How much music do you listen to?

[Steve Minkin]

One of the things that surprised me in the interview with Jon Abbey that was recently posted http://www.5049records.com/podcast/jon-abbey was the agreement between Jon and the interviewer that, at this point in their listening histories, they preferred to listen to little music, they liked silence, they felt that not playing music heightened their musical experiences.

eai fans appreciate silences and minimalism in music, and I can see that extending to their overall listening habits, too, for some.

I listen a lot -- at home, travelling to and from gigs, and running -- and if what I'm playing isn't doing it for me I can almost always find another kind of music that will. I also listen as ongoing 'research,' for my own enjoyment and for my DJ repertoire.

What are your listening habits like? How do you think how much and what you listen to affects your appreciation of music?

[Wombatz]

what's the required age and listening experience for this thread?

one thing i've done is throw out my mp3 player. i used to listen a lot on the commute, or walked around with headphones on to enjoy the clash between acoustic and visual worlds, but, presumably around the time i became a father, i lost interest in that. i'm not a wandelweiserian and i couldn't care less for silence (which doesn't exist anyway etc), but i found i lacked the space to listen to my inner monolog to keep the brain alive at all.

apart from that, i still play as much music as ever. the family is gone this week and the great thing about that is i can play jazz for breakfast (my wife, a musician, really only wants to listen to music during her holidays ... probably intense involvement with the production of the stuff does influence consumption habits). also i don't get better as a listener. if i had learnt anything from my decades of listening maybe i would need less tones to nourish me.

one thing that struck me in jon's interview (hi jon) was him suddenly being done with late feldman vs still listening to fela kuti. not because i've also lost interest in late feldman and the large field of the late feldmanesque, but because i often wonder how this works. when i was a kid i tried to listen less to certain treasured records in the hope that then i wouldn't tire of them and lose something precious ... but it didn't work and these records wastefully died to my ears at around the same rate as anything else, and i didn't get as much out of them as i could have. it's like you have a window for certain sounds in your life, and it opens and closes whether you actually hear those sounds or not (apart of course from the more logical progress from one tastebud to the next).

[jon abbey]

I have some of those too, like Captain Beefheart is someone I've always 'rationed' listening to because there isn't that much and I didn't want to play it out. I don't listen to Beefheart that much these days but when I do, I still enjoy it.

also for me, home listening and portable headphone listening is pretty different. I almost never listen to Erst-type stuff walking around (or on headphones at all, almost always speakers) and what I do listen to portably (90s Houston hip-hop like DJ Screw/UGK, Fela), I seem to be able to pretty much listen to endlessly without ruining my own enjoyment of it.

[Piano Mouth]

I used to listen to a lot more music at home, but now I tend to split my downtime in half, half of the time watching movies and half of the time listening to music. I actually listen to more music when I'm out and about. I always wear headphones when I'm outside walking around, or working at the library, I have these huge ear muff type headphones with Spotify on my phone!

[Dan Warburton]

i tried to listen less to certain treasured records in the hope that then i wouldn't tire of them and lose something precious ... but it didn't work and these records wastefully died to my ears at around the same rate as anything else, and i didn't get as much out of them as i could have

Wow, you liked it so much you forced yourself not to listen to it? How awfully puritanical
Feldman or Fela? I'll take Fela too. Late Feldman was horribly overhyped about a decade ago in the press (I'm probably partially to blame for that too), what with the Tilbury For Bunita Marcus Holy Grail myth and what I call the Satantango Syndrome, i.e. believing because a piece of music / book / film is long it must necessarily be deeper / greater / better etc (delete where appropriate) than something shorter.
In answer to the original question, the title of the thread: as much as I did when I was writing about it for magazines and websites. Between two and three hours a day, over half of which on the road through headphones.

[negative potential]

That was a really enjoyable interview. I'm glad Jon remains committed to physical media. I find downloads kind of alienating too.

[F&B]

I believe that if one is to really appreciate music and take it in, it is powerful and requires 100% attention - somewhat a draining process, or at least a demanding and intense thing... Like any good stuff in the arts.. I'm split in that way as I both wish I had more time I would dedicate to listening, but at the same time I'm seriously exhausted after a couple of hours. Really getting into a work, in depth, is an album a week. To really get your head all around it... As in max. 4 albums a month (that is for new music). For music I already know and appreicate, I can listen to 3 hours a day or so. Drinking or similar with friends, it can be 12 hours. Nothing like getting wasted to loud, good music. Never gets boring.
Also, I often enjoy not listening to music for days. Sometimes even a week. And when I get back to it I am often surprised by it. Constantly listening to music seems like an escape in some way. Not a good thing.

[Wombatz]

to really appreciate music and take it in, it is powerful and requires 100% attention - somewhat a draining process, or at least a demanding and intense thing... Like any good stuff in the arts..

what kinds of music do you listen to like that?

