“I think he's really nailed that in the way he's written this song,” Reiner added. Reiner explained that characters in musicals often use song to communicate when their emotions are too strong to be contained in words alone. Smith’s music teacher, Rick Baumer, also recognized the powerful topics and intense feelings the song touches, and said he applauded his student for tackling the issues head-on in his music. “A song like this is so infused with depth and meaning,” Reiner said of ‘Some People Just Die.’ “The whole journey that this character Ty takes in it, I think, is really powerful.” This year there were 12 individual winners, including Smith, and a songwriting duo. Songs are evaluated by regional panels organized by the American Theater Wing, before heading for a final review.
Greg Reiner, director of theater and musical theater for the National Endowment for the Arts, said the competition received more than 150 submissions from 32 states. While some musicals have picture-perfect conclusions of success, Smith wants his work to focus more on the struggle to make a difference. Some of the song’s lyrics capture that sentiment: “Spreading things it gives a message / But what that message is, I’m struggling to really get it / Cause it can’t be that nothing that you say undoes the damage / And it can’t be that a repost is all that you can manage.” “Our version of activism is just to post something, move on. “My generation is so overloaded with just one disaster after the next, where it’s just kind of a blur for them.”Įven though young people have been increasingly seen as “activists” on social platforms, much of the time, Smith said he felt like he doesn’t see much change happening. “This song, and this whole musical in general, is about the youth - or at least people in my generation - not knowing what to do,” he said. Smith isn’t sure if it’ll stick, but for now, it works. The working title for the musical is “The Beauty Of” - a title his mother suggested. The winning song is one part of a much larger project, a full-length musical, that Smith began writing in 2019. After watching another tragic video or reading another article about a terrible incident somewhere in the country, or in the world, Ty thinks there’s only so much one person can do.” On the competition’s website, Smith provides more background: “Normally an optimistic person who preaches about how change is possible, Ty laments that he feels powerless to stop the injustices he sees.
The song and its title were inspired by Smith’s experience and frustrations with social media activism, and the oversaturation of violence experienced by people of color on his social media feeds to the point of desensitization. In the song, a young Black man named Ty sings as he walks to the store late at night, contemplating the powerlessness he feels in the face of injustices he sees on the news and social media.
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