Listening to Music
Boy has it already been one month since I blogged? It only feels like it’s been…one month. My b, my b.
Recently, whenever I listen to music in the car, I wonder how other people listen to music. What I mean is, what do people think when they’re listening to music. And I don’t mean that in a scientific way, really, but just a curious, “Hey, what do you think about when listening to some phat beats?”
See, I’m a musician. I’m not particularly great or whatever, but I know how to play some music and I know basic music theory. So when I listen to music that I really like, I try to figure out what exactly the musicians are doing. I try to dissect parts of the song or the whole song, to get an idea of how it was made and why it sounds so freaking awesome. This is probably due half to my generally curious nature and desire to understand everything, and due half to my desire to write amazing music1 and be really cool. I’ve noticed, though, that since being in a band and developing an interest in writing music, I definitely pay more attention to the individual elements of a song.
It’s also possible that I like occupying myself with the finer details of the music to avoid the boredom of driving. I don’t think I really dissect music as much while I’m sitting around on the computer, but maybe that’s because I’m usually doing something else, too.
Oh, I also always sing along really badly when I’m listening to music. When I’m at home, I keep it subdued so as not to subject my entire family to my singing. In the car, when I’m alone, I go all out and get really into it. I’m one of those drivers. Sometimes I’m secretly afraid of there being hidden cameras in the car, because there used to be a reality show that secretly taped bad car singers like me.
I’m sure there are plenty of people who have similar listening habits, but there are probably plenty of other types of listeners, too. That’s what I’m curious about. I wonder how other people interact with the music they like. Does everyone consider what the musicians are doing, what the chord progression is, what the rhythm of the song is, or is that only generally musicians? It doesn’t seem likely, but I don’t know. That’s a weird thing to ask random people. Unless you’re a blogger like me!
So…what do you think about while listening to music?
1It should be noted that it’s mostly a desire, as I barely ever write music. Usually when I want to, I seem to forget everything I know about music, or my brain doesn’t know how to tell my fingers what to do. Mostly my brain is just full of thoughts about songs.
Hello, my name's Josh and I might be a hipster (you decide!). I've been blogging and designing in some form for the past eight or so years and I think I'm starting to get the hang of it (once again, you decide!). I love indie music, coming of age stories, sarcasm, video games, and aesthetics. At the moment I'm working part-time and going to college with hopes of being a web designer. 
