It's not a dream anymore, it's worth fighting for.

yelyahwilliams:

thebrowncoat:

I used to listen to each album I bought obsessively. 20, 50, 100+ times…and when I listened, that’s all I would do. No reading, no surfing the web, no blogging or monitoring play counts…I just listened.

Now, I doubt I listen to most albums I buy more than a few times each. Is the music worse or less creative? (debatable, but I think there’s still plenty of great new music out there.) Do I have less time? (probably, but this is more about how I spend the time that I have.) Have shuffle play and access to every album I own all the time ruined my attention span? (Definitely.)

It’s easy to say “so what” and go back to checking my Twitter feed and my Tumblr dashboard, idly flipping through songs on iTunes…but I think I’m losing something. I’m no longer engaging with music the way I used to in the past; forming deep connections with songs and albums that become an integral part of my life. Same goes for literature, art, even tv and movies - there’s so much out there - and I’m constantly acquiring more of it - that I never take the time to truly engage and understand and appreciate and love what I have.

That’s one of my challenges for 2012. Engagement. To stop brushing across things on the surface level and to truly give myself time - and make the effort - to engage deeply and completely with the things I love. And, for that matter, the people I love (because this applies there too - and it’s actually a lot more important.)

It requires being more selective, devoting more time to each album or book or show I choose…but I think, ultimately, it’s going to be so much more rewarding.

So, for the record, the first album of 2012? Let’s Go Eat the Factory - Guided By Voices (yes, I’m aware of the irony of “engaging completely” with a band that makes songs that sound like they were thrown together in the garage in 5 minutes - but you can and should do it - listen to Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes.) The first book? I just bought it - it’s called Reality Hunger by David Shields.

Been thinking about this, myself.

When I got my first mp3 player and really really got into music, I would play some albums and songs literally thousands of times, and never get sick of them. I remember buying RIOT! on CD, then getting so into Paramore, I downloaded All We Know Is Falling, and those two albums were my soundtrack for pretty much an entire year of my life (RIOT! is still one of my all-time favourite albums).

Nowadays, it’s true, I have a much shorter attention span when it comes to music: I used to hear a track on a TV show (yes, mostly The Hills) or see it on a blog, have a search for it with the intention of checking out the artist, and then get completely obsessed…but now, before even noting down the lyrics to Google or the artist/track name I’ve most probably almost immediately forgotten about it. Now, I’d have to be pretty much almost immediately blown away by an album for it to warrant a replay - which can sometimes mean I let a gem of a record slip through my fingers, just because I maybe wasn’t in the right frame of mind to listen to it.

I’m starting to see the error of my ways, though. Recently I’ve been rediscovering some golden oldies - old tracks on my iPod that maybe I downloaded accidentally, CDs that I was given by friends but never bothered to listen to, album tracks I skipped over when playing a CD through - and actually taking the time to listen to them. I’ve found some amazing tracks hidden in the depths of my iTunes library - old Dallas Green, some retro Alexisonfire…

Being in my last year of undergrad, I’m finding myself with rapidly decreasing amounts of time to take to give a CD the attention it deserves. I bought Bad Habits a few months ago (Picture Perfect was again another CD that I discovered really late because I never had time to appreciate the one song of theirs I had previously), and I just purchased Symphony Soldier last weekend, but I haven’t even been able to upload them to my iPod yet. It doesn’t help that I give myself a music/radio/iPod embargo during essay/exam time to help me concentrate; I end up only being able to spend a few minutes a day with my music, and even then it’s usually to occupy my thoughts rather than to give my attention to the music.

I don’t think I’ll be able to commit to ‘engaging’ myself with music or books (despite the 25 Book Challenge) as much as I would like this year, but once the summer rolls around I’m sure I’ll be glued to my stereo systems, blasting my newest obsessions wherever I go.