Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.

Dessen frames music as a rare social “common denominator”: a shared language that can bridge divides of ideology, background, and temperament. Calling it “the great uniter” emphasizes music’s capacity to create temporary communities—at concerts, through fandom, or via a song that becomes personally meaningful—where disagreement recedes and recognition takes over. The quote also suggests music’s power is not merely aesthetic but relational: it produces empathy, synchronizes feeling, and offers a neutral meeting ground when other topics are polarizing. In that sense, music becomes both refuge and connective tissue, a force that can soften boundaries without requiring people to resolve every difference.