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beandelphikiI found this on a message board, where some people were discussing music. Someone asked if anyone else was "addicted" to music, and a lot of people said that they were....and that they listen to music all the time while they do other things. Someone said:
I hear this a lot but am very confused by it. I love music. It is very important to me. But I cannot concentrate on anything mental when music is playing. I actually listen to the music. I pay close attention to it. The music tells a story and I have to listen to it. I do not see how it is possible to really listen to any music of substance while reading a book or writing an essay. Maybe my definition of listening to music is different.
I remember 20+ years ago when I met my wife. She told me that she loved to listen to music and I thought YES! So I would go to her place and put on a record, and she would start talking. She did not like to listen to music. She liked to have music playing in the background while we talked. My music lover friends and I used to get together and put on music and sit quietly and LISTEN. Then we would talk about what we heard.
I think many people turn on the radio or stereo when they need to read, study, or work. Most commercial music (basically 99% of everything on the radio) produces a very constant decible of sound. There is no dynamic contrast like you will find in classical or jazz. This static volume (and usually very simple repetitive rhythm) creates a steady background noise that basically drowns out all the little distractions that would otherwise pull them off task.
So maybe when some people say they listen to music, they really mean they like background music when they are working on something.
- Chaz Harris
YES! Exactly. I love that I've finally seen someone articulate this.
I need a certain amount of time listening to music every day, but that is time spent LISTENING to it. Not sitting there just letting it play while I do something else.
It's not that I don't tune it out a lot if I'm listening to a song for the millionth time. At that point, it's not so easy to hear a story - I've heard thousands of different stories from the same song at that point, and they don't come so easily anymore.
But whenever I'm listening to something new, I have to listen to the story it tells.
Songs never really run dry, though. The easiest things will come first, and then sometime later, just when you think that you really know the song, it will tell another story. A sadder one. Or a more hopeful one. But always a subtler one, a wiser one, a story that you didn't hear when you were too busy paying attention to its "electric youth."
...Of course, the songs always have bad timing, and tell me a new story when I'm trying to work on something. 'S why I usually can't have music playing when I'm trying to work. It's too bad, because not listening to music when I want to and trying to work like I wouldn't rather listen to music is like fasting for hours and expecting yourself not to be hungry.
I hear this a lot but am very confused by it. I love music. It is very important to me. But I cannot concentrate on anything mental when music is playing. I actually listen to the music. I pay close attention to it. The music tells a story and I have to listen to it. I do not see how it is possible to really listen to any music of substance while reading a book or writing an essay. Maybe my definition of listening to music is different.
I remember 20+ years ago when I met my wife. She told me that she loved to listen to music and I thought YES! So I would go to her place and put on a record, and she would start talking. She did not like to listen to music. She liked to have music playing in the background while we talked. My music lover friends and I used to get together and put on music and sit quietly and LISTEN. Then we would talk about what we heard.
I think many people turn on the radio or stereo when they need to read, study, or work. Most commercial music (basically 99% of everything on the radio) produces a very constant decible of sound. There is no dynamic contrast like you will find in classical or jazz. This static volume (and usually very simple repetitive rhythm) creates a steady background noise that basically drowns out all the little distractions that would otherwise pull them off task.
So maybe when some people say they listen to music, they really mean they like background music when they are working on something.
- Chaz Harris
YES! Exactly. I love that I've finally seen someone articulate this.
I need a certain amount of time listening to music every day, but that is time spent LISTENING to it. Not sitting there just letting it play while I do something else.
It's not that I don't tune it out a lot if I'm listening to a song for the millionth time. At that point, it's not so easy to hear a story - I've heard thousands of different stories from the same song at that point, and they don't come so easily anymore.
But whenever I'm listening to something new, I have to listen to the story it tells.
Songs never really run dry, though. The easiest things will come first, and then sometime later, just when you think that you really know the song, it will tell another story. A sadder one. Or a more hopeful one. But always a subtler one, a wiser one, a story that you didn't hear when you were too busy paying attention to its "electric youth."
...Of course, the songs always have bad timing, and tell me a new story when I'm trying to work on something. 'S why I usually can't have music playing when I'm trying to work. It's too bad, because not listening to music when I want to and trying to work like I wouldn't rather listen to music is like fasting for hours and expecting yourself not to be hungry.