[Adrian]

I find I listen to music less and less. The same holds true for reading; I can't summon the energy to read many new books, re-reading is ok. New music largely leaves me cold as well energy wise; but also money, space to put cd's and finding the time to listen is a challenge. I used to buy large amounts of music, but over the years that has become less and less; and I've gotten rid (in stages) of perhaps 90% of what I once had (the same with books). This does leave me feeling bad from time to time; having been an avid fan of Erstwhile, Another Timbre and Potlatch, a.o., whose stuff I used to buy in large quantities, but now buy only sometimes. Strange, difficult, wonderful times...

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

Having a partner that doesn't appreciate metal nor experimental music has drastically torpedoed the available time to listen to music other than radio or my cds of 'regular' music. Becoming a father only made it worse.

The upside is that I appreciate the music I get to listen to more. A cliché, but true.

[Wombatz]

Becoming a father only made it worse.

my experience is the opposite on the whole, much fun listening to experimental music with the boys. up until the age of 5 or so, they were open for anything, especially if it sounded doable to them, as much experimental music will. also they hugely enjoyed music with long silences, where every funny sound was a delightful surprise for them. now that they're older of course i have to listen to bad german hiphop in exchange, but e.g. during today's legoing session with my 8-y-old we had the new elks cd (berlin eai) and ralph towner/gary peacock, and the elks won (the cover helped) ... though of course i do filter stuff for evil vibes, and will suddenly notice how oppressive some music can be which i had thought of as interesting or high-energy ...

[J.F.]

...though of course i do filter stuff for evil vibes, and will suddenly notice how oppressive some music can be which i had thought of as interesting or high-energy ...

... while that doesn't tell very much about the nature of the music at hand. You might feel a track oppresses you in some way while the same thing gives me lots of energy.

Circa 15 years ago an adult drum student of mine accused me of using fascist methods when playing Cage's 4'33 to him from CD.

[Wombatz]

that doesn't tell very much about the nature of the music at hand. You might feel a track oppresses you in some way while the same thing gives me lots of energy.

so between us we know more of the nature of this music than each of us alone? (and i would even agree on some of cage's work being very authoritarian, though calling it fascist makes no sense, that must be your style of teaching )

an instance of oppressive music i remember would be roland kayn. while the sounds initially appeared interesting, the mood soon changed ... and the kids don't know why their mood changes, they don't relate it to the music ... so kayn is off the playlist until they decide for themselves (same for the high sinus toney stuff, anything which mainly consists of what sounds like people being strangled, etc., and i can imagine certain metal bands might also requite an age of consent, so schik might not want to play some of his favorites to his kid until they understand what sort of beast it is).

sometimes it's interesting, because e.g. as a seasoned listener to free jazz i had unlearned to listen to it in terms of aggression, and with kids (who generally used to like free jazz, not so much now) in front of the speakers that quality in some records suddenly reappeared ... or how much more communitarian fun properly handmade rock is compared to overly produced stuff (and suddenly i enjoy the rolling stones again).

[J.F.]

(and i would even agree on some of cage's work being very authoritarian, though calling it fascist makes no sense, that must be your style of teaching )

No. That comment was strictly related to me playing him nothing. I swear.

I've been thinking about actually answering what this thread is about, but can't find anything handy to answer. There's days I don't even come up with the idea of listening to music (even when at home with lots of time at my hands), while it's possible that on the next day I listen to music for hours and hours. I tend to listen systematically to stuff I'm interested in (Steve spoke of "research" - I can relate to that), sometimes it's the complete opposite and I randomly click on music files in my PC.

I wouldn't want to get philosophical about me ejoying silence and not listening to music. I then simply have other things on my mind.

Then again I often have music on my mind, kinda playing a record in my head, or randomly zapping through various parts of (mostly) songs. On the physical level that of course is not listening to music, but it can be close to that for me.

[bryan]

sometimes it's interesting, because e.g. as a seasoned listener to free jazz i had unlearned to listen to it in terms of aggression, and with kids (who generally used to like free jazz, not so much now) in front of the speakers that quality in some records suddenly reappeared ... or how much more communitarian fun properly handmade rock is compared to overly produced stuff (and suddenly i enjoy the rolling stones again).

Music that is idealized as social in its creation, such as improvised music, seems to not be the most friendly for social settings because the moment to moment interactions induce discomfort and anxiety, especially for unfamiliar listeners. I guess silence can have that effect too... so sure, Rolling Stones in mixed company.

Otherwise, silence or aggressive music when alone

I still seek out new music regularly, but choose silence a lot.

[schiksalgemeinschaft]

Becoming a father only made it worse.

my experience is the opposite on the whole, much fun listening to experimental music with the boys. up until the age of 5 or so, they were open for anything, especially if it sounded doable to them, as much experimental music will. also they hugely enjoyed music with long silences, where every funny sound was a delightful surprise for them. now that they're older of course i have to listen to bad german hiphop in exchange

good points. I guess the main issue is whether my partner is around or not - I guess what I meant was that becoming a father also affected that.

I haven't played a lot of evil music, but my feeling is that my kid doesn't mind whether it's death metal or joanna newsom that's playing. hard to measure though atm, only 8 months old.