When music no londer hath charms

[Jay481985]

Taken from The Week Magazine Volume 5 Issue 233 November 11, 2005

Writen by Joe Nickell of Newsday

copied and typed by me because I could not find it online [:@] to copy and paste [A]

"We live in a world with too much music," said Joe Nuckell in Newsday.

Once a sublime pleasure, to be enjoyed at leisurely moments at home or

in concert halls, music is now so all-pervasive that it's becoming

meaningless. Insipid Muzak, of course, has long assailed our eardrums

in shopping malls, tansportation hubs, and waiting rooms. Now such

technological marveks as the Internet, iPod, and satellite radio

deliver everything from the Rolling Stones to John Cage into "every

quiet corner of daily life." A new device, the Aqua FM Snorkel, picks

up radio broadcasts underwater. Evener cell phone rings are being

replaced by pop tunes, classical overtures, and arias. This

undiscriminating aural onslaught, in which "a movement of Mahler is

butted uo against a tune by the Monkees," effectively destroys out

ability to enjoy the distinctive pleasures of each ---just as "creme

brulee makes a lousy side dish to kimchi." The only way to cope is to

tune all that ambient music out. But once you do that, "it's hard to

return to a state of keen-eared receptiveness. Tune out Beethoven's

Fifth once, and it's immediately harder to listen to it attentively the

next time." The great composer Aaron Copland once observed that "music

can only be really alive when there are listerners who are really

alive." The opposite holds true as well. "When listerners are deadened

to music, music dies."

I thought that was a very thought provoking article.

[ironwoods]

As The Dead said; "Too much of everything is just enough!"

I think the guy should just lie in his own bed.

[Jay481985]

I am starting to think less is more. In my dorm room (I'm home right

now on winter break) but I and my roommate have desktops that happen to

have alot of fan noise. I placed mine now actually under the bed and

when my roommate went home for the break before I did cause I had

finals till december 23.... I noticed that wow my room is soo noisy

with those computers on. The lack of it made me study alot better when

there was no music or sound, I mean no white noise. Its amazing what

happens when you just have a quite room to study. I cheerish music but

I also cheerish quite time as much. I just hate everything in the

middle when there is bad music played on poorly made speakers, cars

subs that are too loud, unbalanced boomy computer systems that love

100-200 hertz boom, the fact that neighbors tell me to crank it up when

they stop by, also they automatically reach for the bass boaster until

they find out my iFi are not boomy and scares them. I keep everything

flat or predetermined by using my radio shack spl meter with different

hertz. I like multimedia speakers as they are affordable and ok good

sounding per price. But, just with the iPod and walkman and so I think

we are slowly killing the quality speaker system. Look at Bestbuy or

Circuit City, they sell 5000 dollar TVs and yet the cosumers finds that

the home theater in a box for 500 dollars does justice. Why? maybe

because they never heard quality speakers? My age group only knows

multimedia and the floor standing speakers are just too big and

unappealing. Maybe because of the subwoofer, 15 years ago all they had

were floorstanding to get volume needed for good bass. Its a irony...

and I am hippocritical

[r.cherry]

this person is full of sh!t.

tune out the bad, go home and crank up the klipsch!!!

all is right with the world.

[fini]

"In my dorm room (I'm home right

now on winter break) but I and my roommate have desktops that happen to

have alot of fan noise."

I had the same problem hearing the organ at the last baseball game I attended.

[nicholtl]

The author of that article is a crackhead. Does he really think limiting or supressing music is the answer to what is obviously a personal problem of his?

I personally think it's GREAT people can go from someone like Rachmaninoff to The Rolling Stones to The Raveonettes at the drop of a dime.

It's his own fault he is losing the meaning of music, and that he feels it's being watered down. He probably just doesn't have Klipsch speakers, that's all.

[Jay481985]

The author of that article is a crackhead. Does

he really think limiting or supressing music is the answer to what is

obviously a personal problem of his?

I personally think it's GREAT people can go from someone like

Rachmaninoff to The Rolling Stones to The Raveonettes at the drop of a

dime.

It's his own fault he is losing the meaning of music, and that he feels

it's being watered down. He probably just doesn't have Klipsch

speakers, that's all.

probably but don't you love when a new song is played on the radio and

then after 4 weeks of every other hour of it being played, the song

sorta dies out. I mean you have to have it in moderation, say you were

trapped on a elevator with a looping cd. I mean it would probably drive

me mad if I were trapped there for about a day or two, even if it were

klipsch speakers.

[skonopa]

The author of that article is a crackhead. Does

he really think limiting or supressing music is the answer to what is

obviously a personal problem of his?

I personally think it's GREAT people can go from someone like

Rachmaninoff to The Rolling Stones to The Raveonettes at the drop of a

dime.

It's his own fault he is losing the meaning of music, and that he feels

it's being watered down. He probably just doesn't have Klipsch

speakers, that's all.

probably but don't you love when a new song is played on the radio and

then after 4 weeks of every other hour of it being played, the song

sorta dies out. I mean you have to have it in moderation, say you were

trapped on a elevator with a looping cd. I mean it would probably drive

me mad if I were trapped there for about a day or two, even if it were

klipsch speakers.

I do agree with this point. There were numerous songs that I've actually liked, and tended to want to kinda "adjust" the volume a little bit more to the right, when they came on. One notable example was Three Doors Down's "Kryptonite" song. I loved that song when it first came out, even got the album, but the radio stations played that thing into the ground (and they still play it from time to time, although not as often). It got to the point that I got so sick of hearing that damn song that I don't even bother to get the CD out anymore.

