Faith in the universal language of music
How do you find faith in people? How do you find, among the bombardment of grim daily news, the thing to hold onto that gives you faith? You listen. You watch, and then flowing from that, you feel. Where do these three things coalesce into one? Music.
Music is, after all, elementally the sound of the human within us. It is the rising of the emotions that in their forming describe the singular and the plural strands of a life. To see, and hear, the connection from creator of the sound to the listener is to have one's faith in people, at that most basic level of commonality, that we are all the one species, restored, if needed, and reaffirmed. It is a joy to behold.
Thus, it has been a joy to behold, and deeply moving, to have been watching the ABC series, The Piano. Here, a piano is set up centre stage in a public place, be it Southern Cross station or Preston Market, and piano players with no public profile are invited to play, to stretch their soul across 88 keys. Two quotes come to mind. As Beethoven said, 'Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.' Or as Frank Zappa said, 'Music is the best.'
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A lot of the players had a story behind what they played. They did not tell it through words but in the music. Call it the key of life, as Stevie Wonder did. Some performed their own compositions that spoke of an event in their life. There have been songs of survival, redemption and love.
The players captured it all in minor and major expressions, in the subdued touch and the hammered lightning. And, as equally importantly, in the space between the notes. You could see and hear the essence, the core of the creativity, flowing through heart and mind, down to the fingers, onto the keys, and then out into the air. This is where it fell into the hearts and minds of the audience. You could see it in their faces, the sway of their shoulders, the tapping of their feet. As a young player said, the piano holds the universe. As do the strings of a guitar. To paraphase Bob Dylan, and before him Walt Whitman, it contains multitudes, as do we.
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In these bustling, busy places of transport and commerce, the players revealed that music truly has no frontiers. There are no borders to stop its travel. Of course, some will not like a certain style, and that's fine. Others will. But when it hits you, you stop. Or as Bob Marley said, when music hits you, you feel no pain.
In the cacophony of wars around the world, in the cruel calculus of death and destruction, music is the haven. Of course, a sonata or a pop song cannot halt the flight of a bullet or missile, but it gives this: Faith, that through this universal language of music, we can all cross the bridge to the one humanity.
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Courier-Mail
3 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
‘Preachy': The truth behind The Project and Q&A's brutal axings
Don't miss out on the headlines from TV. Followed categories will be added to My News. Once hugely influential within Australian culture, The Project and Q&A at their heights were able to make headlines and not only spark on-screen debate, but also further conversations within society. Sadly for Channel 10 and ABC, those days are long behind them, and this week, both networks finally decided to put the ageing shows out to pasture. Launched in 2009 as The 7pm Project with co-hosts Carrie Bickmore and comedians Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes, the panel show won Gold Logies for Bickmore and for co-host Waleed Aly. By the time Covid-19 had the world in its grasps, viewership had begun to crumble, and year-after-year Network 10 was forced to deny that its once ratings behemoth would be coming to an end. Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris broke the news of the show being axed earlier this week. Picture: 10. When the news finally became official last week, it was hardly a surprise to many. But that doesn't make it any less devastating for the hundreds whose jobs are now in question at Channel 10, as well as those at ABC now that its own long-running current affairs show, Q&A, is also being axed from the airwaves. 'ABC has a fixed budget, it has to go begging to the government if it wants more,' said media analyst Steve Allen, director at Pearman Media Agency. 'It has to run everything on the smell of an oily rag, they're running multiple radio and television networks all off a smaller budget that most commercial networks, apart from maybe 10, don't have to operate off,' he told 'But the common theme here is that programs have to perform,' Mr Allen continued. 'They have to attract an audience; for entirely different reasons if we're talking Channel 10 and ABC. But at their core they have to be popular. It's more than a decade since The Project was at its height of viewership. Seven and Nine, their news shows are ratings behemoths. They're in the top five programmes every night of the week. 