You’re Listening to Music Wrong. I am, too. We all are. It’s tragic, but we can fix it.
Over the last 20 years, music has been devalued and demoted. It used to be the hero. Now it’s the sidekick. The soundtrack for working or socialising or whatever.
However, if you’re a Gen Xer like me, you’ll remember spending countless hours sitting in front of your hifi captivated by great records, which physically spun around on your player. We listened with all our attention, doing nothing else. Just listening. Back then, listening to records was considered a hobby. Listening was an activity, because it was active. That’s the key word. Active.
But as our attention got stolen away from us by smart phones, listening to records became passive. Music was no longer the main attraction. No, that was reserved for looking at our phones. Without us ever consciously choosing to do so, we relegated music to soundtrack status.
That’s one of countless reasons why both myself and Kate (my wife) deleted all our personal and professional social media accounts back in 2015. We’re now celebrating our 10-year anniversary of not being on social media. It’s been one of the best decisions of our lives, by far! In fact, next month I’m celebrating my 19-year anniversary of being sober, and honestly, I rank these two celebrations as equals.
But despite not being on social media, Kate and I are still listening to music wrong. And it’s not because of our phones. My phone is a decade old, so most apps won’t work on it. I’m not buying another smart phone, though, so when this phone stops working, I’ll be returning to a dumb phone. I’m much happier being a luddite.
For now, at least, I’m still a smart phone owner, but the only app I use is Spotify. However, Spotify alone is enough to pull my attention in too many directions, and as a result, I almost never actively listen all the way through albums anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I listen to albums every day, but it’s while I’m working, exercising, reading, or eating. Music is never the main event, it’s the soundtrack. That’s depressing. That needs to change.
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Every night I read for two to three hours. I love books! That’s why I only ever read paper books. Focusing on a non-fiction book for hours every day has been invaluable for maintaining my attention span. And I’ve been reading like this for many years. But despite being able to focus on an academic book for three hours, when I’m finished reading for the night and I open Spotify for my dedicated two-hour listening session, my focus instantly scatters. My attention span vanishes. It’s like a magic trick! What did Spotify do to my ability to focus?
I’m sure all music streaming apps are the same, but as I use Spotify, I’ll be talking specifically about that app. So I first started using Spotify the month it launched in Canada back in 2014. It was life-changing! It was a music library beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. Like many Gen X teenagers in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I had a dream of one day having a whole room filled with records, floor to ceiling on every wall.
Forget about that, though, now I had almost every record ever made in the palm of my hand. What sorcery was this? I loved it! I spent hours every day listening to albums that I’d always wanted to own, but buying records ain’t cheap, so my wallet had always been significantly smaller than my appetite for music.
Spotify was my key to gaining access to the world’s biggest music library for a few bucks a month. It seemed too good to be true. And it kinda was, because after a few years, it all began to change. When I opened the Spotify app one day, I was suddenly confronted with all these podcasts. Podcasts!? They’re great, yes, but not in a music library. They’re a distraction from the artists and their albums.
Against my better judgment, though, I tried a few podcasts. I was curious. Then the next day when I opened Spotify, I was confronted with new episodes from the podcasts I’d listened to, as well as other podcasts that were similar to the ones I’d listened to. They all looked fascinating, but how was I supposed to listen to all those podcasts and still have time for listening to albums? Then one day I opened Spotify and they’d added videos. Videos!? But I signed up for a music library!
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As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Spotify then added audiobooks. For a booklover, this was (and still is) something I absolutely cannot say no to. Included in my Spotify plan, I get 15 hours of audiobook listening time every month. I have to use those hours, I can’t help myself. But that’s about half an hour a day that I used to spend listening to albums that I’m now spending listening to audiobooks.
And these days when I open Spotify, I get new audiobook recommendations based on what I’ve listened to. That’s on top of all the new episodes from podcasts I listen to, as well as recommended podcasts that I haven’t listened to. And then there’s also all the new releases from artists I’ve listened to, as well as recommended artists that I haven’t listened to. Yet there are still only 24 hours in the day!
So despite not being on social media, despite having a barely functional 10-year-old phone with only the Spotify app on it, and despite having an attention span that can focus on reading an academic textbook for three hours, I can’t stay focused when I open Spotify. There’s simply too many choices. It’s overwhelming. I feel like I’m trying to drink from a fire hose!
That feeling reminds me of when I lived in London and I used to frequent this amazing Chinese vegan restaurant in Camden. It had an all-you-can-eat buffet, and every dish was delicious. I don’t think I ever left that place not feeling sick! That’s how I feel after my two hours of dedicated listening every night. Spotify is an all-you-can-listen-to buffet, and I leave afterwards having listened to part of an audiobook, a couple podcasts, and only a few songs from random artists that were recommended. I feel stuffed. And exhausted. It’s far from the dream-come-true music library I originally signed up for back in 2014.
