Musical Indigestion

How do you digest your music?

Speaking completely unscientifically, I think that, of all life’s distractions, everyone listens to music.  Intentionally or unintentionally, we tend to have a preference to type and volume and genre.  I mean, there are plenty of people out there that won’t/don’t use YouTube, and people who claim they don’t watch TV…or go to movies.  But music?  Who out there says that they go out of their way to avoid listening to music?

That said, it’s obvious that we’re not all digesting it the same way.  By my posts, you know that, if given the time, I love music.  Lately, with the kids in the house, we have something playing in the background as an alternative to TV.  And, it’s typically a wide mix.  But, is that good or just more noise to contend with.

In a perfect world, when given the opportunity, I prefer to listen loudly and uninterrupted.  Also, I tend to buy/listen to the whole album regardless of the potential for it to contain some clunkers.  The artist released it this way for a reason…and in this order…so be true and give it a listen that way (Similarly, I don’t bitch about how my food is cooked at nice restaurants: it’s the way chef envisioned it, suck it up and eat it that way, you may be surprised). 

Maybe it’s because I easily get motion sickness, but the headphones/earbuds are my preferred method, especially on the train…especially in the car (when I’m not driving), and especially on the airplane.  The latter you need something that’s noise-cancelling so that you can actually hear what you’re listening to without blasting out your ear drums.  I like the dynamic nuances that are available through the headset that just aren’t there when you’re listening in the car, where volumes are normalized so that you can hear the whole thing despite a significant amount of ambient noise.  I mean, it almost pisses me off on the classic rock stations when Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” ends and the final gong, which is sweetly quiet and repressed, is at the same volume as the rest of the track.  It’s not just playing the notes, but it’s the volume of each piece.  It’s for that same reason that I can’t seriously listen to classical pieces in the car as many of them use dynamics to illustrate a movement or segment of a song to differentiate it from the rest of the piece. 

So, how do you listen to your music?  Are you an active listener (re: need it to be quiet so that you can concentrate) or a passive one?  Do you care about dynamics or need everything car/airplane compatible?  Do you have music only nights so that you can share some tunes instead of everything being video-oriented?  Give yourself a chance to get sucked into an album, the way the artist intended, and you may begin to appreciate the skill necessary to get it to your headphones in the first place.


 (Listen to this and let the ears melt off your head:  

 

Or this, if you think things are going to pot (pun intended):