Listen to less

[born for banning]

Over the past week, I've been too busy to spend much time listening to music.

The good aspect of this is that it means when I do reach for a CD (or click an mp3 folder), it's something that really inspires. About half of it is metal but it's all metal-like, with that epic spirit of vir. Of the metal, about half has been Graveland.

For the new years, I'm thinking:

(1) I'm going to listen to music more critically and only listen to stuff that's really of quality. I'm not a magpie, and I don't need new shiny objects to keep my attention. Something that's designed to sound like the best of the past, or is a variation on known themes, and doesn't have much of its own character, can suck it. Music really is its content and not its form.

(2) I'm going to listen to less music. It's raining outside now and I've just come in from a walk where I was able to hear rain on leaves, the muted calls of birds, the lonely sound of a train passing on the wind, the odd rhythms of families starting up their lives as filtered through the woods. Bad music just sounds like traffic noise.

If more people did this, I think what we got out of music would increase. One reason people download, or as some call it "steal," music is that most of it doesn't last for more than a week of being a new shiny object. I would rather listen to the best and have the rest be silence, like that at the farthest reaches of the stars.

[TYONS]

Over the past week, I've been too busy to spend much time listening to music.

(2) I'm going to listen to less music. It's raining outside now and I've just come in from a walk where I was able to hear rain on leaves, the muted calls of birds, the lonely sound of a train passing on the wind, the odd rhythms of families starting up their lives as filtered through the woods. Bad music just sounds like traffic noise.

If more people did this, I think what we got out of music would increase. One reason people download, or as some call it "steal," music is that most of it doesn't last for more than a week of being a new shiny object. I would rather listen to the best and have the rest be silence, like that at the farthest reaches of the stars.

That's for sure one of the best things you can do: listen to nature. Hear the sound of the rain if you're in a forest, the leaves being dripped on, the trees moving in the wind. The sound of the mud under your shoes. It's not entertaining, but it is so... natural?
I've never understood people who have to listen to music nearly all the time: on the bus while going to school/work, during breaks, even while they're talking to other persons. You can observe that behaviour especially if you wathc young people.

I also agree that it is enough to listen to the best music, as I've made similar experience. But you have to find out which is the best music, and to me this means listening around. Check some bands which could be rewarding, and then make your choice.

[David_Ravel]

(2) I'm going to listen to less music. It's raining outside now and I've just come in from a walk where I was able to hear rain on leaves, the muted calls of birds, the lonely sound of a train passing on the wind, the odd rhythms of families starting up their lives as filtered through the woods. Bad music just sounds like traffic noise.

What you say is true and must be taken into consideration. You did a great thing of sharing your feelings cause I think more people need to think that way.

Why did I quoted your second point now. What you said is true, BUT, traffic noise IS something that can inspire. Try not to be irratated by it, try to go one with the sound, stop thinking that it's actually a shitload of car. I, myself, am not able, but I suggest you to look at the Sanctuary DVD, about Lisa Gerrard, she talks about those sound, and it's amazing.

[Prospero]

Winter is sacred for me, I take walks and listen to its sound quite often.

[More Celt Than Sassenach]

Why does one need to try to listen to musically critically? Its no wonder why I almost exclusively listen to Bach. I find the older I get the less I am entertained by most music. Its a natural selection of music, if you force yourself to listen to music that you think is important but you don't enjoy the music as other things it defeats the entire purpose of that music.

[Prospero]

I tend to fix on certain artists for a certain period of time. Like, for example, I'm really digging Jacques Offenbach now. Anyone else with that tendency?

[glinda]

I've noticed that tendency in myself. Recently I listened to Industrial music for a week. Then I listened to the Beatles for an entire week. Then I listened to Classical for a week. I think it takes a week at least to analyze a genre or artist, to really get all the little parts that make something so intriguing to listen to at the time. I cycle through my genres and artists(Industrial, Ambient, Metal, Classical). Gives me a break from getting bored and listening like that in spurts does allow for analysis and enjoyment.

[More Celt Than Sassenach]

I go through similar changing in likings. Ive noticed Bach is the only constant that I listen to. Yet I still go through fazes where I will listen to Monstrosity along with him, or Enslaved. Other times its King Crimson and Bach or Rachmaninov and Bach. Both Nietzsche and Schopenhauer said that music is the only form of art to express a will without having a representation. Perhaps since we cannot live a wide variety of wills because of the current state of our society we find we enjoy music that expresses the same or similar will that we wish to expresses at that moment.

[Mithrandir]

One reason people download, or as some call it "steal," music is that most of it doesn't last for more than a week of being a new shiny object. I would rather listen to the best and have the rest be silence, like that at the farthest reaches of the stars.

But to find out what the best is, we would still need to "steal" music in order to sort out the good from the shit.

[DionysianDeath]

A great many people these days feel COMPELLED to constantly have music on.

If you're listening to music simply to avoid silence, you're cheapening the music you love and possibly avoiding reality.

I used to listen to music whenever I would walk somewhere. This is a habit I've broken over the last year, because I realized how much I was missing. To bring music that you're familiar with everywhere is to bring a mobile psychological environment that insulates you from your surroundings.

Listen to music for a reason. Listen to music when it's the right time to listen.

[Dylar]

Only a fool listens to music more than 2-3 times a week.

[Prospero]

If you're listening to music simply to avoid silence, you're cheapening the music you love and possibly avoiding reality.

I go to CEGEP (obligatory quebec sort of college) and I see many people with earplugs all the time. They have them on even when they talk to "friends" and on the cell. First thing you realize is that what they actually are listening to is Soulja Boy! It's a curse!

[antithetikal]

Ah, the Cegep at Quebec... And the inevitably doom to come across those kids. I know what you mean, here in Montreal I see it everyday. I don't see it as a good way to enjoy music. But then again, I guess that's why they listen what they listen, don't you think?

[Thamuz]

Only a fool listens to music more than 2-3 times a week.

Do you mean a "listening session" 2-3 times a week or just an album out of the blue?

I agree with a lot of the thoughts presented here, but I also feel that when you're still developing your taste you need to spend more time sampling and sifting. Once you're more experienced it's natural to cut down.

What do you do when you listen to an album for the first few times? Hearing it only once or twice in a month wouldn't make so much sense to me. It's a good idea once it's sunk in, though.

[shadowmystic]

When I get a new album I like to spend at least one week playing it twice a day, that way I get to know it well and enjoy it fully.  I try to make time to listen to two albums a day, but usually I only manage one.  I think if I listened to any less I'd never get to hear anything new because I would only have time to listen to known classics, which is fine, but I also like to discover new music.  I have only been listening to metal for 2 years so I find that there are still alot of good albums I haven't heard or haven't heard enough to appreciate yet.