Avoiding Stasis
Friend: Honestly, music stopped being good after 2010.
Me: I dunno about that.
Her: There’s literally nothing I can stand on the radio anymore.
In 2015, Spotify looked at its user data and found that people stop listening to new music after the age of 33.
At least in the US.
See, in the UK, where they use something called Deezer, that company discovered that Britons stop listening to new music at 30…and a half.
What adult uses “and a half?”
In any case, my point being that, in nature, there are only three states: Growth, stasis, and decline.
Me?
I keep wanting to put as much (natural) space between me and decline as possible and that means avoiding stasis wherever and whenever possible.
That doesn’t just mean seeing old friends, working out, eating well, and doing some deep thinking.
It also means listening to new music, because, if I don’t, I’m at least in stasis, if not decline.
And I can’t have that.
Not when the kid’s this young.
Music is a unique art form because, unlike, say, a sculpture, which is carved, and then just exists, music is created and has to be played or performed.
But, as you hear it, it can be remembered, heard, and anticipated – you can guess a lyric or beat because music requires a rhythm of some sort – so that it exists in the entirety of time itself, past, present, and future all at once.
Music is profoundly human is because it’s the only artform that only exists entirely in time and disappears once it’s done as if it never existed at all.
Kinda like us.
So, with all due respect to my friend, listen to new music, and fight the stasis.
Him: You’ll come to my talent show? I’m playing XXXX.
Me: I love that song! And of course – have I missed one yet?
Him: No…
Me: Then I wouldn’t worry too much, kiddo.
For the past few years, I’ve put all the music from this blog into this Spotify playlist here, if you want some new tracks on the regular.
Or just keep reading and click on the music links below (I get a few cents if you end up buying the song on Amazon, just fyi).
Location: the bathroom, installing a bidet
Mood: bidet-ed
Music: they say you know when you know (Spotify)
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