Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Gauging our position with the power of song

Music is the most enjoyable standard by which we judge ourselves. 

A song is a moment extended, reproducible at any moment---dips on the long timetable of your lifespan (if we were drawing this, it would look like notes on a staff).  

Compare yourself to the person you were at first listen. The song doesn't change, but you do. (You may find new corners to turn within the song, on a deeper layer down, each time it unfolds for you, but you know what to expect.)

Whereas people change (or stay the same in a different way), making perfect timing between two people impossible (well, any kind of perfection is impossible---but you can get to some very nice things that are imperfect yet correct in their own way), CD, tape & vinyl are set in stone.

Does music degrade? What is the half-life of a three-and-a-half minute song? Can you sustain that peak level of enjoyment for the rest of your life? Or does the melody coat itself around the perimeter of your head like wallpaper (as with all comforts & luxuries, fading from our perception)?

We may ignore a song, but it's always there, waiting to be appreciated, even (especially) when we're distracted to do so.


Songs are wiser than we are.

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