Does anyone remember the time when you would sit at home with your sound system, put on a recording and just listen? Listen, as if there were something deep or important buried in the music?

I read this over at Campell Vertesi’s blog right here.

I’m not opposed to the iPod, and I don’t believe that everyone who uses the iPod doesn’t really listen, but I understand what Mr. Vertesi is saying.

I don’t think that this whole thing applies to just listening, though. I think folks read in a similar manner much of the time now. And watching? I think films get that same not-quite-working-at-it treatment. So I think it has to do with our culture in general, rather than just music. We want things quick. We want things easy. We want things understandable without a whole heck of a lot of pondering much of the time.

Or at least it feels that way sometimes.

If a piece of music—be it “classical” or anything else—takes time to process, takes perhaps more than one listen to understand, I think that work often gets put aside. Too much work, thank you very much. If a film isn’t easy to comprehend, well, maybe it’s just not worth it to some folks.

Or at least that’s the way it seems sometimes.

But maybe things aren’t as they seem. Maybe I’m just being silly and goofy.

Often that seems to be the case.

By the way, I still listen to music—both pop and classical—in my car. It’s different than “listening hard”, but I do it.
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