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.
(Listen to this and let the ears melt off your head:
Or this, if you think things are going to pot (pun intended):
