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Last October I awaited the arrival of my new university roommate. He arrived toting shoe boxes, piled high. They swayed side-to-side as he walked, and he shuffl
by ekpyrotic 18y ago
Last October I awaited the arrival of my new university roommate. He arrived toting shoe boxes, piled high. They swayed side-to-side as he walked, and he shuffled cautiously to assure they didn't fall. He dumped them of his bed; I guessed they contained books. After he'd brought in his clothes he opened the small boxes: CDs, shiny plastic cases. I counted 560.
I wasn't a musical kid. I brought my first album at 16 - Dido - and had recently, at 18, started listening to Boards of Canada. Why anyone would need so many CDs puzzled me, but, I assure you, he did need them. Music played all day: Kraftwerk, The Human League, Sebastien Tellier, Air Lemon Jelly The Divine Comedy MorcheebaMassiveAttackdarfpunkkidloco...
I loved it. I found my musical niche - electronica - and started listening. The change from music novice to music whore was gradual, as my last.fm attests. But I'm now listening to music 10 hours a day, often falling asleep with it playing. Like a rollercoaster, there's the gradual grind up one side of a large drop, then the clicking stops, and everybody holds their breath, and you fall. Headfirst. You can't escape gravity.
I wish it hadn't happened. It's hard to think with music gushing into your ears, it's a constant nag on clear thought, so you turn it off. But that's worse. There's something missing. It's like the feeling having forgotten something, you pat yourself down, you look around, everything seems fine, but something's amiss.
It's playing with my head. Seriously.
- sep332 18y agoWhat I've found helps with concentration is to listen to a piece I'm really familiar with, or at least something with a simple, predictable melody. It uses a lot less of my attention that way.
- jacoblyles 18y agoModern popular music is ear-candy, all calories and no nutrients. It requires little effort for the listener to enjoy. In exchange it provides constant small doses of pleasure, heavily optimized to be as addictive as possible. In that respect, it is much like the internet, TV, or smoking. It is one of the many shiny, bright, loud, or tasty super-stimuli that we savanna apes must struggle with in the modern world.
- bouncingsoul 18y agoAren't you describing pop music in general? I don't see how what you said only applies to "modern" pop.
- davidmathers 18y agoAren't you describing pop music in general? Yeah, to me "all calories and no nutrients" is pretty much the definition of pop music. Ear candy.
- jacoblyles 18y agoSure. But I do think it is more heavily produced and optimized to be catchy than ever before. There is a quantitative, though not qualitative, difference.
- bdr 18y agoAll else being equal, requiring less effort is a good thing. Artists who optimize on that variable are better than those who don't. Sure, you can trade it for depth (which is why good art often takes effort) but it is backwards to therefore disparage work that is easier to understand. Nabokov is a great writer who, unlike Joyce, was able to make his work relatively accessible. A first reading will be very rewarding. Nevertheless, repeated readings bring out more depth and continue to be rewarding. I think this is a skill to be admired.
- kbhangui 18y agoWow, I'm sitting here trying to study for finals and couldn't agree more. Ever since I started university, I've started listening to a ton of music, as you described, even fall asleep to it. Lately, I've been listening to more electronica in addition to my unhealthy addiction to 1980's music. When I try to do homework, I attempt to turn it off since the words in music are too distracting when doing physics or maths. Problem is, the silence is even worse...