Perhaps nothing illustrates how much our complaining psychology is on automatic pilot, how unproductive and ineffective we have become, than the global phenomenon of complaints choirs.
The Birth of Complaints Choirs
Complaints choirs began in Birmingham, England in 2005 when Finnish couple, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, held their first complaint concert with local musician Mike Hurley. Youtube pretty much did the rest. The idea took off and complaints choirs began springing up all over the world. The common element of all complaints choirs is local people expressing their gripes, annoyances and frustrations in song. Glee Club, it's not.
Even the Middle East has complaints choirs. Members of the Jerusalem complaints choir live in one of the most volatile and tense regions in the world. I was curious as to whether their lyrics would convey their sentiments about religion, wars, or chronically stalled peace efforts? They did not. After singing about how "My fork is crooked" male members of the choir harmonized, "I have no money. I have no girlfriend." I doubt they realized the two might be connected.
Complaints Choirs and Complaining Psychology
The members of the Jerusalem complaints choir are wonderful harmonizers but terrible complainers. Their choir could have been a wonderful platform for creating change about things that mattered. But it is not. Why? Because when it comes to our complaints, we are stuck on automatic pilot. Our perception of complaints and their functions is that they are pure exercises in venting, behaviors that lack any specific purpose or goal. The fact that complaints could be functional tools to attain results and change doesn't even cross our minds.
It wasn't always this way. Our complaints used to have teeth. They used to be transactional communications that communicated dissatisfactions and demanded resolutions. But what about choirs in other areas of the world, have their complaints been completely defanged as well?
What Complaints Choirs Complain About
One thing the complaints choirs have going for them is they provide interesting travelogues about world cities. For example, listening to the Helsinki choir would alert us that "the tram smells of pee." However, judging by the refrain, the Helsinki choir members' most pressing concern is, "I don't get laid enough". Perhaps they shouldn't take the tram to dates.
Continuing the public transportation oeuvre, the Chicago choir is upset that, "Buses bunch up worse than granny panties." An important piece of tourist information, albeit one conveyed with a visual most of us could have done without. Chicago choir members are apparently just as sexually frustrated as their Helsinki brethren. However, since their choir includes children, watching a nine-year-old boy happily singing, "I can't stop thinking about sex," does not make for comfortable viewing.
I was even less comfortable watching the 8th grade girls' choir in Casper Wyoming sing how "pointless perverted boys...treat us like we're their toys!" as their middle-aged male music teacher banged out accompaniment on the piano. Their follow up line, "here come the cramps again!" was no winner either.
How Unhealthy is Our Complaining Psychology?
It takes only a few minutes of watching complaints choirs at work to realize that a significant investment of time and resources goes into creating their performances. Original music, choral arrangements, matching outfits and hours of rehearsal are typically involved. And that is exactly the problem. These choirs invest huge amounts of time and energy into complaining yet do so in a manner that guarantees none of their problems will be resolved.
The irony is that singing our complaints and taking constructive action to resolve them are not mutually exclusive activities. If the Helsinki choir stood in front of their city hall and sang to their town government, "You'd better make sure trams don't smell of pee, or you won't get reelected, just wait and see!" their trams might actually get cleaned. All it would take to make their complaint effective is to address it to the right people.
Indeed, our complaining psychology is now so strongly associated with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness and stuck in automatic pilot mode, the thought of making our complaints effective and getting a result does not even cross our minds. Venting, whether to music or not, might make us feel better temporarily but it does nothing to resolve the problems themselves.
In Egypt, the Cairo choir sings the refrain, "Why do people complain and nothing changes?" Just in case the answer is not yet obvious to choir members worldwide, allow me to spell it out:
Singing your complaints won't resolve them, no matter how pretty the harmony. The only way to resolve your problems is to acquire effective complaining skills and use them to complain the right way to the people who can do something about them.
Getting the result you want and having one less complaint in life-that's worth singing about.
Read how discussing the Helsinki Complaints Choir got me in slight trouble here.
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Copyright 2011 Guy Winch
