Cheap Trick

An activity I have been actively pursuing and enjoying this month is listening to music. Not just listening while doing other things, but attempting to do nothing else and simply let the music overtake you. Sometimes I have done this while walking, preferably in a quiet place, and letting the experience in that moment overtake you entirely. Other times, I have done this at home, alone or otherwise. I will sit and stare, out the window or at the ceiling. I clear my head and merely let my mind wander where it will. Sometimes I will be in bed or lay down for a nap when I do this, music playing softly nearby. I will shut my eyes and let my imagination conjure pictures for me, stirred by emotion or sensation.

Music is an experience, or can be. This doesn't apply to all music or all people equally. What I enjoy may be boring to you or vice versa. Much like my complaint about TV, the problem seems to be music is too easy for us to get and so we don't value it as highly as when it was a rare commodity. Bad music has always been readily available on the radio and in supermarkets and the like for free. I remember buying music on a CD, and actually treasuring it, listening to it dozens of times like it was a prize. Partly, this was youth. But scarcity also increase desire. The less you have, the more you feel attached to what little you get. 

Take my brother, having grown up post internet (he was a baby when Napster was a thing). He's never lived in a world without downloading music. This doesn't mean he doesn't like music or enjoy it. But his relationship with it is different from mine and always will be. The first time he felt the thrill of ownership was when he started a record collection, and actually had to make a decision about what to buy (or more precisely, what not to buy). The ready availability of virtually any music at your fingertips has made it easier to get than ever, but has cheapened the experience for most, who no longer have any idea what to listen to beyond what they already know. How do you know whether you like Nirvana or the Rolling Stones and why bother finding out? Download the whole discography and simply listen to it! Later though, there's like a thousand songs there.