'It's incredibly hard for anyone to compete in that hour or hour and a half, whether that's SBS, ABC or Channel 10. And that's the problem The Project faced. Its ratings aren't going up. Since its stellar cast faded away bit by bit they've tried all sorts of personality and host combinations none of which really worked,' he added. The Project attracted almost a million nightly viewers at its height. Picture: Channel 10. As advertising dollars have continued to decrease over the years, forcing free-to-air broadcast networks around the world to tighten their purse strings and shift their entire business models to compete with streaming, Mr Allen explained that it's likely Channel 10 saw The Project's timeslot as an untapped revenue stream. 'It's contracted out to Rove Productions and one has to assume that they were making money out of it. So I would imagine that Network 10 thought if they take it in-house then they can use the profit margin that was being made to spend on something different.' Some critics have suggested that the death of shows like Q&A and The Project is down, at least in part, to audiences growing tired of having a so-called 'woke agenda' being pushed onto them. But this theory feels narrow-minded, reeks of political point-scoring and fails to look at the real issues behind their demise. After all, The Project featured Steve Price throughout almost its entire run, who regularly butted heads with the likes of Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris over hot-button issues. ABC has announced that Q&A is coming to an end. Picture: ABC And we can't forget the storming victory Labour had in the elections last month, dragging the Liberal Party over hot coals on their way to a hugely historic victory that demonstrated very clearly that social media echo chambers aren't indicative of the wider Australian culture. While shows like The Project and Q&A have floundered, more straight-news based current affairs shows like Nine's A Current Affair and ABC's Australian Story have continued to succeed within the shifting landscape. Living within a world where we're bombarded with unsolicited opinions across social media on everything from our own lives to those of celebrities, perhaps the fundamental crux is that when viewers tune into a current affairs shows, what they desire more than anything is news presented to them without any form of bias along with it, regardless of the side they personally stand on. As the demise of The Project became clear, some corners of social media blamed it on the show being 'too left-leaning' and desperate to 'push the woke agenda', while others on the polar opposite side tweeted that it was just a mouthpiece 'to push right-wing agendas to a left-wing audience'. It seems clear that this is why these shows are failing, doomed to be just another relic of TV's past. They hark back to a period in our culture when nuance was not only integral to conversation but valued. Waleed Aly is beloved to many for his style of presenting, but is it a style that still works for audiences in 2025? Picture: Channel 10 Some view The Project as 'too woke' despite the show regularly featuring conservatives like Steve Price front and centre. Picture: 10 We live in a world nowadays where everything is so black and white that it's made merely flirting with the grey area nigh impossible. Shows that attempt balance now feel doomed to try and court both sides, only to end up being abandoned by both. 'Both shows had become stale and lost the essence of what they once were,' said Rob McKnight from TV industry website TV Blackbox. 'The Project turned from a light show to a preachy show and Q&A left behind the core of what it stood for.' It seems Network 10 have come to the same realisation, with their announcement of The Project's replacement 10 News+, making very clear that one thing viewers won't get when tuning in is any form of opinion from its presenters. 'At the heart of everything we do is delivering news and current affairs that matter to you,' said the announcement. 'No filler. No opinion. Just the facts.' All that's left to see now is whether that sentiment can resonate with viewers so Channel 10 can finally bag themselves a win. As more and more legacy shows begin to fall into obscurity, all eyes are slowly turning toward morning television, an institution for many around the world, including here in Australia. Once a pioneer of the format with Good Morning Australia, Channel 10 has failed to achieve success in the timeslot since the show ended in 2005. Its follow-up show, Studio 10, was brutally axed at the end of 2023. While its rivals have continued to succeed with shows such as Today and Sunrise still regularly reaching millions every weekday, some critics have suggested that it could be the next timeslot to face struggles. Could Morning Shows be on the copping block next? Mr insisting that Australia's morning shows have 'nothing' to be concerned about, at least for the time being. 