Post by tory on Oct 5, 2021 9:23:20 GMT
I have not deliberately listened to a piece of music for over two weeks.
Why?
I'm burnt out by it. I have musical "fatigue". This has, I suspect, been brought on by the overwhelming nature of how accessible any piece of music is to me at any time. I have wireless earbuds and a phone with unlimited data, which means that, in a moment, I can pretty much listen to anything I want at any time anywhere.
The downside of this is that I have not really been taken aback by any piece of music for a long, long time. Perhaps some self-induced starving might help me.
In these two weeks so far, I have imagined quite a lot of music. Mostly Thelonius Monk, probably because I was listening to his music a lot before I started this exile and now I hear one or two second bursts of his deliberately discordant piano playing. Those little splashes of music in my mind are vibrant.
Obviously I still hear music everywhere - the radio, adverts etc etc. But I have not chosen a piece for a fortnight and am aiming to try for another two weeks, review the situation and go from there.
I met someone on Sunday, a cultural studies professor, and she talked about how our brains might be like a snow-covered hill. If you imagine a slope with sled tracks down it, it's often the case that we unconsciously follow the same sled-marks on the hill in our minds when we make cultural choices - the same type of records, the same records, the same artists. It is harder for us to go down the blank slope as it were, as it feels like cognitive dissonance to a certain extent. It was an interesting metaphor to consider, so my decision is to try and reset the hill a little bit as it were.
Why?
I'm burnt out by it. I have musical "fatigue". This has, I suspect, been brought on by the overwhelming nature of how accessible any piece of music is to me at any time. I have wireless earbuds and a phone with unlimited data, which means that, in a moment, I can pretty much listen to anything I want at any time anywhere.
The downside of this is that I have not really been taken aback by any piece of music for a long, long time. Perhaps some self-induced starving might help me.
In these two weeks so far, I have imagined quite a lot of music. Mostly Thelonius Monk, probably because I was listening to his music a lot before I started this exile and now I hear one or two second bursts of his deliberately discordant piano playing. Those little splashes of music in my mind are vibrant.
Obviously I still hear music everywhere - the radio, adverts etc etc. But I have not chosen a piece for a fortnight and am aiming to try for another two weeks, review the situation and go from there.
I met someone on Sunday, a cultural studies professor, and she talked about how our brains might be like a snow-covered hill. If you imagine a slope with sled tracks down it, it's often the case that we unconsciously follow the same sled-marks on the hill in our minds when we make cultural choices - the same type of records, the same records, the same artists. It is harder for us to go down the blank slope as it were, as it feels like cognitive dissonance to a certain extent. It was an interesting metaphor to consider, so my decision is to try and reset the hill a little bit as it were.
