Dave Carroll debuted his coronavirus-reflective song

Canadian singer-songwriter Dave Carroll debuted his coronavirus-reflective song‘When the World Stops Ending’ at this week’s OurCrowd online innovation conference

By BARRY DAVIS
DAVE CARROLL: In this song I propose we love each other more and appreciate each other better than before. (photo credit: PAUL DARROW)
DAVE CARROLL: In this song I propose we love each other more and appreciate each other better than before.
(photo credit: PAUL DARROW)
While it is said that music hath charms to soothe the savage breast, by the same token, does it also possess the clout to bring a multi-million dollar corporation to its knees?
That, in an indirect fashion, was one of the topics broached at this week’s online OurCrowd Pandemic Innovation Conference. The virtual gathering’s principal declared purview looked at a wide range of themes, including “the challenges and opportunities created by the pandemic crisis, spotlighting breakthrough technologies addressing everything from prevention and cure to social distancing and food supply.”
Between all the dialogue, discussion and pleasantries, there was some poignant musical entertainment provided by acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter Dave Carroll, who performed the world debut of his coronavirus-reflective song “When the World Stops Ending.”
IN ADDITION TO his celebrated musical exploits, Carroll is a sought-after keynote speaker, author and social media innovator and mover and shaker, due to an international incident that took place a year or so after the release of his first album, Perfect Blue, in 2008. It wasn’t exactly a smash hit, and it is fair to say that most of the world, indeed most of Canada, probably had no idea who he was. But all that changed, almost in instant, when what initially appeared to be a disastrous occurrence eventually paid handsome dividends.
While traveling, Carroll suffered one of the most dreaded experiences any musician could have when his guitar was smashed by a United Airlines baggage handler. The distraught musician then spent around nine months bashing his head against a seemingly insurmountable corporate wall, trying to gain some recompense for the loss of his beloved $3,500 Taylor six-stringer. But all he got for his pains was a right royal runaround.
But, as Carroll might put it, when the going gets tough, the tough get playing music to the world. Wearying of the constant to-ing and fro-ing, and being palmed off by one faceless United Airlines employee or another, he turned inward and looked, at the very least, to offload some of his frustration through his craft.
He put pen to paper – or probably fingers to computer keyboard – and came up with an appealing ditty, liberally laced with humor, with the uncompromising title of “United Breaks Guitars” (UBG). One pertinent line reads: “So began a yearlong saga, of pass the buck, ‘Don’t ask me,’ and ‘I’m sorry, sir, your claim can go nowhere.’” He scored it, recorded it and put it out for the world to hear, on YouTube.
This was a classic David and Goliath scenario, with Carroll’s slingshot a digital platform that was far less popular, much more limited, and accessed by far fewer people than today. The singer-songwriter says he could not possibly have foreseen the response he was about to trigger, particularly with the meager financial means and business acumen at his disposal.
“I had no idea and no one else could have, I think. My budget was $150. I had no marketing plan and simply sent the video to 400 friends on Facebook and maybe 300 email addresses in Outlook Express.”
The feedback was nothing less than seismic, on a global and person-professional level. At the time he said he hoped the video would accumulate a million views within a year. In fact, 150,000 people saw it within 24 hours of its release on July 6, 2009. Three days later that had risen to half a million, escalating to five million by mid-August 2009.
“Today it has 20 million views and resulted in a speaking career that has taking me to 34 countries,” Carroll notes.
It was nothing short of a life changer for the Canadian, and resonated robustly with disgruntled customers across the board.
“I was shocked and humbled,” Carroll says. “I received a torrent of email and messaging from consumers around the world thanking me for standing up for them.”
It also woke Carroll up to the power of the virtual medium, and to the need for a consummate and considered strategy. “It made me aware that it was much bigger than just being about me and a broken guitar. I think that awareness guided my decisions in how to handle it, and to be fair and balanced in my view going forward.”
Industry awards followed the YouTube release, and it is said the video protest sparked a – albeit temporary – free fall in the United Airlines share value.
The song continued to set off ripples across the globe, in all sorts of areas. In January 2012, Carroll and “United Breaks Guitars” were featured in the CBC/CNBC documentary Customer (Dis)Service, and in May 2012 Carroll published a book, United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media. In January 2013, the success of Carroll’s online protest was used by the German television and news service Tagesschau to exemplify a new kind of threat facing corporations in the Internet age, and in June 2013 the NBC TV Today program’s panel discussed “how to properly complain and get what you want” and used a Carroll video as an example of a good way to complain while remaining “respectful” and “not yelling.”
Carroll says he is both amazed and delighted at the fallout. “The fact that the video had such an impact on business made it a global story in boardrooms across the world. One customer, with nothing but a story, could now affect the profitability of global giants who had been able, until then, to control the narrative in most cases with a large advertising budget. So the video was the pioneer, not so much Dave Carroll, and I’ve been told that UBG has helped fuel the need for a multi-billion dollar social media monitoring industry.”
He says he has learned a lot from his guitar loss episode as a person, and that continues to inform his artistic journey. “UBG has been the most transformative experience of my life because it has created ripples in so many directions. The takeaway for me is to always enjoy the process and write from the heart, rather than for what you think people want you to say. Not everything will result in financial success, but you’ll be happier with the result for years if you write from the heart.”
WITH “WHEN the World Stops Ending” Carroll tries to convey a universal, sober and positive message. “The song acknowledges that when we emerge from any challenging times, there are things beyond our control, but there are also choices we can make. Our perspective on a problem affects where we arrive in terms of a solution. In this song I propose we love each other more and appreciate each other better than before. If we focus more on what matters most to us, we will be happier and the world will be better off.”
Carroll says he retains a sunny view of the future, notwithstanding all the ecological challenges, the pandemic, and the proliferation of populist politics. “I have attempted to create a unifying theory called Compassionate Design, which could be applied to personal and professional life. It simply says three things: We need to love and respect ourselves first; we need to look [at] and appreciate the individual in everyone we meet; and we need to look to see ourselves in everyone we encounter. If we can do those three things, then I’m optimistic about the future.”
That seems to tick all the right societal, interpersonal relations boxes, and takes a subtle swipe at the dangers of a Facebook likes mindset, which can lead to the distorted perception that the entire world thinks the way we do.
“If we circle the wagons around only the people and ideas we identify with at the exclusion of others, I’m not so hopeful,” says Carroll. “That’s why I make this music. I want a better world for my kids and yours.”


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