Background Sound
Found a nice post tonight on Yelling About Music, talking about the constant presence of music in a world of inexpensive audio and the value of silence to someone who loves music. Harry writes:
The temptation to cocoon yourself in a musical world of your own moulding is very great. But when music becomes a soundtrack to life, when it becomes just a way to fill in the gaps, it’s diminished. I love music. I adore it. I can’t imagine my life without it. In times of sadness it keeps me company, and in times of joy it celebrates with me. But sometimes I need time by myself. I’m not as good at taking that time as I should be. I don’t think anyone is. Even when we’re trying to take time out, chances are we’ve still got a song in our head, or we’re humming to ourself, or tapping out a rhythm on our desk. We program our mobile phones to ring with our favourite tunes. But how much do we actually value music?
Could it be that this ubiquity of music is why I feel little to no remorse for downloading music made by artists I deeply admire and respect? Are we approaching a musical singularity when I can read about an as yet unreleased Mountain Goats record, search the aggregate of a dozen p2p sites in a few keystrokes, and have the album downloaded to my computer in less than half an hour?
Ponder THAT this Pi Day.