Well, being a musician, I love music. I listen to it pretty much every time I have the chance. Hell, I spent pretty much all of middle/high school in the music building at my school, playing music or listening to it. Whenever I do anything with a computer (write papers, use the internet, etc.) I have my headphones on to listen to music.
However, it's not escapism, and it's not mindless background noise. I listen to music both because it's aurally interesting and can be the focus of my thoughts (seriously, just put on a song--any song--and just really, really listen to it) and also because it functions like a soundtrack for my life, something more interesting than the dull roar of a washing machine or the hum of a whirring computer fan.
Pimppeter2 said:
Ergo, I believe that this has become some sort of disgusting habit. Frankly I find it unnatural to have music pumped into your brain every single day for more than 3 hours a day. It?s sickening to have music blasted into your head constantly. It a way of blocking off mental awareness and consciousness. Music is a form of escapism; but it become like a magical get away drug for today?s youth. I find this no healthier than those MMO players that play WoW for 20 hours a day or what not. ?
I disagree with this. Music isn't poison, and it isn't a 'magical drug' that blocks your mind off--music can actually promote thought, and I think that some study or other was done that shows that musicians tend to get better grades than non-musicians, seen also in the success of programs like Baby Mozart (a program which plays music for children to stimulate, not inhibit, mental activity). Besides, comparing music to WoW? I'm sorry, but in my opinion that's a ridiculous and unsupported connection, mostly because WoW players atrophy in front of a computer and music listeners enrich themselves with a wide variety of types of music. Hell, music is educational for all of the math in the rhythms, for the complex interactions between sometimes disparate elements, for providing a new way of looking at the same things (after all, so much of modern music is built from the same instruments)
Pimppeter2 said:
Kids are doing homework while listen to music. Working out while listening to music. Gaming while listening to music. Sleeping to music being blasted in their ears. Doing chores while listening to music. Driving while listening to music. All in a single motherfucking day.
You seem to disregard how many different types of music there are--after all, music is an entire medium which you're blanketing with a single statement. In 'a single motherfucking day', someone could listen to jazz (in its many forms), rock (again, in its many forms), hip hop, funk, classical (from hundreds of years worth of compositions), bluegrass, pop, blues, metal... and that's just a tiny sampling of the music commonly listened to in the western world alone. There isn't a lack of variety in the medium, and one could go an entire lifetime without listening to the same song twice. Besides, people listen to music while they do other things for the same reason that movies and games have soundtracks--it just makes them a lot more interesting.
However, I do think that people shoving headphones in their ears before you're done talking to them is just rude. I don't think that that has anything to do with the music, and instead has more to do with modern society's near total disregard for other people. Next time someone does that, blame their lack of manners rather than their choice of music.
In summary, I think that either you're listening to the wrong music--if you find it sickening--or you just don't like it. If it's the former, I'd be happy to try and help you find something you like. If it's the latter, then that's fine, just don't try to tear it down for the rest of us. Maybe it's just because I'm a musician, but I feel that music can have a strong and positive impact on a person, and I don't believe that it's the great poisonous evil that you seem to claim that it is. I guess that I just don't see why you seem to be raging against music; it's ultimately harmless.
