Face the Music
The origins of phrases can tell us a lot about ourselves. When longtime reader
asked me to consider writing about face the music, I knew it would be a fun thing to research. I also knew I could blame the idea on Eli if everything went wrong, so here goes!The most obvious candidate for an origin story is that the phrase began in a military tradition. A disgraced soldier would be forced to turn and face the music the band played. In this sense, the soldier faced the inevitable consequences of their actions.
Today, this is how we use the term. We normally mean that there’s a point at which accountability is necessary, and the traditional or proper thing to do is to turn and face those consequences directly and boldly, taking full responsibility for one’s actions.
Facing the music, if you will.
Another commonly cited theory says that the phrase began in the theater. Actors turn and face the orchestra pit, where the music for the show is played. This is also where the audience is, and that includes all that nasty potential criticism and judgement.
Either way, we saw the phrase crop up in the mid-19th century in America, and it has been a part of our language ever since… but there have been plenty of other phrases that mean the same thing.
Bite the bullet is a really good one. It evokes a very clear mental image we can all associate with pain, and with getting something over with. Surgery with no anaesthesia probably meant sawing off a limb, and the age-old practice of chomping down on something like a stick is certainly the ancestor.
Bite the bullet is alliterative, too. It’s more fun to say than “gnaw on a stick while I cut your leg off.” It also does a great job of evoking the idea of danger—where there are bullets, there is conflict.
Take your medicine is another good one. Taking medicine can be pretty nasty and uncomfortable, but the idea is that the pain is temporary and that what you get in return is a better condition.
You also don’t necessarily get better right away when you take medicine, so you might have to go through a lot of discomfort to get some relief.
Pay the piper is one more cousin of face the music. This one hearkens back to a much older time, doesn’t it? If you’re familiar with the old German folklore story of a “piper” who is paid to lead rats away from a town by playing music. When the townspeople refuse to pay the piper, he then hypnotizes and kidnaps all of the town’s children.
They really don’t make fairy tales the way they used to. Fairy tales were absolutely the best at instilling a feeling that there was a need for caution. In the 21st century, we don’t tell as many cautionary tales, too, but the phrases we use every day serve much the same purpose.
Face the music, bite the bullet, take your medicine, and pay the piper are all very short lessons designed to convey wisdom: the idea that there comes a time when discomfort is necessary. What are some other turns of phrase I’ve missed that mean something similar? Are there any phrase origins you’re especially curious about?
Another relative to “face the music”: “Come to Jesus.” It’s probably the variant I use most despite being culturally Jewish.
We just have to come to grips with the fact that, sometimes, there's nothing to do but bite the bullet, take your medicine, pay the piper, look him square in the eye, then face his music.