Listen / Read
Fuck it. I’m bored. I’ll try agreeing with him for once. I think the sheer volume of music consumption and our exponentially increased technological capacity to access it has perhaps changed the way many listeners enjoy music. Perhaps some of us don’t absorb music like we used to, and perhaps that is a shame in some way.
Okay. I’m bored of agreeing with him already. I think our increased music consumption may be a bit like having a large vocabulary. People with access to a lot of words often pause, trying to find the right one. They hesitate because they’re spoilt for choice. This isn’t a bad thing. A good vocabulary helps us communicate with greater nuance. Similarly, access to a large amount of music means we’re a bit spoilt for choice. Surely this simply means we’re more enriched?
But I don’t think I agree with myself entirely there either. A larger vocabulary deepens our ability to communicate. A larger repository of music spreads our attention somewhat thinner, making our appreciation shallower as a result. Isn’t it better to appreciate less music more, than more music less? It does all seem to be driven more by our consumer tendencies than our need for art, and that would seem to defeat the purpose.
As for music being the next best thing to faith, I don’t think I can really argue with that. Faith moves people, whether I think they’re delusional or not, and music moves people too. It moves me. But does that mean that it’s from ‘the beyond’? Sure. After all, we download it all from a cloud through the ether (-net cable).