Best Ever Albums

Re: Music and Evolution

Norman Bates — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:03:11 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 03/17/2016 21:03

Behrus58 wrote:

I can feel a huge difference between myself and my parallel self who isn't listening to Music!

I can't. I don't remember a time when I wasn't listening to music except when I physically couldn't.

Behrus58 wrote:

But do you think listening to Music is a bad addiction?

I don't.

Behrus58 wrote:

Is it the biggest distraction of our lives which we aren't really aware of?

It is, but 1) I'm aware of it; 2) I welcome this as a blessing. Anything that can make me forget, say, for 2 hours a day at worse, the horror we live in, is heaven sent.

Behrus58 wrote:

or is it just the act of being a human?

I don't know.

Behrus58 wrote:

Can you imagine a month with no Digital Music?

Yes, I used to have 12 of those a year.

Behrus58 wrote:

will you be more focused?

I'm too focused already. The f***ing world I live in wants me to be focused/connected/available 24/7. I claim the right to not be focused, and lazily listen to music while lying on my sofa whenever I can.

Re: Music and Evolution

Anti — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 17:01:56 GMT

Author: Anti

Posted: 03/17/2016 21:01

When I'm at home my addiction is amplified x100, but at school I'd say I'm really responsible about it. I wouldn't say it's socially destructive for me. It's a great conversation starter because I do indulge in the trendy, mainstream singles on the radio and also love more obscure types of music, so I can have a decent conversation with a lot of people. Sadly, there are only, like, 3 people on campus where I can talk about artists like Stars of the Lid, or Have A Nice Life, or Tim Hecker, or Burzum, or whatever. But it's okay because people then identify me as that handsome dude who listens to a lot of music and is good at chemistry.

And a month without music... I mean I've gone a decent amount of time without indulging into an album, but a month without even a few singles would make me lose my sanity.

Re: Music and Evolution

meccalecca — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 16:14:36 GMT

Author: meccalecca

Posted: 03/17/2016 20:14

Satie wrote:

But I get your sort of obscured point here that we might be numbing ourselves to this richness by consuming it as commodity or something else a bit too voraciously and without enough commitment to unpacking its wonder.

To jump off of this point, I think there's certainly a lot to be said about the effects of commodification on the culture of music. I recently interviewed a local traditional New Mexican folk trio. The fiddler has spent some time in some more rural parts of Mexico, and witnessed how music was still a major part of every day life down there. In America, it's far more privatized. And due to recent social shifts, the experience of new music is mostly solitary, where in culture its historically been very social. Musicians still play on the streets and we still go to concerts, but it's no longer out of necessity. We still find music everywhere we look, but it's now tied to products.

Like any addiction, music can be time consuming, socially destructive, etc, but music is also my blood and oxygen, and I find that it's not the listening aspect of music that impedes my productivity but more so the obsessive need to categorize, review, rate, rank, etc. But that's also my mindset, and has done very little disservice to me, especially in comparison to the enormous positive effects music has had upon my life.

Re: Music and Evolution

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 11:32:12 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/17/2016 15:32

Behrus58 wrote:

Music really changed the shape of my brain and the way I act and think. It really has a huge Impact on who we are and what we think.

Yes, totally agree. I think music listening has been the first point of departure for me for the understanding of a lot of ideas in many broad fields. This is more a product of my personal history than a prescription for others, but it has had an indelible impact on me for sure.

Behrus58 wrote:

But do you think listening to Music is a bad addiction? Is it the biggest distraction of our lives which we aren't really aware of? or is it just the act of being a human?

Music affirms and complicates my humanity. Not only do I get a rare chance to step into the abstract ideational and emotive spaces of other people, both from other cultures and different schools of thought within my own culture, but music also can be a very consuming experience that makes me critically reflect on how I critically reflect on the world. It's not more or less of a "distraction" (from what?) than any other human endeavor if you are actively participating in the act of listening to music and not just using it as a way to dull yourself to the flow of time, in my opinion.

Behrus58 wrote:

You have to agree the way People listen to music has changed in the past 100 years a lot. even just in the past 20 years. So many Digitallity has made it easy to listen to music everyday and maybe every hour!

I think it's changed less than you think it has. Yes, the culturally and intellectually diverse recordings we now have were not previously available, but music has animated human action during manual and intellectual labor, leisure in virtually all walks of life, and spiritual activity probably since time immemorial. Music is as vital and pure and universal a human pursuit as myth-making and the construction of shared identities and histories. But I get your sort of obscured point here that we might be numbing ourselves to this richness by consuming it as commodity or something else a bit too voraciously and without enough commitment to unpacking its wonder.

Behrus58 wrote:

Can you imagine a month with no Digital Music? (i mean just the natural music and the sounds of the nature!) and if you could, how do you think it will change you? will you be more focused?

More focused on what? I would probably be distinctly less focused. Without music, I have no way to decompress after a long day, I lose a vital tool for interfacing with the world (of nature and of humanity), and I would probably become quite irritable! I'd also likely start "wasting" a lot more time and "distracting" myself a lot more by passing time with things that I tend to not engage with very critically, like pulp television and YouTube videos.

Music and Evolution

Behrus58 — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 08:21:43 GMT

Author: Behrus58

Posted: 03/17/2016 12:21

Hi BEA users. There's an issue about Music Itself which I liked to open up here and hear your thoughts about:
I'm addicted to listening to Music. I've been listening to Music for ten years, and now I can feel a huge difference between myself and my parallel self who isn't listening to Music! Music really changed the shape of my brain and the way I act and think. It really has a huge Impact on who we are and what we think. But do you think listening to Music is a bad addiction? Is it the biggest distraction of our lives which we aren't really aware of? or is it just the act of being a human?
You have to agree the way People listen to music has changed in the past 100 years a lot. even just in the past 20 years. So many Digitallity has made it easy to listen to music everyday and maybe every hour!
Can you imagine a month with no Digital Music? (i mean just the natural music and the sounds of the nature!) and if you could, how do you think it will change you? will you be more focused?