If you’re on social media and/or you have more than one app on your phone, I feel for you. I really do. I can’t imagine how stuffed and exhausted you must feel! It’s impossible to keep up, and trying is futile. So, I’ve designed a plan that will (hopefully) enable me to enter the daily all-you-can-listen-to buffet and exit two hours later, feeling nourished and rejuvenated.
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Here’s the plan in a nutshell. Every night when I open Spotify for my two-hour session, I’m going to start by actively listening to one album all the way through. Simple plan, but this will protect my sacred music time.
Also, another bad habit I’ve picked up in Spotify is reading the artist’s biography while listening to their album. And after that, I’ll usually look at their other albums, or worse, go down the rabbit-hole of similar artists. Not anymore, though. I’m going to put my headphones on, push play, put my phone down, close my eyes, and listen with all my attention. Just like the old days.
By the way, if you feel inspired to try my plan for your listening sessions too, I recommend downloading the album, and then putting your phone on flight mode so you’re not disturbed by notifications. My phone is almost always on flightmode anyway, because I try to minimise the EMFs in my environment. The less EMFs, the less stress on our bodies and minds.
Also, something I’ve been working on for a while is minimising the albums in my saved library. I’ve found that I get overexcited about saving albums, but then every time I go into my saved library I’m overwhelmed with all the options, and end up listening to a song here and a song there, but never going deep into one album.
So, I’m trying to think of that space as my Desert Island Discs collection. It’s my own personal Hall of Fame. I’ve currently got around 80 albums saved, but it’s getting smaller every month. When I notice an album that I haven’t listened to in a while, I remove it from my saved library. The fewer albums there, the deeper I can explore each one. My goal is to get down to my Top 40 albums, and then I’ll use a “one in, one out” policy to maintain that size. It’s been a surprisingly fun project to whittle down these albums to my all-time favourites. I’ve also noticed that the fewer albums in my saved library, the more I value and appreciate each one.
Interestingly, I have no albums saved from my childhood or teenage years. All my favourite albums have been ones I’ve discovered over the last few years. Not sure what that says about me, psychologically speaking, but hey, that’s a story for another day. And it’s not that I only listen to new music, it’s just that the recordings tend to be new. For example, my favourite recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations is from 2020. It’s performed by the Royal Academy of Music Soloists Ensemble, and conducted by Trevor Pinnock. Old music, but a new recording. This album is easily in my Top 10 all-time favourites.
And speaking of great new albums. Yes, searching for these gems is like a treasure hunt. It’s thrilling! I love doing that. But it’s also one of the main reasons for my scattered focus. So, I’m designating a little time in every session for treasure hunting, but only after I’ve actively listened to one of my saved albums all the way through.
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Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, we used to listen to the same album hundreds of times. We’d know all the lyrics, all the melodies, all the riffs, all the drum beats, and even a lot of the drum fills too. It wasn’t uncommon for a Gen X teenager to be able to air-drum the fills while listening to their favourite albums. I miss knowing albums that intimately, and I miss the way that knowledge deepened our appreciation. Even more importantly, though, it deepened our enjoyment of the songs.
It’s essential that we come up with ways to avoid succumbing to the temptation of drinking from the always-expanding fire hose of content.
We need to take our attention back, and we need to elevate music back to its rightful place as the hero. Great music is magical. Great music is ineffable. And great albums are not content. So let’s not group them into that category. When we open Spotify and we’re faced with the choice of a great album or a great podcast, it creates the illusion that they’re both content to be consumed. That’s not true.
No matter how great a podcast is, listening to someone talk is not the same as listening to someone play music. Our mind, body, and soul react entirely differently to music. Music and talking are not in the same category. That’s why listening to an energetic album while exercising gives us way more energy than listening to our favourite motivational podcast. And that’s why listening to a beautiful piece of music can make us cry. And why sublime music can evoke mystical experiences. Great albums are not content, they’re magical portals. Let’s start treating them like that again. Are you in? Let me know in the comments, and also let me know what strategies you use to avoid drinking from the fire hose.
Lastly, if you’re new to making music (or if you want a refresher), I offer you my free book 12 Music Theory Hacks to Learn Scales & Chords. It only takes about half an hour to read, then you’ll have a solid foundation of the basics. Understanding the language of music (aka music theory) will deepen your listening experience like nothing else, which will in turn inspire you like nothing else. And if you’re ready to go deeper, then I invite you to join my online apprenticeship course. You’ll learn every step of the music making process, from blank screen to finished song.
Happy learning, and welcome aboard the Songwriter’s Ark*.
Ray Harmony :)
*I visualize Hack Music Theory as a Songwriter’s Ark, where all the music making skills are being preserved through this global AI flood. The flood shall pass. The skills will last.
