Listening to music: a modern way - Research Paper Example

Listening to music: a modern way There no strange spheres of human life. Everything was created and developed by humankind in order to survive in this world and make life more comfortable. It’s absolutely fair to say so about science and art, and about music in particular. Among variety of reasons of existence and developing, both things seem to have a single main goal in common – they help people to understand the world and themselves better. Therefore, the way people feel about music characterizes their worldview a lot. Technical development has changed the way modern people listen to music pretty much, and comparably to previous generation of music listeners nowadays listening to music is more individual, mobile and almost constant process. How I’ve asked respondents from my generation, how they listen to music nowadays. The most regular answer I’ve heard from my peers was “on my iPod”, or on another kind of music player, which also can be easily connected to a car music system. Many of my friends have also answered they listen to music on computer, or trough pads while chatting with friends or doing some domestic stuff, but usually it’s a mobile phone which they use as a player. They explain, “It’s just easy to have one device with you”. Mobility plays a key role when choosing the modern way of listening to music, and that’s not a new idea for our generation. However I’ve highlighted, that peers were saying the word “my”. It seems very important to have personal device for your music nowadays. There we can upload songs we personally like and form playlists for different kinds of mood and emotional conditions. Of course, we can use devices which we own together with our family, or friends like TVs and tape machines rarely, but to listen to music individually seems very common. Also my peers say they almost never leave home without their headphones in order to listen to a particular music that suits well to their current mood. They also mention they hate people who do not use headphones, because it’s like forcing other people around to listen to your music while probably they don’t want to. But listening to music some decades ago was rarely a personal experience. My elder relatives say they used to record songs on tapes while listening to the radio, and then exchange tapes with friends. Earlier vinyl was widely used. But it cost money and therefore friends used to exchange vinyl too. “During the past decade, the MP3 file has yanked music free from physical formats” (Ganz). If one of my friends wants to share a new song or video clip with me, he/she simple sends me a link on that piece of music on YouTube, or MySpace. And when discussing a new band or a new album it’s more often for my friends to say “I’ll send you a link”, then “I’ll bring you a CD”, or even “Here’s my iPod, let’s listen”. Benefits and Drawbacks When Roger Scruton says the piece of music is an act of communication, he probably means an act of communication between author of the music and people, who listen to that music (352). But people from past generations seem to communicate with each other more often because of music. A vinyl or CD with a new album changed hands and therefore people were more united by the music. But I don’t think that this union is gone. We still keep company with people who like the same kind of music we do. Just there’s more individual about listening to music nowadays. Maybe for modern people it’s the way to understand themselves rather than the way to understand each other. When The most common answer nowadays will probably be “whenever”. “I listen to music when I do everything, basically,” says Alejandro Cercas, an 18-year-old student in New York. "Walking, subway, doing homework…” (Ganz). My peers are the same. And I myself often listen to music whenever I’m eating, walking, studying, even before I’m falling asleep. Or on the contrary, in order to wake myself up at the morning I’m listening to energetic and beat music. It’s easier to think when we are not listening to music. One of my friends says to turn off the music means something serious has happened like her mother came in to yell at her again or something. And also there’s a common joke on a subject. When you meet someone, and before to say “hi” you take off your headphones that means you respect this person very much. And if you even turn the music off to greet him/her, then probably you’re in love with this person. Previous generation used to have an enforced musical off-time. They say that they had fewer possibilities then we have now. For example, my elder relatives say they used to wait until their parents leave and then turn on their favorite radio station loudly. They had less technical options and no players with headphones. Despite that, music was pretty much on-the-air and it depended on TV-channels and radio stations when you can listen to music. Also they say that listening to music was a bigger deal then it’s now. They lived their lives and didn’t necessary provide everything with music. Music used to accompaniment meetings with friends or family holidays, and rarely music was playing just because it can. Benefits and Drawbacks A record store owner Josh Madell says though modern people listen to more music and therefore know more about music, they are less connected to the artist who writes that music (Ganz). I agree completely. We have an opportunity to listen to more music whenever we need. It makes our life more musical and therefore more pleasant and bright. Music has become more democratic and available and now it’s a pleasure which almost everyone can afford. But maybe at the same time music has become less special for us, basically because this availability. "Time does kind of slip away when Im listening to music," Cercas says. "Its like, whoa, what was I listening to two seconds ago?” (Ganz). We consume music more often than actually listen to music consciously. We take music for granted. Where Like the answer on a previous question the most suitable will be to say “wherever”. New technologizes had made music more mobile and now music depends less on time and space. Modern people can listen to music really wherever. “Music can be used in church service, in military marches, in