Addiction to Sound

Musing on the emotional turmoil that prompted my last post, I did some reflecting on the whole issue of music as an addiction.

I often say that I am "addicted" to performing; there's a part of me that lives from one solo singing opportunity to the next, and when there isn't one, on my calendar, I feel bereft.

But I am speaking about something different: an addiction to having a soundtrack in one's ears all the time.  As so many questionable social trends began, this began in the sixties.  I mean before that sometimes there was light "elevator music" in places other than elevators, say, waiting rooms at the dentist or restaurants.  And then of course there were restaurants, bars, and clubs, where the point was to hear music, often jazz or swing.

But it seemed that it was in the sixties that suddenly the young needed to be accompanied by a soundtrack wherever they went.  It began with transistor radios.  Suddenly people carried them around, filling every public space with someone else's choice of sound.  Some people were thoughtful enough to use ear buds (or whatever they were called then), but many were not.  Subway rides were painful.  And when the boom box came on the scene, all bets were off.  In certain neighborhoods the streets were full of loud music well into the night. I remember once going to Brighton Beach and having to listen to four different groups of people's different radio stations.

Blessedly, the advent of the Walkman with its head set calmed the waters.

But the question remained: why did all these young people need a soundtrack? It affected how they walked (always sort of bopping to a beat, jiggling their legs if they were sitting, or bobbling their heads), which carried over into occasions when they were not actually listening to sound.  What was wrong with the sounds of "life"? Why were those so threatening?

Most of the time, I don't want to hear music at all.  That might seem odd, as I am a musician, but I think it's because I am a musician that I only want to listen to the music I want to when I want to listen to it, and I find being forced to listen to someone else's music (especially if it has words that are not the words I want in my head at that moment) a lot more painful than listening to dogs barking, babies crying, or hammers and drills in the street.

It seems to be a generational thing: childish boomers again.  Milliennials are always engaged with their devices, but they seem to be as much engaged with images as with sound. I see them watching movies on their phones, blessedly with ear buds or head phones, or they are texting, which at least bespeaks engagement with another person. The don't have a "beat" in their gut making them jerk their bodies or bobble their heads. In fact, it has been several decades since I have had to hear anyone's soundtrack at all, which is what makes the man I referenced in my previous post such a polluter of the social environment.

I recall several earlier occasions when he was playing music that I didn't really find objectionable and he asked me "is this OK?"  I said yes, to try to separate the mildly annoying from the intolerable and choose my battles, but maybe I just wanted to fold my laundry in silence. Silence is meditative and conducive to unexpected insights. Someone else's soundtrack blocks my internal one.

As a musician, I never listen to music unless I am listening to music.  It is not "background".  If I want background to do housework by I will put on a tv news channel.