The Day the Music Stopped

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Events are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental...sort of ; ) Though you can rest assured this is not a premonition. 

            I’m sure you are terrified to hear of this news. I was devastated as well. It was a travesty to many really. But trust me there was a warning sign, though no one took notice. Not many even realized how harshly they would be affected until it actually happened. You know how people are? Uninterested, unaware, unconcerned until they are face to face with the tragedy, head on, full speed ahead, and no way to save themselves or their loved ones.

            It all started with a pop and a bang.

The silence was deafening. I’m sure you’ve heard it described that way.

No one really noticed it at first. Everyone just lived their lives, chatting away.

It was at least 5 minutes before the first person acknowledged the silence. His brain literally stopped processing the words of the beautiful woman sitting across from him. The smile on her face no longer distracted him from the metropolis blooming around their conversation. As intriguing as it was, he couldn’t help but realize the soundtrack had stopped.

“What just happened?” he remarked to the woman.

“What do you mean?” she replied, baffled by his question.

“Do you hear that?” he said turning in his chair, searching the surroundings of the outdoor eating area where they were seated. No one else seemed to be reacting though the silence was profound.

“I’m not sure I understand what you’re referring to?” Concern began to appear on her face as she watched her lunch buddy begin to develop a mild case of panic. He swiveled in his chair numerous times before twisting his body completely and staring wide eyed at the small tavern across the street. Her anxiety started to swell the more he began to panic and about something she did not understand entirely. This was hardly the behavior you wanted to see on a first date. And he was so handsome too.

“You seriously don’t notice that there is absolute silence?” He nearly yelled it at her.

“But there isn’t! People are talking, cars are driving and honking. Kids are screaming. I don’t understand what you mean.”

His frustration grew immensely. How could she not hear that silence? How could she not hear that intense boom and then nothing?

“That’s just aimless noise!” He argued. He looked to his right at a man in a car, viciously pressing buttons on his cars dashboard stereo. Then to his left he noticed a young lady, who for most of her meal had been sitting alone, listening to her iPod. She was now frantically tapping the screen, checking the chord of her ear buds, clearly annoyed.

By this point his breathing had quickened and the panic was setting in. He barely realized he had been gripping the end of the table until he abruptly stood up. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and tossed a couple twenties on the table. The beautiful woman, who, until this point in their afternoon, had been enthralled with the man, looked at the money with pure bewilderment.

“I don’t think this is going to work out,” He said to her as he swiped the unlock code into his phone. He tapped at the number screen and growled when the voicemail picked up. The sleeve of his blazer jacked nearly hit her in the face as he raced toward the low gate bordering the eating area that separated them from the sidewalk traffic. He bound over the gate and ran across the street.

***

“Gary!” He screamed at the thick wooden door of the bar. “Gary open up dude, it’s an emergency.” Pain throbbed through his hand as he pounded on the wooden pane of the door’s porthole window. He paced back and forth, peering into the large wall-sized retractable window next to the door.

            Finally the door flew open. A tall, lean man stood in the doorway. His face was distraught and identical panic radiated in his eyes.

            “Ethan! Get your ass in here man. This shit is fucking strange!!” Finally!! He knew he wasn’t crazy. Gary heard it too.

            “Erik and I were in the middle of setting up for your gig tonight, literally testing the equipment, when right in the middle, BOOM, and then nothing worked.” Gary’s face was defeated. He had no idea what to do or what to think. The whole situation was baffling.

            “I heard it too!! NOTHING is working?”

            “I’m not totally sure man. Everything is on! Everything is plugged in. You can hear the hum of the speakers working but nothing is coming out.”

            “Where’s Erik?”

            “He’s on the second floor trying to see if it’s just this stage or the other one.” As if summoned by a sixth sense, Erik appeared through the “staff only” door connecting the main bar area to back stage, both of his hands were tangled in his shoulder length hair and gripping tight. His lips pressed shut he looked at his comrades with a face of pure disbelief.

            “In all my years in this scene, I have never experienced anything like this. Watch this shit.” He climbed up on the stage in front of them, he took the vocal mic in his hand, illustrating it was plugged in and on.

