by Brandon Deroche,
Causecast Music Manager
(Guest Post from Causecast, check them
out at Causecast.org. Used with permission.)

Starting with last year’s Bonnaroo Music Festival, I’ve had the opportunity to conduct research with many of today’s top musicians by disguising it as interviews. While some of these conversations were focused on specific cause-related efforts the musicians were involved with, we also asked many of the artists the same questions, such as “Do you feel that music can be used as a vehicle for social change? Who has inspired you to want to be active? What is the biggest struggle as an artist in today’s music industry?” and so on.

The first question we’ve decided to share responses from pertains to the word peace.

Peace has been a common word used amongst changemakers, hippies, anti-war activists, spiritual leaders and world leaders. Peace has a symbol, it’s a simple hand gesture and has also managed to replace the traditional “goodbye” for many. For such a frequently said word, how many people are actually conscious of what it is they’re referring to? If peace is the goal, do we have a common understanding of what it is we’re trying to achieve?

At many of these interviews, I’ve gotten to ask the music community what the word peace means to them. Below are a few of my favorite responses:

Brandon Boyd of Incubus:

Slash:

Jon Foreman of Switchfoot:

Tegan and Sara:

STS 9:

Nneka:

State Radio:

David Crowder:

Mike Einziger of Incubus:

READERS: Let us throw this back at you: What does peace mean to YOU?