Back in the day I would really listen to music. I mean really listen. I'd put the headphones on and not do anything but listen to everything from Beethoven to the Beatles to Huey Lewis to Louis Armstrong. Music wasn't just background noise or something to have playing while I washed dishes. I would really pay attention.
I remember in college, when my roommate was out, I would turn out the lights, light a candle and listen to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Or Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. Or Weezer. I would just listen.
As I got older I got even busier. I still listen to music in the car or on the headphones while I wash dishes. But one day last week I realized I haven't really spent time listening to music for its own sake in a long time. With a hectic schedule it was difficult to justify. Reading a book or a magazine is one thing. But stopping down, putting the headphones on, closing your eyes and listening to music...that seemed indulgent.
Stupid is what that was. How could I justify watching television but not justify listening to music? Had my attention span dwindled to that of a squirrel? I realized I was missing out on a lot. And when you relegate music to background noise you start losing your ability to detect nuance. Why do you think our popular culture craves super short songs about meaningless topics with simple hooks? We've trained our attention spans to lose focus after two minutes. We want a simple diet of sugar and candy. We want our entertainment to be easy and effortless. In the process, we are missing out on a lot of good stuff, transcendent stuff.
When Arcade Fire released Reflektor a few months a go there were some critics who complained that some of the seven minute songs were indulgent. Seven minutes! They found some of the songs repetitive. But if you listen to the tracks intently you hear the build up. The song rises slowly until the waves crash. The payoff is extremely gratifying and sometimes transcendent. People addicted to the quick and easy payoffs associated with today's pop music don't have the patience to give the music time to come to resolution.
So this week I've become more intentional to listening to music...even if it's just one song a day. I am making time to find at least one song to plug into and just listen.