social gatherings and in ceremonies of state. It can enter the drawing room, the concert hall and even the bathroom” (Scruton 357). What’s remarkable, when and where we listen to music at the same time depends more and less on our will nowadays. I’m talking about music playing on food courts and cafés, in small shops and shopping malls. (And also about those guys who don’t use headphones and therefore are so annoying.) So I’ve asked my peers, “And what about listening to background music in public places”. They were pretty much surprised, because they do not consider those background sounds as listening to music. One of my friends has pointed that she can’t remember either there’s music playing in McDonalds, or it’s just so noisy there. Except home-listening experience and individual mobile listening, places where people go in order to listen to music willingly have remained pretty much unchanged. My peers name clubs, music halls and music bars to be those places. Or someone may take a guitar to the party, or something. They say that sometimes they go on concerts of favorite bands, rarely on fests. My elder responds name same places. It’s just music concerts and fests nowadays are more spread, then some decades ago. Benefits and Drawbacks That music nowadays is so widely used means people can share moods and images with each other more easily. Our life becomes more musical and artistic. Therefore we experiences more emotions and tend to decorate all events in our lives with music. It’s a positive change. But to my mind, a negative side of this “wherever” music listening is more concerning. It seems like music is “on service” in modern world and music tend to be a background for more important things. Therefore we have learned to pay less attention on music in our everyday life. However, people tend to separate that music which is “on service” strongly from actually music they want to listen. And despite that there’s enough music in our everyday life, concerts are very popular among modern people. Maybe because we appreciate individuality so much live music performances are very popular too. Why Since music is used more widely nowadays there’s a variety of explanations, why we should listen to music. Scientists have discovered a plenty of advantages music listening process can have. For example, music can help while physical trainings, ease pain and help to eat less. Classical music helps to relax, and soft music helps to recover after the hard work. A particular music can even be used in medicine to help patients to come over surgery stress or mental diseases (Christ). All this can be fair enough, and we see it reasons many people to use music in different ways. Yet the very first reason my peers and my elder respondents listen to music is an emotional support. Other explanations can differ. Elder respondents often say music helps them relax or, on the contrary, to stay focused on work. But mostly it’s all about moods which music conveys. I’ve highlighted a simple explanation that one of my friends gives on a subject. “Why? I don’t know why. Just I wake up in the morning already in a mood and chose a song for this mood”. Also respondents say music helps them to pass through some emotions, mostly through sad ones. And some of my peers say music tends to explain their emotional condition and their individuality to other better, then if they put it in words. Therefore song sharing is so popular. Nothing needs to be explained. Just post a link on your current mood. Benefits and Drawbacks Therefore nothing can be considered as a benefit or drawback in personal reasoning, I’d like simply to stress on some mismatches I’ve seen in those reasons. When my mother was answering on question why her generation was listening to vinyl and exchanging music tapes she said they did so to talk about greater stuff after listening to music. She says her friends used to gather to listen to music, and then they came across something bigger than just a new sound. They discussed modern music and current concerns author was trying to convey, and ways music answered on those concerns. Mother says music was a reason to discuss some current and eternal questions. To learn about the world has always been among the main reasons for people to listen to music (Dean). Like in other forms of arts in music sound and lyric of a song can tell much about the world we live in. Usually a piece of music really is an act of communication. Songs are written by authors for listeners to respond on those concerns which author experiences and therefore tries to convey. And yet none of my respondents, except my mother, says music helps them to understand the world and get a new intellectual experience. And no one listen to music in order to understand an author, but mostly to understand themselves. I think such a self-orientation cannot be considered as something good or something bad either. Just self-orientation attributes well to general individual music listening tendency. Conclusion With the technical evolution ways of listening to music has changed greatly. Modern music listening process has become more personal and more mobile, and also nowadays there’s definitely a bigger amount of music we consume every day. Because of easy access to music a new role for music was established – a second role. Often music serves as a background for other things. Yet it seems the main reasons to listen to music have stayed unchanged. In the same manner as several decades ago today we turn to music for emotional support and in order to make our life more beautiful and bright. Works Cited Dean, J. “The All-Time Top Six Psychological Reasons We Love Music”. PSYBLOG. Retrieved from http://www.spring.org.uk/2011/05/the-all-time-top-six-reasons-we-love-music.php Christ, S. “20 Surprising, Science-Backed Health Benefits of Music”. USA TODAY. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2013/12/17/health-benefits-music/4053401/ Ganz, J. “The Decade in Music: the Way We Listen Now”. NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2009/12/02/121023882/the-decade-in-music-the-way-we-listen-now Scruton, R. “Musical Understanding and Musical Culture”. What is Music?: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Music. Ed. Alperson, P. Penn State Press, 2010. Read More