'The audiences for Sunrise, TODAY and ABC News Breakfast are very strong and both TODAY and Sunrise generate plenty of revenue,' he said. 'These shows also help the networks have local programming and connect with audiences.' While initially it may seem all doom and gloom for Channel 10 when it comes to its numerous cancellations over the years, from The Project to their failed attempts at The Traitors and bringing back Gladiators where other broadcasters like the BBC succeeded, media analyst Steve Allen says that the ailing network appears to have finally hit bottom, and now the only way is a slow climb back up. 'Peak night audience across Seven, Nine, Channel 10 and SBS has actually gone up for the first time in a decade,' he shared. 'Not by much, but that's unheard of in recent times. If it has finally bottomed out, then crucially, it means the dollars that these networks have to spend won't erode any further.' Originally published as 'Preachy': The truth behind The Project and Q&A's brutal axings
News.com.au
8 hours ago
- News.com.au
‘Preachy': The truth behind The Project and Q&A's brutal axings
Once hugely influential within Australian culture, The Project and Q&A at their heights were able to make headlines and not only spark but also further conversations within society. Sadly for Channel 10 and ABC, those days are long behind them, and this week, both networks finally decided to put the ageing shows out to pasture. Launched in 2009 as The 7pm Project with co-hosts Carrie Bickmore and comedians Charlie Pickering and Dave Hughes, the panel show won Gold Logies for Bickmore and for co-host Waleed Aly. By the time Covid-19 had the world in its grasps, viewership had begun to crumble, and year-after-year Network 10 was forced to deny that its once ratings behemoth would be coming to an end. When the news finally became official last week, it was hardly a surprise to many. But that doesn't make it any less devastating for the hundreds whose jobs are now in question at Channel 10, as well as those at ABC now that its own long-running current affairs show, Q&A, is also being axed from the airwaves. 'ABC has a fixed budget, it has to go begging to the government if it wants more,' said media analyst Steve Allen, director at Pearman Media Agency. 'It has to run everything on the smell of an oily rag, they're running multiple radio and television networks all off a smaller budget that most commercial networks, apart from maybe 10, don't have to operate off,' he told 'But the common theme here is that programs have to perform,' Mr Allen continued. 'They have to attract an audience; for entirely different reasons if we're talking Channel 10 and ABC. But at their core they have to be popular. It's more than a decade since The Project was at its height of viewership. Seven and Nine, their news shows are ratings behemoths. They're in the top five programmes every night of the week. 'It's incredibly hard for anyone to compete in that hour or hour and a half, whether that's SBS, ABC or Channel 10. And that's the problem The Project faced. Its ratings aren't going up. Since its stellar cast faded away bit by bit they've tried all sorts of personality and host combinations none of which really worked,' he added. As advertising dollars have continued to decrease over the years, forcing free-to-air broadcast networks around the world to tighten their purse strings and shift their entire business models to compete with streaming, Mr Allen explained that it's likely Channel 10 saw The Project's timeslot as an untapped revenue stream. 'It's contracted out to Rove Productions and one has to assume that they were making money out of it. So I would imagine that Network 10 thought if they take it in-house then they can use the profit margin that was being made to spend on something different.' Some critics have suggested that the death of shows like Q&A and The Project is down, at least in part, to audiences growing tired of having a so-called 'woke agenda' being pushed onto them. But this theory feels narrow-minded, reeks of political point-scoring and fails to look at the real issues behind their demise. After all, The Project featured Steve Price throughout almost its entire run, who regularly butted heads with the likes of Waleed Aly and Sarah Harris over hot-button issues. And we can't forget the storming victory Labour had in the elections last month, dragging the Liberal Party over hot coals on their way to a hugely historic victory that demonstrated very clearly that social media echo chambers aren't indicative of the wider Australian culture. While shows like The Project and Q&A have floundered, more straight-news based current affairs shows like Nine's A Current Affair and ABC's Australian Story have continued to succeed within the shifting landscape. Living within a world where we're bombarded with unsolicited opinions across social media on everything from our own lives to those of celebrities, perhaps the fundamental crux is that when viewers tune into a current affairs shows, what they desire more than anything is news presented to them without any form