A Few Thoughts on How We Now Listen to Music

 

It's been something of a surprise to me to see just how many people there are who have needed the biggest crisis this country has seen during most of our lifetimes to actually start posting things on social media about how important listening to music is. I was & still am slightly flabbergasted by this. I know that up until a few weeks ago we lived in extraordinarily busy times (and time is money, right?) but it still surprises me how much has changed in the way people listen (if they do at all) to music (and make time for real art - not entertainment - in general). Music has been one of the most important things in my life since my very early days. Growing up, it was about learning, rebellion, opening my eyes to possibilities, discovering how other people experienced the world, poetic lyrics, romance, love and New Gold Dreams. The big craze now, of course, is music that 'heals' or promotes "well-being", which makes me wonder when life became all about well-being in the first place. Of course well-being and health is the greatest gift anyone can possess, and I have nothing but profound admiration for health workers, doctors and people who are helping and treating others through psychology and Ancient Chinese Medicine, for example, as this is a beautiful thing to do. But my gripe is with the people who are now bringing music into this mix, as music is one of the few places left where the imagination is free to explore different, often hedonistic realities. This situation actually reminds me of a great couple of lines that Robin Williams' character in Dead Poets Society says to his students:


To which I would also add music. 

I guess some of this change probably boils down to class. From the 1960s onwards, it's generally been the middle class who have favoured the "well-being" approach to the arts, favouring wholesome books, songs and films over anything that was ecstatic or touched with the daemonic, and the biggest contrast in listening habits came after the hippy movement had been in its prime. For while the middle classes settled down on their bean bags and became expert lay practitioners of Buddhism whilst listening to bands such as Jethro Tull, and Hawkwind and the like, who had preposterous album titles such as Warrior on the Edge of Time, or Yes with the equally nauseating Tales from Topographic Oceans, in working class and lower class communities, listeners instead wanted escape from their sociologically trapped lives, or more particularly, they wanted escape and excitement, and this was to be found principally in the adrenaline inducing glam and rock music of the early 70s, through to the blazing "do it yourself" excitement of punk, to the sparkling, hedonistic, whole body eroticism of disco that surfaced at the end of that era through to the existential angst of post-punk. But it seems to me as if music is now being hijacked by the do-gooders who want to promote the idea of wellness at the expense of music's key Dionysian characteristics of euphoria, excitement, danger, sensuality and rebellion. Do you think Freddie Mercury would have wanted his music to be used to promote "well-being"? I think Freddie would have hoped that his music made your life either, a. more enchanting or, more likely, b. made you want to sing and drink and cry and then dance and have transcendent, earth-shattering sex. (Which actually sounds like a prescription for well-being to me, although I don't see any posts from Spiritualists or Buddhists suggesting that people should put a sultry Queen playlist on, and then go and have mind-blowing, consciousness expanding sex whilst listening to it, even though this could surely be classed as promoting well being at its upmost, and relieving stress at the same time.) Bowie openly admitted in the early 70s (although he was a tease with a gigantic heart and soul so may well have been kidding us) that he wrote and sang only to please himself, but he was overjoyed that his music and performances helped people break down the limitations of the personality they had and that he somehow helped them to open their minds to explore different possibilities inside them. The Manic Street Preachers have an energy that could start a revolution if it could be transferred outside the concert hall. Tim Booth and James would have us all diving under waterfalls and making love to the rhythm of the trusting tides whilst listening to the sound of moons calling. Shirley Manson of Garbage would have us all embrace our inner Queer whilst reminding us that Sex Is Not The Enemy whilst informing her female (and male!) devotees that they should never be shamed into not exploring and celebrating their Supervixen (Aphrodite/Venus) side. And then there's Donna Summer, who serenades us with arguably the greatest 12" record ever made, a paean to slow dancing and sensuality (and probably much, much more!) that lasts for almost fifteen minutes, fifteen minutes of ecstatic euphoria that we could probably all access if we could only let go of our egos, in a song so simply but so profoundly titled: 'Love to Love You Baby'. Bronski Beat's 'Smalltown Boy' showed that escape from narrow minded, bigoted small town communities was possible and that a life with people who wanted to live in a different way with different values was just a train journey away. Country Musicians and sultry Torch singers shared their intense longing and searing tales of love, grief, heartache and eventual rebirth, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, bruised and torn but perhaps stronger for it, and showed us it was possible to survive and emerge from the other side of loss as well. And, last but certainly not least, Madonna, the Bad Girl herself, who wants to Dress You Up in her love, and through whom came the command to all of us who have an element of the blushing wallflower in our make up: Express Yourself! And this is merely the tip of a wondrous musical iceberg. But what do people promote & listen to in the main now? Music to apparently heal to, with posts on social media now reminding us to 'deep listen' to A WHOLE ALBUM (Oh! the shock!) as this might be of help during this extremely difficult time. This is all very noble in its way, but dear, oh dear, have we really reached the stage where people need to be REMINDED to listen closely? I'm glad to say I've been deep listening to music all my life. Not just pop, cabaret and rock music, but classical too. For if you read the lives of the composers they were just as mad, bad and dangerous to know as any modern rock or pop star, and their music expressed deep emotions ranging from burning desire to hellish fury and devastating melancholy that could never be reduced to "wellness music." For most of the artists I've mentioned here, and their listeners, their music, and Art in general is not a separate realm where they go and hide from life for an hour or so, but rather, it is a constant spiritual image of life itself, where life is made more intense, more colourful, and more alive, and where every ecstatic experience is heightened through it. So, please, spare me this "music that promotes well-being" nonsense. Music has, and will continue to inspire, devastate, enrich, soothe,  romanticise and sensualise my experience of this crazy little thing called life, and that will be the case throughout this terrifying period, and hopefully, after the storm has passed, too, whenever and however far away in the mists of time that may be.


"The levels of hell are filled with the virtuous."
- David Byrne (Talking Heads), The New Sins