Music’s impact on people is truly incredible. This powerful platform and basic effect can be used to convey messages, such as Logic’s "1-800-273-8255". The title chosen is the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
This song has a focus on suicide prevention. The story tells of a young African American male being bullied and tormented because he identifies as homosexual. The boy ends up marrying a man with the support of his father. At a point in the song he contemplates suicide, holding a gun alone in his room.
This powerful song was performed at the 2017 VMAs, accompanied by several individuals who once in their life had attempted suicide. After his performance, Logic shared an insightful speech about his fight for equality for “every man, woman and child regardless of race, religion, color, creed, and sexual orientation. Period."
The result of the raw performance led to an increase of 50 percent in calls to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, according to the Lifeline’s Director of Communications.
It currently has over 77 million views on YouTube. The use of this highly impactful platform was genius on behalf of Logic, and all those involved with this new hit song.
The media has been employed to tell other stories in an attempt to have a lasting, touching, empowering, and evolving effect on the viewers. Such as Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team,” about a young prostitute, the ABC Family movie “Cyberbully,” and the recent series "Thirteen Reasons Why"
However, in the past year, the topic of suicide has become somewhat less taboo and is not being avoided by mass media.