of bias along with it, regardless of the side they personally stand on. As the demise of The Project became clear, some corners of social media blamed it on the show being 'too left-leaning' and desperate to 'push the woke agenda', while others on the polar opposite side tweeted that it was just a mouthpiece 'to push right-wing agendas to a left-wing audience'. It seems clear that this is why these shows are failing, doomed to be just another relic of TV's past. They hark back to a period in our culture when nuance was not only integral to conversation but valued. We live in a world nowadays where everything is so black and white that it's made merely flirting with the grey area nigh impossible. Shows that attempt balance now feel doomed to try and court both sides, only to end up being abandoned by both. 'Both shows had become stale and lost the essence of what they once were,' said TV Blackbox's Rob McKnight. 'The Project turned from a light show to a preachy show and Q&A left behind the core of what it stood for.' It seems Network 10 have come to the same realisation, with their announcement of The Project's replacement 10 News+, making very clear that one thing viewers won't get when tuning in is any form of opinion from its presenters. 'At the heart of everything we do is delivering news and current affairs that matter to you,' said the announcement. 'No filler. No opinion. Just the facts.' All that's left to see now is whether that sentiment can resonate with viewers so Channel 10 can finally bag themselves a win. As more and more legacy shows begin to fall into obscurity, all eyes are slowly turning toward morning television, an institution for many around the world, including here in Australia. Once a pioneer of the format with Good Morning Australia, Channel 10 has failed to achieve success in the timeslot since the show ended in 2005. Its follow-up show, Studio 10, was brutally axed at the end of 2023. While its rivals have continued to succeed with shows such as Today and Sunrise still regularly reaching millions every weekday, some critics have suggested that it could be the next timeslot to face struggles. Mr insisting that Australia's morning shows have 'nothing' to be concerned about, at least for the time being. 'The audiences for Sunrise, TODAY and ABC News Breakfast are very strong and both TODAY and Sunrise generate plenty of revenue,' he said. 'These shows also help the networks have local programming and connect with audiences.' While initially it may seem all doom and gloom for Channel 10 when it comes to its numerous cancellations over the years, from The Project to their failed attempts at The Traitors and bringing back Gladiators where other broadcasters like the BBC succeeded, media analyst Steve Allen says that the ailing network appears to have finally hit bottom, and now the only way is a slow climb back up. 'Peak night audience across Seven, Nine, Channel 10 and SBS has actually gone up for the first time in a decade,' he shared. 'Not by much, but that's unheard of in recent times. If it has finally bottomed out, then crucially, it means the dollars that these networks have to spend won't erode any further.'
The Age
9 hours ago
- The Age
The underrated pleasure of staying on one TV channel all night
I don't know why I've held on to this memory, but when I was about five I was having a low-level bad day – it seemed to involve some angst about a grazed knee – and I was consoling myself with thoughts of watching Doctor Who as soon as I got home. This wasn't some cool, modern Doctor. These were repeats on the ABC of Tom Baker in a chunky knitted scarf. I didn't have the foggiest idea what was going on in most of the plot lines, but I probably would have accepted anything in that after-school timeslot with equanimity. Now, of course, there would be any one of a hundred televisual choices at my fingertips, but I don't know that I would be happier for it. A lot of high-quality television is being made right now, and I've watched a lot of it with gusto. Ted Lasso was tender and joyful. The Last of Us, Succession and Fake were spectacular in very different ways. But having too much choice can be paralysing. There's even a name for it: the paradox of choice. It is possible to scroll for hours on a streaming service without feeling any great conviction about one's eventual choice, precisely because there is always something else one might have chosen. It is low-stakes decision-making, but it can still be exhausting. That's where a free-to-air multichannel steps up. It is the balm on my grazed knee. On a recent weeknight, Nine Go! – one of the network's digital channels – offered a tasty smorgasbord of the same TV treats I watched in my childhood, topped off with a nighttime showing of The Matrix. Heaven. Many of these shows (including those in earlier timeslots, such as Bewitched and The Addams Family) were decades old when I first saw them and looked positively ancient to me at the time. Now they are supremely comforting by virtue of their association with my junior years.
