It’s funny how if you walked up to any person and said, “You don’t listen to music much, if at all,” you would probably be right most of the time.  Yeah, you’d get a response of, “Of course, I listen to music!  I hear it every day!”  What that person would not realize is the difference between listening and hearing.

We involuntarily hear music every day.  Sometimes someone else is playing it or it’s pumped in as background, usually it’s in an advertisement.  If you’re like me, you  occasionally resent being force fed it but most of the time we tune it out and very little reaches our attention.  Most people, hear it in their cars or as background for doing chores or other things (conversation, etc.).  These are examples of hearing.

Listening, on the other hand is more active.  You are setting aside the time for just you and the music.  It can be considered a form of meditation.  It is not the same, however, as the image of someone in full lotus on a yoga pad with New Age music in the background.  In that case the music is just there to drown out the background and set a calming mood.  But I would wager that, in that instance, that person is not concentrating on the music.

When I was twelve I started this practice where I would listen to an entire album (from end to end) on headphones each day.  For that forty or so minutes that album was my world.  If it was a particularly good album, I felt like I had just completed a journey.  This was no virtual reality or video game.  This journey was one that the music myself took metaphysically (or spiritually, if you like).

I was able to appreciate albums like The Beatles’ Double White, Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti, and Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland in a very different light.  I was even able to get a deeper appreciation of Bob Dylan.  I’m not very big into Rap but a friend of mine highly suggested Earl Sweatshirt’s I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside and I had completely different reaction than I would have had just listening to it in the background.

Once there was guy who was interviewing Edward Ka’spel of The Legendary Pink Dots.  In the interview, Edward expressed his dislike of people listening to music for background.  The interviewers response was along the lines of  “Well, I have to I’m a reviewer.  I listen to the album while cleaning the house, etc.”  To me that’s a lame excuse.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with listening to music in the background.  Background music sets the mood, inflames temperament and is a good intro to music one has never heard before.  It is, however, still surface.  In this guy’s case, if he’s just listening to an album once in the background and nothing more then he is not going to do the album justice in his review.

Careful listening can feel cleansing.  Even if you are listening in your bed under the blankets and you fall asleep, the music washes over you.  It’s still a deeper experience.  I believe it is a better experience to listen to music drifting in and out of consciousness than to be fully awake drifting in and out of awareness.

Maybe there should be a National Headphone Day . . . .