Is it possible to be sick of music.

I haven’t been around too much of late mostly due to a month long revision course but during that time I’ve just about had enough of music. There’s hardly a moment of the day when it isn’t rammed unavoidably down my shell-likes. And it’s usually rubbish.  If it isn’t that wretched stuff going on while you wait in a 10-30 minute queue on the phone; it’s every shop now thinks you must hear its muzakal drizzle or a restaurant dribbling music through its polystyrene ceiling.

Even in the hotel I was staying it’s there burbling away in the background. The place had a piano and before they turned the muzak on I decided to play.  There were only a couple of us on the in the bar but I got told off, asked to stop. I mean, why have a piano there if it isn’t to be played?

But then we come to films with its cut-and-paste soundtracks, all for what purpose? To add to the thrill of the too-often appalling cinematography? But what finally turned me off was it happened in my bank.   At least yet they haven't found a way to penetrate my dreams. 

So I almost gave up. Gone are the days when music was an occasion – a concert to go to or play in; the act of putting on an LP (almost a ritual!), visiting a music store.

Only now have I resumed composing but it’s taking many false starts.

I suppose I’m fairly unique in this view but silence or environmental noise has become a welcome relief. I remember a coffee bar in Soho (Meard Street) called Le Macabre. Just what it says, the tables were coffins, the décor dark and the music to suit.  But there was a 45rpm on the juke box of just silence, so if you’d had enough of music you could stick your 5p in the slot and choose that.   

Woe is me!

8 hours ago, Quinn said:

I suppose I’m fairly unique in this view but silence or environmental noise has become a welcome relief

I share this view too. I always don't like those soothing but souless music broadcrasting in shops to "make you feel better". For me they are not music but noise. And most film music do not have soul at all but only to serve the purpose to heighten the dramatic effect and lower itself under the drama, and just fill in the silence. I think I differentiate them with real music, whether it's classical, pop or other music types. So I never get rid of real music like those played in concert at all since the two are absolutely different. For the former type music it can easily be replaced by AI. And I hope for the latter type it can be replaced later haha.

Henry

i feel your pain.

    I feel that our computer/app/phone driven culture has made music, entertainment, satisfying our every need/want/whimsy a constant---

  And as such has destroyed the uniqueness, "specialness" of listening--enjoying.

  I remember coming home from school and putting the speakers of my little  stereo on either side of my head, listening to "Star Wars"---  It was a time carved out of my day to escape, to feel, to enjoy sound.--a particular time and place in my day--and maybe not every day....

  Now, I have apple music--- I listen on my long commute to and from work.  I have music available constantly.    And while this luxury has allowed me to explore the cracks and corners of the 18th and 19th century--forgotten composers and works, to appreciate many artists---- SOMETHING HAS BEEN LOST.

  Technology has brought PLENTITUDE.  We would imagine this is good, right?  And maybe, in many ways.   But I recall that scene from WALL-E--the animated movie-- fat, bloated, lazy overeating humans basking in doing nothing while food is jammed into their maws...

  Music is about life-- our collective life over the centuries--struggle, triumph, defeat, yearning, love-----

                       As we are making our lives cheap, maybe meaningless beyond pleasure seeking, our art might join us?

             Scary.      Maybe we need to hide away what we treasure, and protect our own aesthetic sense from the predations of a culture GOING MAD.