky.
Let it resound
loud as a rolling sea.
We got to come together.
(14:22):
And we can do it through song. And.
And the same thing isjust perpetually happening.
And people, especially in America,
but all over the globe,look to music to be that unifier.
And I think it's the whole of bodythat is required
of participating in this, in the singing.
So the idea of it's embarrassing.
(14:42):
You might not be the best singer,you might be self-conscious.
There's a social dynamic ofis really everybody sing, everybody sing.
I better sing too, because everybody sing.You know, like there's peer pressure.
There's all these dynamics at work
that once you give inand you commit to it, then it's a we.
It's not an I.
And how else do you describe that in the Army,you know, team building is doing PT
(15:03):
right.
We're out working out together
you know overcome obstacles togetherand then, you know, get done.
And you everybody's sweatyand you're like, you high five.
High fiving is a weird thing,but not in the context of
you've just worked out for an hourand you're ready to drop.
Music is that same idea.
It's a it's that collective,and it is what brings people together,
and it's the default,even though we don't necessarily teach it.
(15:26):
Where do you think that West Pointis going in the future
with with your research center,with your coursework?
What what do you seeyour next exploration, your next “aha” moment
right nowthat's a one semester course.
And so we're just refining everythingthat happened last semester.
So we've been looking at like, okay,
we got these angles that we could talkabout here and these angles over here.
(15:48):
We are working with the history departmentand possibly
making a music and history course,but it's not a
we're not a university like, we'rea leadership development institution.
So I have agreed to helpso long as at the end of it,
we're contributing to better leaders.
And that's that's really the mission here.
And so we're being slow and intentionalwith how we might build that course.
(16:11):
Because again, talking about
I want a better leader at the end of it,cadet life is not normal.
I don't know where you went to school,but I went to a state school
and a conservatory,and there is nothing like what
these young men and womenare going through.
Their time is such a premium.
And so as an instructor,I'm just grateful to have them in my class.
I take that responsibility, like, gravely,because they have no free time.
(16:34):
This is not a normal college, right?
This is.
You got to be excellent academically.
I feel like most of the classeshere are actually graduate classes.
Even though they're undergraduate,
they're all required to be athletes.
Can you imagine that?
Everybody's required to be an athlete.Every kid is an athlete.
You are on some sort of team doing sports.
I would have failed. Oh, right.
(16:56):
So they have all of thethey have the military component.
They have the academic component,
the physical componentthat they have to be experts in.
And, you know, to be part of thatmix is just like humbling honor
because they truly are inspirational.
That's my favorite part too, isI hear what some of them do.
Now that I've been here for a long timeand I'm an old man,
they come back and they teachand it's like, wow, you did what?
(17:18):
While you were gone.
That's amazing, you know? And you're just,you know, you're proud.
Even though I don't know thatthat's the right word.
You're humbled to just like, wow,these people are truly like selfless
service galore.
I mean, it's it's an amazing group.
It's it sounds like you're doinga fantastic job.
And I,I wanted to sum up with one last question.
What in your 19 yearsthat you've been there now, what is it
(17:41):
that makes you the most humble, the most proud
and humble of your influence, or whatyou have seen come through that time?
The consistency
and theintegrity of the institution is crazy.
I mean, I I've been fortunateand unfortunate
(18:03):
to see some of the eventstranspire, right.
And also at a timewhen the country is at war.
Well, we've seen differentpolitical parties go through office.
I mean, West Point
is truly what it what it's supposed to be.
I mean, they are just amazing.
From classroom to classroom,the consistency of the instructors
(18:24):
just giving ridiculous amounts of timetheir evenings, their nights,
you know, for the cadetswho might need extra time,
the institution writ large, just beingcompletely apolitical, just making
sure that they're focused on developingtomorrow's future generation of leaders.
It's, it's so consistent.
It's amazing. And it's humbling.
(18:45):
I get to work with someone who.
Whose, analysisled to the capture of Saddam Hussein.
What?
You know what I mean? Like, what world is that?
You know, the list goes on and on about
the arsenal of wonderful,intelligent, experienced leaders here.
And, you know, basically,if you just listen and pay attention, it's
(19:06):
this wonderful environment for everybodyto learn and to learn from each other.
Yeah.
I mean, that's the thing.
If you could ever visit, you could see whyGeneral George Washington
picked its location on the Hudsonfor its strategic value.
You know, it's it's 200 years
of trying to build Americain one institution.
And it's,
(19:27):
you know, from the cadet to the instructorto the seasoned professor to the dean,
to the commandant, to the superintendent,everybody super consistent.
And just you just get anywhere nearany of those individuals and you're like,
oh, I can keep I can keep marching.
I can do this fromeverything that I've read and,
at know about West Point, it'sjust an unbelievable
(19:49):
rich history of our nation.
I mean, that's all that I could say
and I, I want to thank you for, bringing to light.
I know it wasn't just you, but thank youfor bringing to light the importance
of music and sound, to our future leaders of America.
(20:09):
Well, thanks for having me.
I mean, again, happy to talk about thisany time, but,
yeah, if you can make it to the EastCoast, we'll give you a great tour.
I'm going to have to figure outhow to do that
because that sounds that sounds fun.
That sounds like a really good time.
Well,thank you again, Denver, for your time.
I really appreciate it.
I hope you had as much fun as I did.
I did thank you so much for having me.
(20:31):
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
(20:54):
All links will be provided in the show.
Notes.
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.