On LISTENING to Music

by Olivia

Everyone’s favorite “thing to do” is “listen to music” these days.

. . . Really?
Really? . . .

Today I bought new earbuds. I came home, powered up my laptop and found that NPR.com published an article today discussing the difference in how we listen to music today compared to just a few decades ago. It’s an interesting article, but at about the middle of the article they mention that physically, the way we listen to music, has changed.

I always have been, and I think I may always be, perplexed by people who walk around the world with buds stuck in their ears. It annoys me. To be frank, I almost find it disgusting. But that’s getting a little off-topic…

I know I listen to music differently than most people of my generation. I don’t listen to music and read. I don’t listen to music and do homework except for classical music while I’m doing math homework (I prefer Beethoven). And I never, ever listen to music while I’m just walking around in public. Ever. Ever. Ever.

Ever.

It disgusts me that people do this. Take the damn things out of your ears and engage in the world. Be with people. Be with yourself. Have a real, true-to-life experience.

I’m wondering: what kind of music do these people listen to? Is your music that uninteresting and made with such little talent that it’s not worthy of your full attention? I love the music I listen to. That’s why I give it my full attention. That’s why I sit my ass down and listen over and over to appreciate every nuance of the music. The instruments – each of them. The instrument of the singer’s voice. The lyrics. Or all of it at once. Maybe it’s not that the music isn’t actually very captivating, but that these people are really displeased with the world and are using this as a way to “escape”. In response to that, why not, instead of trying to escape, don’t you get *more* involved and try to change things? You’re sure as hell not making things any better by walking around all but completely disconnected from the world. Or are they pretending that this music is the soundtrack to their life and they’re in some movie where the camera is always on them?

I hike a lot and I haven’t yet brought myself to take music with me on a hike. I know a lot of people do this too, but to me it sort of defeats the purpose of most of hiking excursions: being with myself in a natural environment. Not music, myself. Now, I LOVE rolling down the windows of my car if weather permits and turning of the stereo while I’m driving out to the hike and on my way out from the hike. But ON the hike? Neh.

I mostly listen to music in my car. I love listening to music in my car. I regularly take the long-way-home if a good song is playing and I don’t want to miss it. I used to sometimes just get in my car and drive around in areas that I enjoyed so I could listen to music. This is probably the only thing that I do while listening to music, driving.

Other than that, when I listen to music, that is my activity: listening to music.

I remember once while on vacation at my grandparents house, my grandma came into the guest room my sister and I were staying in and asked what we were up to. We told her we were listening to music. Her response: “Wow, I haven’t heard of someone just sitting and listening to music in a LONG time!” I was a little confused. What else would they be doing?

Today? Anything. Reading. Doing dishes. Running. Walking. Talking to a friend. Shopping. Pooping. Watching TV, for christ’s sake! Eating. Playing a game. I’m sure some people listen to music while vacuuming.

How can people listen to music this way? I was bought an iPod when I was a sophomore in high school, now I’m a senior in college, and that iPod is still the only mobile music device I’ve ever owned. Works still, even though everyone said it would die after about 2 years of use. When I was in high school I’d listen to it sometimes on the bus home. I’ve never been able to walk around listening to it, though. In fact, I use it mostly as an easy place to store all my music. I see it as a storage device. I hook it up to my dock at home and it very, very rarely leaves that spot except to be synced (which I also rarely do). I know people who have had 5 iPods. WTF?

I never do this at home, but when I’m on vacation I often lay in the dark bedroom, plug in my iPod and listen to music just laying in bed in the dark.

So this is why I don’t listen to music very often. I love the music I listen to. But I don’t have much time to listen to it, except in my car since I do so much driving. So I listen a lot there. But I *listen* to music (as in really listen, not do other things while also playing music in some way or another) mostly on vacations. Which is still nice.