On my last visit to California I forgot to bring the iTrip with me which meant I couldn't listen to my own playlist while trying to get from place to place. I get anxious couped up in a car sans music. So, I did what I rarely do. I turned on the radio. And here I was. In California. Listening to a song I would have otherwise discovered on a Saturday at my local gym while casually looking at the TV screen.
I get lost a lot when I drive around in California but I don't get as annoyed by the time loss. The experience is almost relaxing as I get to be in the company of my own self, with no one telling me that my music is too loud or too obscure. So I roll the windows down and listen to the unpredicted choices the radio throws at me, free of my playlist control.
And in moments like that I felt I was enjoying music the way I hadn't in a long time. Music came to me as circumstance dictated and that was a novel treat.
Ergo, I found today's NY Times article on music quite gripping. So much about the music business seems to be about the business and not about the art itself and that hurts not only the genuine artists out there but also the genuine lover of music who relies on this art form in incomparable ways.
A favorite paragraph states:
"Perhaps it’s too 20th century to hope that music could stay exempt from multitasking, or that the constant insinuation of marketing into every moment of consciousness would stop when a song begins. But for the moment I’d suggest individual resistance. Put on a song with no commercial attachments. Turn it up. Close your eyes. And listen."
Read it all here.
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