Story by Hung Gwan Lau
Music is art, and although people acknowledge it as so, they fail to treat it as such. Imagine someone checking out a museum and instead of taking their time to stop, admire, and appreciate what the different art pieces have to admire, they instead walk down without stopping and interpreting any meaning behind the art. This is the equivalent to what modern listening has become. Individuals often do not stop to appreciate what they are listening to.
The biggest blame for this is streaming. Streaming has existed for almost two decades and has made music more accessible than ever before; users can play almost any song with the press of a button. While this is a great alternative to physical music, it has its downsides.
With the rise of accessibility to music, it has become easier than ever to listen to music. However, when things get easier to use, people tend to pay less attention. Music has been devalued; it has become an amplifier for one’s feelings, or the “vibe.” Often, people use music in the background to help them focus, or make them feel pumped, or to help them calm down. But playing music in the background is not the same as really listening to it. Chances are the people put that playlist or song with a certain tune to help funnel their emotions, but that is not what art is. Art is meant to invoke feelings in people, not the other way around, and when people do, we distance ourselves from the creative vision the artist had in mind.
Listening to an album is the most classic way to indulge in music. Physical music like vinyl or CDs are formatted to be listened to from front to back with no skips, and this is how artists have formatted their music for years. Streaming has indirectly affected this form of music as well. Commonly, people will shuffle through songs on any given album, listen through for the vibe or feeling the song gives, and if it does not match with their vision, they skip. No artist intends for their music to be listened to this way; the artist will put songs in a specific order for a reason, and since music is art, it is the listener’s job to interpret that order.
Although music can be listened to in any way, and in no way is music as background noise inherently bad, it does not mean music should be used in that way. Although many are guilty of putting it in the background, only using music as a vibe enhancer is not how it was made. Music has always been meant as more of an experience, or a journey that one takes upon.
Physical music, like vinyl, or CD are great alternatives to streaming. Since streaming has made music hyper-accessible, the alternative to this is making music inconvenient to listen to. Things that take a hassle make the user more attentive; physical music is an inconvenience to use and has conversely made music more meaningful to listen to. The actions of playing anything physical makes the process much more intimate, and forces listeners to put attention to the work they have done.
Music is an art form, and it deserves to be treated as such. While streaming is arguably one of the best things to come out of the music industry, it is a double edged sword and is hurting the way people listen to music with the convenience it brings.