Listening To Music

Passive is a state where you would allow others to walk all over you as if you were a doormat, and they say that music can calm the savage beast.  William Congreve wrote that music can, “soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”  Music can make a person passive, allowing them to float on the waves, and dissolve into the infinite sky.  The term background music refers to the various styles of music primarily intended to be passively listened to.  It is not meant to be the main focus of an audience, but rather to supplement that which is meant to be focused upon.  Music that is played at a low volume and is not the main focus of an audience is also referred to as background music.  Muzak is a brand of background music played in retail stores and other public establishments and you might often hear “The Girl From Ipanema” being played while you are in an elevator.

Easy listening which is sometimes known as mood music, is a popular radio format and music genre.  The radio format for the most part includes instrumental versions of popular songs as well as lounge music and orchestral pop.  Softer tracks with vocal content are also sometimes used in accordance to fit with a stations playlist schedule.  It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music which is not extreme making it acceptable or liked by most people, but frequently classified as being boring and predictable.  Mood music is peaceful music that can calm a person so they can relax or get in the mood for romance.  Mood music features a softness and tenderness which allows the listener to experience spiritual solitude.

There is a difference between listening to something and hearing something.  Passive listening allows a person to get more of an impressionistic feel for the music, thus it allows them to pay less attention letting them do other things.  Passive listening is a way of initially sifting through and selecting what you might want to hear to in greater detail.  Music has the ability to elicit strong pleasant feelings and to communicate emotional depth, and even move a person to tears.  There is something liberating about passive listening, as you don’t have to get the whole thing straight to be touched by it.  Your mind can wonder from moment to moment, without trying to understand, and discover what the song is saying.  This creates a freshness, a newness, that resides in the spontaneity of music.

Music is a universal form of communication.  Composers write music and artists or musicians perform music.  Songs are able to communicate some of their deepest emotions and most significant experiences in a way that is simultaneously expressive, creative, and entertaining for the listener.  It is very difficult to define music, but anything which has a pleasant sound can be considered to be music.  Music is a timeless creation, but it usually reflects a certain time when it was created. There are many different types of music and most people have a particular genre that they like to listen to such as Bluegrass, Blues, Classic Rock, Classical, Country, Dance, Disco, Electronica, Folk, Hip Hop, Holiday, Jazz, Latin, Lounge, New Wave, Oldies, Opera, Progressive, Pop, Punk, R&B, Rap, Reggae, Religious, Rock and Roll or Soul.  This list could go on and on if I were to include acid, bebop, doo-wop, funk, grunge, heavy metal, honky-tonk, Motown, ragtime or swing.

Music has a different meaning now for people than it has had in the past, because there are so many choices.  Modern technology has made it easier to hear the music you want, whenever you want it.  Music grabs our emotions instantly in a way that few other art-forms can’t manage to do.  It engages us on all sorts of different levels.  A few bars of a song can take us back decades, to a different time and place.  Music can teach us about the world, tells us stories about other people and places and give us access to new experiences.  The type of music that you choose to listen to can give you a personal identity, and will music offer a direct line into understanding a person’s identity.  Music can often be a way of making a connection with another person.  Hearing the right song can pick your spirits up and make you feel better and it can also be a way to alleviate boredom when you need a diversion because you are not sure of what to do.  There are many reasons why people listen to music, some listen for entertainment and others listen to relax.

Music is our most popular art, one which stirs passion in most of us.  If a note falls in the woods and no one hears it, then there is no music.  Music is an entirely human construction, meant for our pleasure alone.  Hans Christian Andersen said, “Where words fail, music speaks.” Leo Tolstoy said, “Music is the shorthand of emotion.” Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Without music, life would be a mistake.”  The better you understand music, the more you will be able to appreciate it.

Iggy Pop – Real Wild Child (Wild One)

Written for 4/7/18 Linda G. Hill’s ‘Life in progress’ Stream of Consciousness Saturday where the prompt is “passive/aggressive”, where you can use one, or use both, and bonus points are issued if you start your post with one or the other.