Listening with Intention this New Year's

There’s two types of people in this world. Those who enjoy birthdays and New Year’s and those who hate them. Birthdays and New Year’s are similar in that they both celebrate another revolution around the sun, one for you and one for the world. And if you’re in the same hater camp as me, they’re both disappointing and anticlimactic. 

There’s so much pressure put on these days to reinvent yourself and be better. As the clock strikes midnight on your birthday, you’re expected to feel the magic of the day. Huzzah! Another year of life to live. Perhaps that’s something to celebrate if you enjoy being alive. For the rest of us living in this hellhole, it’s more of a pained huzzah. 

New Year's is like a giant amplified birthday with the NYE's countdown being akin to the birthday song. Everybody is singing happy birthday to themselves and the world all at the same time. Well, with the allowance of a few hours difference for time zones. And we all know how awkward the happy birthday song is. Dare I say, it's even painful. Alike in awkwardness, the birthday song and countdown bring the suspense of a new year for you or the world to an anticlimactic end. 

Leading up to the New Year, people create new versions of themselves that seem to just spawn once the clock strikes midnight. In a reverse Cinderella, once the clock strikes midnight, our fairy godmothers will wave their wands and we’ll suddenly find the willpower to workout, be better friends and partners, and not lose our temper when dealing with stupid people. Somehow, we’ve all collectively agreed that the first two weeks of January is the time to try (and inevitably give up on) being healthier and better people. When we break whatever resolution we created, we give ourselves a grace period of an entire year as we resolve to be better next year. 

Now, to avoid being a complete stick-in-the-mud hater (which is quite difficult for me), I will say this. If you are working on a New Year’s resolution, I sincerely wish you the best of luck and hope you stick with it. 

My unsolicited advice is this: New Year’s (and birthdays) are arbitrary. There is no perfect time to restart. You can restart, pick up, or drop habits anytime you like. You can restart any month, week, day, or even hour. As they say, tomorrow is a new day.  

On the topic of resolutions, I recently came across an article that had me thinking. In this Wired article, the author writes about how listening to CDs as opposed to streaming has given him a better appreciation for the music. 

As a member of Gen Z, I missed the age of CDs by just a hair. I got an iPod when I was around 12 and being the little intrepid person I was, I Googled my way into figuring out how to download music for free. I was no chump and wasn't going to pay for music. Then came the day when all the free apps that allowed you to download music were wiped from the App store. My pirate lording days were over.

At first, I bent to the iron will of Apple and I bought into iTunes. This was before Apple Music when you had to purchase individual songs or albums. At about a dollar per song, the price really wasn’t too bad. Complete ownership forever for just a dollar.  However, a buck a pop adds up.

If music were a buffet, I’m the person loading up her plate with a bit of everything and going back for seconds. And thirds and fourths. All of those taste tests add up. Especially when you’re a tween with no job. Life’s rough when you don’t have cash for the newest One Direction album. I couldn't live, laugh, love in those conditions. 

So I turned to Spotify. The streaming giant has become my savior and my ongoing companion for the past half decade. I’m the person who likes every song they like. If I hear it and I like it, I hit the favorite button. Because of this ridiculous habit, my liked songs in my Spotify library holds over 11,000 tracks. Granted, I don’t listen to everything that’s there now, but I’ve had the same Spotify account for over 5 years so it's not that crazy. Songs are constantly being added and occasionally dropped from the list. However, to put this into perspective, if I had stuck with iTunes and purchased just a quarter of these songs, it would have cost me at least $3,000. That’s a lot of cash. 

It's no wonder people prefer streaming services to purchasing music. It's way cheaper to pay a subscription for a service than it is to purchase the actual music. Think about it. When was the last time you purchased music? You probably can't remember. 

Growing up and being immersed in the streaming age, I promptly dismissed  Gilad Edelman’s article.Why would anyone in their right mind choose to listen to CDs? However, Edelman has a point. But it's not that you should run out and buy CDs. 

Coincidentally, as I was thinking about the article over the past week, I noticed that Chelsea Cutler posted some thoughts about today’s music industry and society’s general attitude of rapid content consumption. The post tied in with a lot points from Edelman's article. Essentially, Cutler writes that it’s harder to exist as an artist in today’s industry when “albums and comprehensive storytelling seem less relevant as attention spans are shorter”. The sentiment resonated with many as musicians and content creators took to Instagram comments and Tweets to agree with Cutler and add their own thoughts. It seems like industry consumption and artists are not in alignment. 

A particular line from Cutler struck me. “I don’t know how to keep up with how insatiable our content culture has become.”  The world seems to be moving faster now. Everything’s a calculated race. How fast can you release a song, how many streams can you get, how can you keep the attention on you? 

Like many others, I constantly fall into the trap of discovering an artist, listening to their discography, and then abandoning them for someone new that catches my eye/ear. Streaming has made this so easy to do. We hear a snippet of something on TikTok, we find and stream it, and within a week, we’re over it. 

As consumers, we see it as an advantage. The music world is literally at our fingertips. We can instantly pull up almost any song and play it. We can jump from artist to artist and song to song. One can argue that the industry has become a singles game rather than being about an album. 

Yet, we as listeners can’t commit. We refuse to be in a committed relationship with anyone. We want to flirt with everything and everyone at the same time. We hook up with singles and leave them in the dust the next day. “Screw monogamy”, we shout as we curate our favorite singles into our carefully constructed playlists. “No exclusivity”, as we jump from The Beatles to Kanye West. “I think we should see other people” as we forget about our favorite artist of the week and chase someone new. 

I’m not saying that having a wide range of taste is a bad thing. On the contrary, I think it’s good to explore tastes and find what you like. However, I think the way we jump around so rapidly shows that while we're hearing the music, we're not really listening. This begs the question. Are we consuming responsibly? Maybe there should be labels on music like there is for alcohol: Listen responsibly. 

I’d like to think there’s a way to both explore and get a little bit of everything while still cultivating appreciation for music that these artists work so hard to create. That balance is different for everyone depending on whether you're a casual listener or superfan with a dedicated stan account.

Personally, I can’t remember the last time I sat down and listened to a full album or went through an artist's discography from beginning to end. Those are things that I know I enjoy doing. I like listening to a story that albums tell and I love seeing artists evolve over the years. But I realize that I've been neglecting that aspect of my music exploration. I've stopped going on long journeys with albums and artists and opted for quick trips to the grocery store with singles. 

Picking up groceries is a necessity. But, it's nice to go on an adventure and experience an album or artist fully. You choose your own journey #deep. Whether it's going to the grocery store or setting out on a quest, do so intentionally. Be mindful of your consumption habits. Let's break the cycle of consuming everything in sight and focus on what we want to hear. 

As much as I harped on New Year’s, which it absolutely deserves, I do have a resolution. 
Listen with more intention. 

Drop a comment with your New Year's resolutions if you have them.