2010 Looking Ahead And Slowing Down
posted in: Features
Calculating my travel expenses for tax preparation, while rummaging through mounds of receipts from the countless days on the road, I find myself lost in the sonic memory of 2009. Listening to fresh mixes in mid-sized white rental cars, clothes drenched in the odors of bar band bacchanalia, tour buses idling outside broken down theaters, green room amenities for dinner, late night recording sessions in instrument strewn dens of iniquity, such is the life of an Editor-at-Large. What makes it easy to keep tacking on the miles is, of course, the music ” hundreds and hundreds of hours of music. But how much of it will live into the next year and beyond?
Joni Mitchell says songs are like tattoos, but is today’s plethora of songs nothing more then a bunch of iron-ons? No decade seemed to have swept by so fast yet be filled with such a wide spectrum of advances that immediately integrated into day to day lives, especially when it came to how we discovered, aggregated and consumed music. With the decentralization of the business, i.e. labels, terrestrial radio, and print publications all on the fast track to irrelevance mixed and the virtual tidal wave of online purveyors it can seem unbelievably daunting to enter the media fracas to find music that fits us.
Yet, we must remember through all the noise, like the haunting violin in Shelly’s Frankenstein, music has the power to soothe the savage beast raging inside us. It should be easy to do now that our entire music collections, which were once proudly displayed in our home, fit into the palm of our hand. This is an amazing technological accomplishment; now we have access to every type of music ” anywhere, anytime.
However, do we really LISTEN to our music today? I am not talking about during a commute, riding the stationary bike or in a favorite watering hole. I am talking about sitting back in your favorite chair, putting on a record or CD, reading the liner notes, checking out the artwork, learning the lyrics, etc. In other words, how much time do we actually spend communing with our music? We take coffee breaks, smoke breaks, workout breaks, happy hour breaks, bathroom breaks, but where is the daily music break?
So, there it is, my New Year’s resolution; an hour of music a day. I know it sounds like a lot when the five minutes in the shower seems like the only free time by today’s clock, but don’t consider it merely a luxury. Music is good for you. It makes you a better person. Our lives are only enhanced with an ongoing soundtrack. So find some music that can stand the test of time and support it by giving it the attention it deserves. Open your ears and press play; it’s a whole new decade and time waits for no one.
-Jay Sweet