FORTUNE Battle of the Corporate Bands is a partnership between NAMM (the trade association of the international music products industry), FORTUNE magazine, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The first music competition of its kind, the battle provides amateur, company-sponsored bands with the opportunity to step out of the conference room and celebrate their passion for making music.

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To celebrate 10 years of the Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands, we have asked several past participants to recount their fondest memories of the Battle. These collections of blogs will be posted on a monthly basis leading up to the Corporate Battle finals in October.

John Dodds of Air Products:

“All deep things are song.  It seems somehow the very essence of us.  Song: as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls.”  Wise man that Thomas Carlyle.

From an early age anyone who cares about music in the slightest remembers their first musical influence.  For me it was the vibrant and unique Elvis Presley with “Return to Sender,” and as I left the comfort of my push chair for the heady years of prep school (in England) and through to junior and senior school, there were so many defining moments in my life inextricably linked to eagerly awaited releases of vinyl from bands that have defined the rock music landscape for generations.

We all have album tracks from school and college, dating tracks that have led to wedding tracks, through to kids’ birthdays and graduation tracks.  Musical moments that transport us back in time and emotion. 

A defining period for me was the advent of pirate radio in the UK in the 1960s, and the explosion of pop music that for the first time gained an outlet to be heard and celebrated.  The British Invasion would never have happened without pirate radio, and the fashion and rich nightlife that accompanied the swinging 60s in London drew its inspiration from the music and musicians of the day.

All good things must come to an end, but they don’t with music. It evolves as we do and where the barrier with our parents was traditionally “that loud rock music,” much to the horror of our kids, we actually like their “stuff” and they even have a sneaking regard for some of that Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and the Doors.

But we do have to earn a living and so we go to work for companies to pay for our music, concerts, and sound systems.  Strangely, many companies are slow to recognize the unifying and uplifting power of music for both employees and organizations, not to mention the talent that exists within.  That talent either stays in and creates music behind closed doors, or goes out in the community to rock the Kasbah or sports bar.

Luckily I work for a company that gets it, and that had an out of ‘boogie’ experience 10 years ago.  A chance reading of Fortune by senior executive Joe Kaminski, a gauntlet thrown down to long term employee Sal Nicrone, and an Air Products band was created, nurtured, and shipped out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland for the first Battle of the Corporate Bands in 2001. 

When senior leaders see the value of creative diversity, magical things can happen and have happened for our band the Difference.  They won the first Battle of the Bands   competition and since that time, supported by senior leadership, they have travelled the country playing to communities, customers, employees and even the occasional analyst.  Hundreds of appearances later, and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised for charities, the band remains as tight as ever. There have been some heartaches along the way with two members of the band, Barry Grow and Steve Eck, succumbing to cancer, but their memories live on as do the experiences of 10 years “on the road” for purchasing executive Joe Hilgar, advertising executive Ed McKendry, corporate services executive Sal Nicrone and customer support executive Jim Meyer who make up this great band.

Leading bassist Stanley Clarke has said that be believes that “music is the highest form of communication” and who would argue with that?  Certainly not the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who provide the magnificent backdrop for the competition and who, together with Fortune magazine, provide the mechanism for corporate bands young and not so young to follow their dreams and those of their companies.

So here’s to 10 years of the Battle of the Bands competition, 10 years of the Difference and an eternity of music being our guiding light.  To quote Friedrich Nietzsche, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”