The whole idea of "to much" music does have some merit, in my opinion. I love to hear good music on good systems from time to time, as I am always rotating my collection, and trying to add new whenever possible. It is fun to be able to go back to some of the older stuff again after letting it sit for a couple of months while listening to the stuff I more recently aquired. The real problem I have, as somebody mentioned, is the crappy music, played on crappy systems. I don't want to hear that annoying "boom-boom-boom" bass from the car going through my own neighborhood, while sitting in the comfort of my own home. I don't even like that rap and hip-hop crap anyway, so why should I have it forced on me like that? Same thing with that mariachi/salsa music that my next door neighbor seems to like to crank up every so often. Whenever they do that, I just give'em a little taste of power/prog metal right back. Funny how they get the clue real quick. And, yes, there are times when I just want to sit in silence and read a book/magazine/website/etc. Unfortunatly, that is not always possible due to the preponderance of vehicles with loud fart-pipes/boom-stereos/etc that seem to like to go through my area, thus I have to break out the white-noise CD to use as a noise mask for the times when I don't want to listen to music.

[Jay481985]

ugh white noise??!!! I go crazy over that due to my computer fan... I

would just play songs I don't happen to hold fondly and let myself

concentrate on the thing that is going and let the music be the

background. Do not play songs you love but enjoy the other songs on the

cd. []

BTW I think music is just like fashion, you play it like it then a couple years you play it and now it is called "retro"

[wheelman]

The author of that article is a crackhead. Does he really think limiting or supressing music is the answer to what is obviously a personal problem of his? I personally think it's GREAT people can go from someone like Rachmaninoff to The Rolling Stones to The Raveonettes at the drop of a dime. It's his own fault he is losing the meaning of music, and that he feels it's being watered down. He probably just doesn't have Klipsch speakers, that's all.

I agree, but I think we actually need MORE MUSIC. []

[skonopa]

ugh white noise??!!! I go crazy over that due to my computer fan... I

would just play songs I don't happen to hold fondly and let myself

concentrate on the thing that is going and let the music be the

background. Do not play songs you love but enjoy the other songs on the

cd. []

BTW I think music is just like fashion, you play it like it then a couple years you play it and now it is called "retro"

This white noise is not the same as the annoying shrill sound of PC fans. When setup and just loud enough to mask out outside noise, it just becomes part of the background, like the fridge, the air conditioning/heater, etc running. I found it works quite nicely. I found I often have to put it on at night, otherwise, I got the morons with the loud exhausts, loud car stereos, etc keeping me awake at night, whereas the white-noise just fades into the backgroud. I've tried putting on music such as classical or slow-trance/new-age/electronica to mask out the noise pollution, but I found it also to be distracting at times.

[Jay481985]

is it that bad where you live??? wow I never was that annoyed with the

loud exhausts or stereos... Maybe because I am soo accustomed or maybe

because these kids in my town are not even rich enough to own a car let

alone mod it. Thats for working at McDonalds at 25 !

[Daddy Dee]

IMO, we've got too much TV. Not enough music.

[Jay481985]

tv is riddled with music just the background elevator type most of the time.

[Jay481985]

though there are some memorable ones.

[BobbyT]

The guy is a great fiction writer. If not he should be sacked. I listen to music most of the day at work in an ipod. Upon leaving work I plug said ipod into the Alpine hu in my car for the ride home. Upon arriving at home I fire up the home system and listen all sorts of formats of music on the universal player.

[skonopa]

is it that bad where you live??? wow I never was that annoyed with the

loud exhausts or stereos... Maybe because I am soo accustomed or maybe

because these kids in my town are not even rich enough to own a car let

alone mod it. Thats for working at McDonalds at 25 !

Yes, it does get bad where I live, especially when the weather is warmer and everybody and thier brother is out. I live close to a major interstate (I-95), directly across the street from a shopping mall, and just down the road from a Wally-World. People have an annoying tendancy to cut through my neighborhood just to try to avoid a couple of lights on Rt 3. Usually, it is kids with the aforementioned loud stereos and exhausts. During the summer, I also get the wonderful benefit of listening to those friggan annoyingly loud motorcycles as well. It seems at night those kids like to race thier crotch-rockets there on Rt 3.

Maybe that is also why I love it when it is raining/snowing out, as people tend to stay in, thus none of that racket. They seem to be really starting to crack down on the loud stereos and exhausts (both cars and motorcycles) around here, mainly do to the huge number of complaints from the public.

[Jay481985]

ah i-95 next to a mall that's why cause I don't live next to one. I would go crazy if I did too...

Also it seems in my town that the 40-55 year olds are causing all the

noise with their new harleys (I guess that is their mid life crisis

toy) and they cause a hell of a lot more noise than any muffler. I say

the harleys are worse than the mufflers and stereos. Also the cops look

the other ways cause the cops are like their best friends.....

[ironwoods]

IMO, we've got too much TV. Not enough music.

Right on DD, and those ******* reality shows in particular.

[dtel's wife]

I read this thread when it was first posted. I thought the author of that article was some type of lunatic. I couldn't figure out what the article was doing on this forum. I am still not sure why it's here...and I still think the author is crazy.

I think people who drive cars with the bass booming have some hidden desire to p**s 40-somethings off. However, since we live in a very rural area this is usually not a problem. In our local town the police tend to "look out" for "loud cars".

Music is the common language among all people, how can it be "too much"? Ditto what Daddy Dee wrote and I'll add most of the programming on TV stinks.