We all like to believe we enjoy music
posted by Cee Are | May 14, 2011
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IcerocketD: Enjoying Music: Do We? Are We? Changes, Effects, Theories.
We all like to believe we enjoy music on occasion. If you ask anyone what kinds of music they like, the most frequent answer is "pretty much everything". If you ask why they like music the answers become wildly variable, but the general theme is that they have a response to the music. It makes them "feel" or "move" it allows them to "be transported". If you ask if they listen to music as much as when they were younger, the usual answer is "no, not as much". If you inquire as to why that is, the answer varies: "It doesn't do that much for me anymore / I do not have much time for it anymore / It's not as good as it was before / I am just not that interested anymore / I do not really know".
This decline in the full use and enjoyment of music does not appear to make sense. We are trying to enjoy music more than ever before. The number of artists performing, the number of different and new styles of music have increased. The number of events appears larger as does the number of venues. The availability of recorded music seems to have increased exponentially and the price of a release appears lower and therefore available to more people.
It is only our enjoyment and ability to fully respond to music that is somehow muted, lessened or failing. There could be any number of reasons for this, it could be that we have become desensitized to music because it's always all around us. Music is used in almost everything , from movies and videos, advertisements to elevators, waiting rooms to offices, gymnasiums to shopping centers, from cars to portable file players to city sidewalks, from background to forefront, it is all around us.
So senses abused by constant barrage could be a reason for a loss of enjoyment of music. Except that there are specific instances where music still receives a full response. Here we are referring to acoustical performances, from folk singers to chamber groups, jazz trios and up, to full orchestras, accapella singers and marching bands. If no one and nothing is plugged in, then nothing has been altered or faked or digitized. There are also certain artists and performers who have the skill and confidence to actually perform live and have the clout to insist that their performance Not be squeezed through the cheese grater of the digital domain. These artists all enjoy the full response of the unfettered enjoyment of their audiences.
So it seems it is only some music in some instances that is conveyed in certain forms and manners that fails to rouse our responses fully. Could it be the changes in music itself, the styles, the content, the context, are at fault? No, because if you download a great old classic song that you love, that you are not tired of, that first came out when viynl records were the standard format (e.g. - a Beatles song) and listen to it, you will not have the same full response to it that you would from listening to either the original record or a live acoustic performance of the song. You may think you are responding, you may even think you feel something, yet it will be somehow evanescent, fleeting, fading too quickly after the song is over, not as fully felt in your heart. Why then?
It is because most of what you hear is no longer actually MUSIC. Usually it is a form of digital noise known as a Computer Music File and you've been fooled - and that is a large part of why you do not feel good. Should you doubt this, look to the studies done in Sweden that corelate the sharp rise in road rage incidents with the replacement of tape players in cars with CD and mp3 players. If you are playing music for enjoyment while driving and yet not getting the full amount of enjoyment and do not know why, you will be much more easily irritated with even the slightest additional stress, prone to over react.
PEACE ! ©02010 ©02011 Cee Are & CkaS
Note this is a section from an earlier post "Regaining Your Rights"
Comments
Of course the immediacy and
— May 14, 2011
Of course the immediacy and power of live performance is different from the engagement one has with recorded music. Still, there is much to be recommended by music generally when, as you point out, it moves the senses, the body, the mind, the spirit.
I don't know that people listen to music less than in their past. I listen to music all the time. When it is not in my environment, I listen to it in memory or mental play. If people do listen less, dance less, feel moved in that kind of spirit/body ecstasy less, I think that would be more about the culture they have become habituated to.
i agree it seems we have
— May 16, 2011
i agree it seems we have been desensitized to music, and i feel like it might be the result of people listening to music even more than ever. in fact i have noticed the phenomenon of music addiction. if i'm in the car with certain people, i notcie they can't be comfortable unless they have something playing. on the subway or bus, how many people don't have headphones on? it's for this reason i often go days without listening to anything but the tunes in my head.
in opposition to some of the problems that you raised with digital music, i think one can move past them with live music in an intimate setting where the audience and performers create the space together. where there isnt even a stage, or perhaps a minimal one. i am also inclined towards at least partial acoustic performances.
Thanks -
— May 18, 2011
-for reading ! I really wish it were that we are desensitized to music or that lessened enjoyment were a cultural artifact. The sad fact is that much of our culture has been downgraded to digital copies of previously real and valuable things and almost no one has looked at whether this of actual benefit or not.
" A rising tide - drowns those without boats " - Cee Are
"The object under your feet is always the dance floor " - Cee Are
Look up -
— May 26, 2011
"Road Rage"
The studies were done back in the eighties, I'm sorry I've forgotten what Journal they were published in. I remeber the authors were sued by the Sony/ Phillips keiretsu.
" A rising tide - drowns those without boats " - Cee Are
"The object under your feet is always the dance floor " - Cee Are
People listen less to music
— May 29, 2011
People listen less to music as they get older because they are less involved in new music and social scenes which is where you are normally introduced to it.
Older people often tend to listen to the music they liked when they were younger but there's only so many times you can listen to the same albums.
Also I would say when you're mind is closed to new music, eg digital music (which people can put just as much soul into as the beatles did) then losing interest is inevitable, as you are ignoring what music does amazingly well, which is describing the spirit of the times.
I love dipping into music from the past and enjoying their vibes, but there is nothing like listening to music which captures the spirit and feel of the present.
