This is an attempt to start a new series here, based on documenting music listening in an attempt to slow down the deluge of random data passing through my head without proper digestion. Partly inspired by the Slow Listening Movement, which I vaguely attempted 3 years ago before promptly giving up only to follow, before giving that up too, the Listening Series will provide a space to document specifically what music I've listened to, but also and perhaps more importantly where, when, how and why I listened to it. There might also be a 'what did I think of' aspect too, but reviewing is not the main aim. Rather, this is a space to record and question the nature of my listening habits, as habits - in the bad sense - they seem to be.
I had a wave of ideas about this over the weekend which seemed grand and important and valuable, but these petered out to seem trivial and dumb, so the form of this will likely develop over time. Ideas thus far have included:
- documenting all music heard over a particular time frame (day / week / month)
- imposing restrictions upon listening habits (medium / genre / artist / label)
- recruiting others into the above concepts and documenting their findings
- devoting each morning's listening to critical attention and documentation
- random jottings of some or all of the above (present and likely resolution).
Like Slow Listening Movement, My consumption pattern of acquisition versus listening has gotten way out of hand. The acquisition side isn't likely to change, based as it is on both boundless curiosity and unfounded anxiety over available digital music becoming unavailable, but perhaps the reception can. We'll see how this proceeds, but like many things the first step is often the hardest.
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