            “Testing, Testing. Can you hear me?” The two men watching in front of the stage moved their heads up and down in a quick nod. Erik held up a finger, instructing them to wait, and then opened his mouth as if to sing, but nothing came out.

            “What the hell?” Gary reacted. Ethan ran up on stage and grabbed the mic from Erik. Cupping it in his hands he proceeded to growl into it but no sound resulted.

            “And watch this.” Erik walked over to the drum kit sitting at the back of the stage.  He clinched both sticks in his hands and began to play. Nothing. Though it was clear he was playing there was no sound.

Gary and Ethan instantly walked over to the bass and guitar hanging on the walls. They vigorously plugged them into the amps humming on the stage. Just as with the mic and the drum set nothing came through the amps.

            Ethan could barely handle the reality of what this meant. As his fingers flew up and down the neck of the guitar in hand, the room began to spin. He could barely focus. Nothing! Not a note! Not a wail! Not a thing came through the amp. Further you couldn’t even hear the weak plinks and plunks of the guitar strings, that slight unplugged tone that whispered from an electric guitar not yet amplified, was nowhere to be found as well. He had heard rumors on Facebook of something happening to this effect but it was Facebook those conspiracies never really happened.

            “I wonder!” Gary yelled as he jumped from the stage and ran toward the sound board. He accessed the iTunes library saved on his iPad, nothing. He turned on Pandora radio, nothing. YouTube, nothing. Spotify, nothing. There was no music what so ever, at all, coming from anywhere. It was totally silent.

            As Gary searched for air in the space between his knees, Erik walked behind the bar.  He grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels and three plastic cups. His breathing was staggered as he handed each man their cup filled half way to the brim. They stared at each other defeated and weary for what felt like eternity before they brought the cups to their lips to drown their disbelief in the hot sting of whiskey. At that moment every television in the bar flicked on.

 “My fellow citizens of Earth,” The man on the television screen was not the President of the United States. In fact none of our three musicians had ever seen this man before.

“My name is Chancellor Harold Barker. I am one thirteenth of a committee now charged with governing our great planet-nation.” His voice was not that of a typical politician though his image was indeed. His shoulders took up majority of the television screen and his jaw line was square and strong. His eyes tore straight through to the center of your being and even though his voice was small, it was steady. You recognized his authority immediately.

“By now you may have realized that all music, both live and recorded, is missing from your everyday existence. This is not a freak occurrence nor is it an accident. After years of observing the activities and actions of the people of this great planet, we have decided that, in the interest of your safety and the safety and well-being of everyone residing here, it was necessary for us to remove all existence of music from you. Now please don’t be alarmed. Life will proceed as usual. No other laws or freedoms will be taken from you but the playing of, and listening to, music will no longer be tolerated.

We are undoubtedly certain, even now that I address you, that hackers and music enthusiast are joining forces to try and find a way to reverse  our efforts to keep you safe from harm. Please cease all attempts. Legislation is being drafted right now to help govern the illegal creation, distribution, and involvement in music of any kind.  I assure you the consequences for violating these laws will be severe.

We know that in a short period of time you all will begin to see things our way. You will recognize the peace that will flow from our communities once you adapt to life without music. We assure you this decision was not come to lightly. We have been debating this action for many years and have finally agreed upon its administration.

We wish you all the best. Good night and God bless.”

The screens in the bar went dark and so did the air in the room. The men stood motionless staring at the television, whiskey in hand, completely dumbfounded by what they had just heard. Who was this committee? What harm did music bring to mankind? How could they do this? And without consulting the public? How did this happen? 

I could barely breathe moments after I saw the broadcast. Not only did it come across every television and radio station in the world, but it also streamed live through the Internet. I had been working on my latest short story, when the music blaring from my laptop suddenly stopped and that broad figure of a man popped up on my computer screen.

Ethan called me as soon as the broadcast was over. What do we do?  He had said. I had no response for him. I just sat there staring at the static that followed the broadcast. My heart nearly dropped from my chest and I had no clue how to react. But I do now…

So if you are reading this blog you have undoubtedly been invited to the resistance. They start with our privileges. They start with our leisure. Rumor has it all fine art is next to go. We will not allow it. Join us in orchestrating retaliation on this Council of Humanity. Join us in bringing the music back.

~~CLICK HERE TO JOIN~~~