In the most recent episode, Joe mentioned a tweet I posted regarding the pod and why I was enjoying it.
why do I like the @LexiconPod ? It reminds me that music can be a
communal and social experience again.
And I love Joe.
a lot.
yep.
It takes me back to my childhood where so many of my best days were spent sitting around with my friends and listening to albums from start to finish and doing nothing else.
It's a little odd to think of non-live music as a potential social experience, yet I do feel that music can be that. At the very least it should be that. In an age where the "personal music device" has become so insanely ubiquitous the notion of sharing music has become almost offensive, I hope we are all taking the time to listen to music with someone else from time to time.
Part of the problem is now so many of us only listen to music while we do other things. We listen while we work, while we exercise, while we navigate our increasingly unsocial existence... Hell, I've even seen people listen to music while reading at the library.
A phrase I hear more and more is "soundtrack of our lives," and I'm not going to lie, the expression bugs the shit out of me. It relegates music to something that is happening in the background. A supporting player. A with you as always. And to be honest, I find that notion troublesome.
But I feel that way because I have a hard time separating music from art, and you can't treat other forms of art that way. Not even a little bit. If I were to drive to work with a Picasso taped to my windshield, or organize my sock drawer during a production of Our Town I would be labeled insane.
And rightly so.
I can't deny that because people can listen to music AND do other things might be part of what makes music so great but please make sure that's not the only way you listen. Bring music out of the background. Let just listening to music be a thing you do. Listen with your friends, your kids, your special someone. Just listen. Feel. Discuss.
Repeat.
