Music's Anesthesia

Stop all that you are doing right now, and look around you.

Do You, or Are you:
A) Wearing Headphones
B) Have a Stereo nearby, playing.
C) Have a music playing program running on your system (winamp, itunes, wmp, or the like)
D) Listening to the music playing at the coffee shop/internet cafe you are currently occupying. (let me dream that many people read this.)

I'm willing to bet that most of you are doing one of the above (over 70%). And this, really, is what's provoking this entry. Now, before I get starte, let me admit this: I am as guilty as anyone else. I carry an iPod, filled to the brim, with headphones or a radio adapter which could nearly as efficently plug directly into my skull. Though, as much as it would cut midle man, I've seen ghost in the shell enough times to fear having any sort of plug in my body, anywhere. ut thats besides the point. Lets get into it.

Are our own thoughts really so boring? It's gotten to the point where the very idea of walking someplace alone without some kind of audio device pushing lyric into our ears is almost frightening. I can only imagine the corallary between this and iPod sales. As technology allows us to constantly become more dependent upon it, it will take shape in more ways that we view as nessessary. I can only imagine whats next. I mean sure, Sony put walkmans on the market in the 80's, but the clutter of carrying around tapes (and later, cds) kept them limited, to a degree. They were popular, without a doubt, but not to the point of near saturation. I predict that, within five years (a wide margin, I'm willing to go as low as two), Not only will iPods become as common as cell phones (as if they aren't already), but that the two will likely have fused. I've heard talk that the next generation of iPods will feature satillite radio compatibility, so perhaps my two year guess was closer. Considering that mp3 playing cell phones have existed for a couple years now (with a small amount of space, and more problems to boot), the idea hardly seems like a prediction so much as something that I patiently wait for.

But why? Are we so intent upon drowning out everyone else? Are our own thoughts so boring? Or the reverse? Are they so engaging that we wish to be constantly maranading in them? Like some sort of Brain Stew. (ha. ha.) Or, perhaps, do we simply have a constant need to continue assaulting our brains with an endless feed of stimulation? As much as I would like to hope that we're becoming more introspective as a people, I fear it is likely the latter. It was once feared that television would eat our brains if we watched for too long, and we were assaulted with numbers from all sorts of companies and groups with acronyms for names that we watched as absurd amount of tv every day, and were in danger of becoming mindless slugs which lived and died bathed in the cold glow of a tv screeen. I talk to more people these days who watch little to no tv anymore. The reason I'm generally given is the lack of stimulating material, or just a lack of time. (I disagree. I don't watch much tv, but thanks to DVR (or tivo, or whichever you may get) I can almost always find time to relax and catch up on The Office. Or Adult Swim)

In relation to the iPod angle, is television being phased out as our most recent mind filler/killer? (I've some ideas on TV being deregulated and becoming something new soon, but thats an entirely different rant) The majority of music that becomes popular these days is overglossed crap, save some few gems that rise to the surface. Thats all I'll say on that, see my last post for my ideas on what constitutes popular these days. Point is, alot of what most people are piping into their brains is over glossed crap. (to complete the formula) So perhaps soon we'll get those same group with acronyms telling us of ear damage (which they have been forever), and or melting our brains with all this music. I doubt it, but imagine the silliness.

Should I make these into a pod cast? haha.

Incidentally, the thought that spurned this was on a walk home today, without an iPod, in which I thought to myself "How horrible, to have only our own thoughts to keep us company."

One more Blog, down and out.

You know whats funny? When I was in 11th grade, I thought I was hilarious, because I had a sticker on my binder that said "Cheer up, Emo Kid." Boy, was I clever. Poking fun at an unknown thing. There was, to my knowledge, only three people at the time there who even recognized the word as being anything but a typo. Nobody knew who The Promise Ring was. Hell, I didn't even know. Or care. I was happy with my KMFDM and Bauhaus. Of course, there were even less people who listened to them at the time, but hey, who cared?

Five Years later, this is suddenly topical. Theres a deluge, a flood of pop culture, adrift on one syllable. It's like, for as many people that revel in it, theres an equal amount who rebel against it. If it had any meaning, it's gone now. These days, any band thats ever written a song about a breakup is emo, and even some that haven't. It's a buzzword, a derogatory term, and a sinking ship.

Of course, it's no worse than hair metal, nu-metal, alternative, grunge, and every other teenage trend thats ever been so dearly held on to in the hearts and minds of adolescents searching for a place in the world. But why does this one seem so virulent? And so wide-spread?

I blame the internet. Theres no longer such a thing as an "underground" band. Word of mouth isn't just to your close friends, it's posted on a giant wall that anybody can read. I didn't start listening to music in earnest until I was in seventh grade, and now I see ten year olds with iPods. The second someone sees a band thats good forming, they no longer go tell theri friends, but post it all over the internet, and in days, everybody knows.

None of this is new. The world travels so much faster than it did just five years ago. How does this all add up?

as far as music goes, everything is open to everybody now. No longer do you have to make an impression in "the scene" to get people to tell you what to look for in music, it's all there for you. It's all accessable.

Why is "emo" so popular? Because it's so easy. And guess what? The next trend will come even faster, and be more widepread. (*ahem*indiekids)

This is most incoherent rambling, but thats what I was aiming for. go.