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Cibbuano
TyronneMusic still a sanctuary?
May 22nd 2006 03:45
Social Issue
The many faces of the iPod
After Ella's recent article on Music Gecko about the advantages of iPods, I though it appropriate to discuss the the opposite view of that, the flipside if you will. Firstly, let me get it straight to readers that I am big supporter of the iPod - I have now owned two iPods over the past four years, the first being the 2nd generation 30gb iPod and now the 60gb video iPod. They have been the most important piece of my daily arsenal and simply can't imagine life without it. To complement this, I have a 4.1 setup at home I simply adore - essentially I don't go more than a few hours without listening to music of some sort.
However, I recently read an article about the sanctity of music - the idea that music is so widespread and so common these days in its many forms, that it has lost the certain magic that it once had. The article made me think - has music simply become too common that its just not special anymore? Of course this argument can be applied to any form of media - written, movies, tv etc. But with music there is simply that emotive quality that isn't found to the same extent in other forms - sure you can combine the aural with the visual to create an emotive piece but often I've found that, unless its done extroardinarily well, that it detracts from the original musical piece. Thus, music has always been, and always will be, a creature of its own. Nevertheless, has it evolved into something unrecognisable?
That damnable frog
But this effect is even apparent in the more subtle forms. As much as I hate to admit it, I am often so enveloped in music that at times, I simply become sick of it. Not because of the quality of it, but simply because its everywhere - if I'm not listening to my iPod or my speaker setup, its on tv, or the millions of radios around my house. Its unescapable. I'm sure that when Mozart or Beethoven wrote a piece, they often dreamed of it being heard across the world simultaenously, but I am beginning to think that maybe the article was right in saying that there is now no sanctity to music. There are no silences anymore - nothing to which we can compare the experience of listening to music that makes it an experience actually worth having. We, or at least I, have become to so used to music and the constant sound, that the phrase "deafening silence" has actually rung true a few too many times.
This is not an issue in which someone else's views can be pushed onto you. It is likely that even I won't change my music-listening habits drastically, because while those disadvantages become apparent, they are often juxtaposed with the beauty that is good music. In the end, everyone has to make up their own minds on the issue, and remember that this is not about the iPod - that is simply one of the dozens of forms in which music manifests itself - but rather it is about music in general.
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