My music boner.
So, I’m 37 now.
Apparently, in the weeks leading up to yesterday’s birthday I’ve begun the transformation into a man more closely resembling 40 than 30 by becoming more cynical and crotchety. One of the areas where my curmudegonliness has manifested itself is in the realm of music.
I’m beginning to question how people can get their panties so creamy over certain bands (or really any bands for that matter). This coming from a guy who in his 20s was just as guilty of said crime, except instead of bands like Wilco, The Shins and the like, it was Radiohead, Jackopierce and Live. They got what I call my “music boner” all hard and tingly.
I get it. Music is good. Bands like Wilco and U2 are pretty good in their own rights. But just like the Facebook discussion above states, they just don’t get my music boner hard like they do for so many others.
Also as the above discussion states, not much music even entices the music boner into action anymore. Like Rob Gordon in his store, I just want music that I can ignore. Most days that means listening to cheesy new age music on XM’s Spa.
I don’t blame you for snickering.
I listen to it because there are no words, little in the way of rhythm, and the music is completely forgettable. It’s my background while I’m in The Zone, getting work done, etc.
I pull my “special music,” the music that I care about, out when I’m in a mindset to truly listen and reflect upon it. Most of the time that corresponds to having a cocktail or two on the patio on a lovely spring or summer evening or by the fire in the fall and winter.
But even then, its usually older music from the days when I really cared about what I was listening to. I love so much of the new stuff I hear these days but have very little connection to the newer music in my collection.
Aside from the obvious psychological/nostalgic connections, I wondered why that was this morning, and had an interesting hypothesis as to why this connection is so weak.
Even since junior high, I’ve always been the guy with hundreds of cassettes, CDs, or MP3 albums in his iTunes collection, so the vast amount of music choice that I have available to me is nothing new. That’s not it. I think what it boils down to now is the way that I consume my music.
Ever since I first downloaded iTunes (or got my first iPod, I can’t quite decide which), I don’t think I’ve listened to more than 15 albums in their entirety. We’re talking 6 or so years here, people. Everything that goes into my ears musically does so on shuffle. Artists, albums, genres all meld together into a highly eclectic musical stream that prevents me from connecting too deeply to any one artist or album. In fact, with much of my newer music, I couldn’t begin to tell you what album a specific track came from. I just couldn’t.
When my music boner was at its most virile, aside from mix tapes that I carefully handcrafted, I had to listen to music one artist at a time, in the order and in the method they wanted me to hear their work. I got that, and I connected with artists more deeply as a result. I’m going to go back to listening to whole albums to see if this changes my perspective any. I imagine it won’t be an overnight thing, but hopefully it will help this bit of erectile dysfunction I’m experiencing. Musically, that is.
Now, as for Wilco and U2? I still don’t get what most people see in either band. And, that’s a point of view that I’ve formed over years, even decades, of listening to their music. I can appreciate how either band can get the ol’ music boner throbbing for some people, they just don’t do it for me. Sorry.