He's baacck. That's right, Mr. Price has another installment of Music Monday. If you missed the first check it out here! I enjoy listening to music while I am at work. I have about 6500 songs on my external hard drive that I keep on shuffle.
Most of us probably can't imagine not being able to skip to our favorite song on our playlist or CD.
Music albums are rarely listened from beginning to end anymore. And advances in technology have only contributed to our random/shuffle mindset.
Think about this: The first commercially available recorded music was on records. People would put the needle at the beginning of the record and listen to it! There was no shuffle feature. Then tapes came along and they were similar to records in their inability to shuffle. Also skipping to the next track was a pain. Constant rewinding/fast-forwarding. Then of course, the invention of the glorious Compact Disc. Shuffle? Sure! Skip a song I don't care for? Absolutely!
With all the changes in the ways we listen to music, I think something has been lost along the way. Most new music is well-suited and even created for this type of "shuffle" listening. But a lot of quality music is not, especially classic concept albums. I have a lot of respect for people who compose the music that they play, and I want to listen to their art the way they intended.
I just dug out an old classical favorite that reminded about listening to album beginning to end. Liszt's Dante Symphony is an incredible, exciting piece of music. The first movement is 21 minutes long, and as with most classical music, not intended to be background/shuffle music.
I think most POPular music is popular because it is easy to listen to. It requires no mental activity. To me the mark of quality music is it's ability to stimulate my brain.
If you don't have time now, come back later when you aren't busy, sit down, avoid all distractions and listen intently to this. (It's about 50 minutes total.)
(I wish I had a link to the entire symphony, but these will have to do. If you want mp3s, let me know and I can send them to you.)
Inferno (part 1)Inferno (part 2)Inferno (part 3) Purgatorio (part 1)Purgatorio (part 2) Purgatorio (part 3) + Magnificat Here is what Steven Wilson has to say about the iPod/playlist mentality:
It doesn’t take a genius to figure that my albums aren’t meant to be listened to in that way. They are created as musical continuums. I put a lot of thought into the idea that someone will listen to my record from beginning to end and I can take them on a kind of musical journey. So, the idea that somebody might program my music in a play list or they might have their iPod on shuffle and hear a track from Insurgentes after a Coldplay track, and then followed by a Britney Spears track, or whatever it is, again is an ugly idea to me.
While I do enjoy my music on-demand "shuffle", I try to be careful that it doesn't make me numb to the art. I challenge you to do the same!
Read the entire interview here:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/71940-an-eclectic-master-craftsman-an-interview-with-steven-wilson/
