no music day

[UFO over easy]

I signed up after reading the Guardian article:


...which I still think is true. The "similar thing" I was refering to was actually one of the most intense musical moments of last year for me, so I've experienced the power of abstention. I decided to have a no music day to examine if it would improve my studying skills (it didn't, classical muzak works better than "silence"). Scarily, it was EXACTLY like trying to give up smoking, I felt like a doddering crack-addict at the end of the day

Is being addicted to a good thing a bad thing?

 

[Sick Boy]

I can quit any time I want.

lol... your chest.

 

[petergunn]

Bill Drummond is an all-round class act, and this is a great idea.

i've met him at the Foundry a few times.... suprisenly nice and chill for someone who pushes buttons so well... like his Burn a Million Quid thing, even when you think he's wrong, he somehow engages you into some kind of dialogue (and half the time you end up agreeing with him on some level...)

 

[wonk_vitesse]

i think what the 'old farts' are suggesting is that as music becomes so ubiquitous and it's diversity instantly available we value it less. I'm also suprised by the reaction of those who cry in alarm at not having any music for a day will make them insane and unable to work? what's going on?

It does have some overlap with the 'buy nothing' day too I suppose. If everything is available do people have the same respect for it.

 

[martin]

I thought this sounded a bit naff and pointless, then I read THIS on the 'statements' page of that site

<i>I will be observing No Music Day by: This is the most looney crap I've ever heard. I'm a musician so this is quite farfetched. Music is soulfood, it can change lives. Music saves lives. You could be killing someone by participating in this rediculous charade.
I am observing No Music Day because: FUCK THIS!
Mike
1/11/06</i>

Fuck it, I'm up for it now.
*

 

[Guybrush]

Is being addicted to a good thing a bad thing?

I'm also suprised by the reaction of those who cry in alarm at not having any music for a day will make them insane and unable to work? what's going on?

Well, addictions come with being a human, don't they? I'm deeply suspicious of people who profess to have none, that either means they're over-disciplined (addicted to control!) or lack self-insight, both of which are a nuisance in relationships. For the addictions to be healthy and non-destructive they need to be cultivated though, otherwise they're potentially harmful regardless of their manifestation. So, to answer UFO over easy, yes: Being addicted to a good thing can be a bad thing, it all depends on the circumstances.

wonk_vitesse: Have you tried living without music for a day or two yourself, or are you just assuming you would do fine?

 

[nomadologist]

resist...urge...to talk about....science.....of ..addiction

 

[Poisonous Dart]

What?

Being that I am a hip hopper this is not only an impossibilty for me to go a day without writing about, thinking about or listening to music, but it's something I wouldn't WANT to do. If you can actually go a day without listening to music and separate yourself from it then good for you...don't try to press that shit on other people! That dude can do this academic bullshit with his cronies if he wants to but I wouldn't give it a second thought.

*Leaves thread to play "Doctor's Advocate", "Kingdom Come" and "Hell Hath No Fury"*

One.

 

[gek-opel]

I fully support this, the only problem is that it is extremely difficult to do. I think perhaps a year without music would be better, pehaps even a year without any sound whatsoever? Sheer quanitity, ubiquity, results in just a sickly audio-amniosis.

 

[nomadologist]

Well, addictions come with being a human, don't they? I'm deeply suspicious of people who profess to have none, that either means they're over-disciplined (addicted to control!) or lack self-insight, both of which are a nuisance in relationships. For the addictions to be healthy and non-destructive they need to be cultivated though, otherwise they're potentially harmful regardless of their manifestation. So, to answer UFO over easy, yes: Being addicted to a good thing can be a bad thing, it all depends on the circumstances.

wonk_vitesse: Have you tried living without music for a day or two yourself, or are you just assuming you would do fine?

Being addicted to different things comes with varying degrees of negative consequences. I have been addicted to all manner of things, and believe me, music is not a big deal. At all. With probably fewer than one or two relapses, I'm sure everyone here could ease into doing a few days at a time without music, here and there. I do it pretty often without trying. You are a very lucky person if this is the biggest of your concerns. Even if you have to dose yourself with music like, every hour on the hour, you've still only heard music, and not, say, contracted hep C or had to go back on epilepsy medication for the rest of your life. Right?

Put some quote from Veblen here. Pick your own...

 

[Guybrush]

I fully support this, the only problem is that it is extremely difficult to do. I think perhaps a year without music would be better, pehaps even a year without any sound whatsoever? Sheer quanitity, ubiquity, results in just a sickly audio-amniosis.

It would be cool if doctors could temporarely shut off all sound signals to your brain for a week or so (i.e. COMPLETE silence) and then have it arranged so that you got your hearing back just in time for Friday evening. I bet the music would sound spectacular.

 

[nomadologist]

the only thing that makes me hate music sometimes is cocaine

 

[gek-opel]

Whyso? Cocaine in your own blood stream or the cocaine-addled musicians creating it?

 

[nomadologist]

in my own. pure enough cocaine makes you feel very cold and number in your limbs and face and sometimes my thoughts start pounding against the sounds in my head and it's kind of like everything, maybe especially music made by coked up people, sounds shrill and annoying. at first disco and whatever sounds great, but if you stay coked up for long enough, it's like all your blood vessel vasoconstrict (oops got those two backwards) and it's migraine city. oddly enough, speed/amphetamines have quite the opposite effect. nothing sounds better than hard fast dance music on speed.

 

[nomadologist]

in the miayayoo/ayo

i think that's Poisonous Dart's favorite song

 

[swears]

Maybe it's like how food tastes great when you're really hungry. Like when you're sick for a while and then a ravenous appetite comes back. I'm sick of music at the moment...so maybe that comparison is apt.

 

[gek-opel]

An audio-fast would seem the logical thing to do. If you really care about something, surely it is quality not quantity which is important? Or else it simply becomes padding.

 

[nomadologist]

Hmm yeah. I get to points where I just have to turn off even my favorite stuff. It's cyclic like hunger, I think you're right.

sometime you have to feed the machine, sometimes you should stop. just don't know if i'm going to do it as a holiday with that drummond guy.

 

[gek-opel]

He's making a point about invasive sonic-saturation isn't he? Music here functioning as a metaphor for a totalitarian entertainment age. Its pretty irrelevant whether you get involved or not. (unless there was a nationwide/global day of audio-abstinence). His article talks about essentially methodologies by which he can break out of the numbing impact of overstimulation.

 

[nomadologist]

ahh I see what he's getting at. I guess I am a logical positivist because it seems to me that we have so little control over our environments that it would be better to let science figure that shit out. better living through chemistry. wasn't that some rave docudrama?