My Official Week of Music (OWoM TM not pending) has officially drawn to a close. From Monday till Friday I’ve posted almost exclusively about music, with posts about music videos, songs, and three full-length album reviews. To say its been exhausting would be accurate, however an exhaustion that I have fully enjoyed.
I rather enjoyed this arbitrary assignment I enforced on myself. It gave me direction and purpose, allowing me to not worry about what I would write about and just focus on the music – not that I don’t usually do that anyways. However, by knowing that I would need to write a review I listened to the albums much more critically. I left the role of passive listener and stepped into the role of critic with much more frequency.
It was an interesting shift in approach, one that I tend to only perform after listening to an album frequently. Rather, I was approaching these albums – on my first listen-through – with an already critical ear which emphasized different parts of the music that normally I would have ignored. And that’s the reason I generally first approach music passively: I fear I will not enjoy it as much as I could. I fear a type of ‘critic’s curse’ that prevents enjoyment of artwork when approached critically. However by listening to the albums critically I felt myself delve into its sound-scape with greater ease and pace, giving me many more thoughts that I was then able to share with you.
The only downside of this method is the amount of attention and energy it consumes. A leisure activity becomes laborious, sapping one’s energy and tiring them out. The result is welcome, however the time spent consuming the music didn’t allow for its enjoyment. And really that’s why I listen to music: to enjoy it. I’m ready to become a passive listener again; it’s going to be a real joy.
