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I see you feeling resolved, ready to throw away all your bags of candy and prepare for months of dreadful starvation ahead. You tremble as you hold the tasty temptations over the garbage can, certain you want to live better but quaking in fear before the necessary change. You almost let go...and this is where I yell “STOP!”

 

That's right, stop! Before you trash the candy, might I suggest you're neglecting another diet that may be just as important?

 

At this time of year it's not uncommon to see a lot of healthy hype. Everyone wants to get back in shape, boost the energy (and the metabolism), and find that perfect diet. Don't get me wrong, I support healthy, whole living, and I think it's great that folks want to be more aware of those things. But it really saddens me when individuals pay attention to their caloric needs, leaving their musical diet lopsided and abused.

We get up, we turn on the radio and blast our ears out first thing in the morning. Then we go to work and rev up the ear buds. During lunch break we need an attitude adjuster so we pump our favorite dance music. At night we're sleepy and lethargic so then we take a pint of mega java and crank up the volume on the boombox before finally hitting the sack. Or perhaps some of us maintain a different listening-diet. Perhaps we tend to turn to the classical station and leave it there all day long, or perhaps some of us only like to listen to the ambient station while we fix dinner, or maybe we don't even bother to listen to anything at all.

 

Continuously invading our lives with noise lends itself to a whole different issue of sound pollution, which I covered in an earlier issue (my apologies for the self-advertisement). But looking at your own or others' musical listening habits, does anything bother you? I can tell you I thought about my own and it bothered me.

 

With so much freedom of choice in our culture it's no surprise that our leisure activities are all very “me-based.”  And in music we tend to only listen to what we like, no? Granted, only a few pig-headed weirdos are going to listen to music they don't like just to say they did. But generally speaking-- even within the “what-we-enjoy” category-- listeners tend to really unbalance their musical diets. Even if you listen to more than one genre, do you ever find yourself saying “Oh, I never listen to country” or “Yeah I listen to all sorts of music, and I listen to it nonstop all day.” This doesn't sound strange, but what if you only read comic books, only watched documentary films, looked at sculpture but never painting, and ate everything but vegetables? Why is it that music gets cheated out of the balance picture?

 

This is where I challenge you on two levels. I don't mean for anyone to take up this challenge strictly, because this is not something that can be formulated. But do consider how you might discover something new in the musical realm, or some fresh listening habits.

 

My first challenge: don't just listen to what you love.

Notice I said “Love” here. This doesn't mean you have to go out and listen to discordant modern music or thrash metal if you despise either of them. But if you take the time to expose yourself to many different genres of music, you may find you enjoy more than you think. Perhaps you are lacking some classic European folksong in your musical diet, or maybe some medieval chant.

Perhaps you have shunned all popular music or concert music out of your tastes. Maybe you have a deficient in jazz servings. In the ever expanding world of technology there is more opportunity now than ever to explore millions of artists and songs. Just because something is labeled “country” doesn't mean it will include some greasy cowboy playing a dingy guitar and singing about beer. Country can include banjo music, fiddling, and even some old school rhythm and blues. Likewise, jazz can include anything from soft, repetitious  listening to demanding, orchestral symphonies. You just have to look.

Don't forget the crossovers either! Maybe Danish folk music isn't your thing, but perhaps electropop is. Many indie groups enjoy mixing and mashing the oddest combinations of genres together - look for something wild!

 

My second challenge is to feed your mind with music as it needs. I am not a fan of using science as the authority on everything--by all means investigate the effects on your own--but there have been studies on the relationship between listening habits and ADD (or similar conditions). I definitely do not consider art merely a manipulative resource, but I do think the effects of our listening habits bears some consideration. For instance, many teachers will advise students to shut off lyric-based music during study because it causes distraction. Fitness instructors encourage an exercise playlist consisting of high-energy, rhythmic music. Obviously music does have an impact on our physical and mental functioning.

And just as athletes need their water and protein before the big performance, perhaps wiser selection and timing of our listening habits could enhance our daily routines as well. So next time you set the alarm, why not try some soothing, yet rigorous jazz music? When you study why not concentrate with some softer instrumental tracks? How about some symphonic metal to amp up your yard chores? And instead of blaring the hit music station before bed, why not help your brain shut down properly with some plainchant or ambient music?

 

Just like cutting out the junk food in your diet, or forcing spinach down your throat, changing your music habits may take some time and retraining. If all this sounds ridiculously radical to you, that's okay. I only encourage you to explore and enjoy music to its fullest extent within the broadest circle of your enjoyment possible. David played what Saul needed - not whatever he felt like - when the king's emotions dipped low. We can all be just as discerning in our musical diets.

 

So, with that in mind, dig the cookie bag out of the trash bin, sit back, and challenge yourself to discover optimum enrichment from the plethora of music available to you!

 

 

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