Last week I had an unfortunate accident which involved my Iriver (mp3 player) and a floor (very hard) which resulted in me having to make the commute home from university without the usual library of music at my fingertips. At the time I was initially reasonably annoyed at myself (for my own clumsiness) but as the commute began things went from bad to worse.
First the walk from uni to the train station seemed to take twice as long without my music shutting out the sounds of the evening traffic. I realised i've become so accustomed to having music playing whilst walking around town that the distances between places aren't as noticeable, as the music seems to distract me from my surroundings.
Next came the train ride. It was horrible. 50 minutes of torture. The piercing squeal of the trains breaks, the inane chatter of the office ladies, the loud rubbish someone was playing on their mobile phone (this must have annoyed people other than me) were all things which really started to bug me. Usually having my own music with me has allowed me to escape the noise of the public, and even the train when I turn it up loud enough. I spent the train ride frowning at my own reflection in the window.
Then there was the 20 minute drive from the train station to home. I had to listen to the radio. It was rubbish. I never listen to the radio in the car. I didn't know the majority of the songs, but instantly loathed them, which is perhaps a bit unfair due to my prior irritations. I couldn't sing along like I usually do to my music during the drive home, so I passed the time by glaring at speeding drivers passing me.
I'm told I was visibly not in a good mood when I arrived home.
Looking back at last week its clear my music has become an important part of my every day life:
It speeds up chores.
It allows me an escape from my surroundings.
It even keeps me calm.
I simply found it interesting that we can become so accustomed to music, and that it can have that much of an effect on ones every day life, to the point where its abesence has such noticeable effects on ones moods and behaviours.
Has anyone experiened anything similar?
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2 comments:
Hey, I sympathise. I dropped my Ii-Pod into the Orakei Basin a couple of months ago. Actually, I was standing on the jetty and when I went to change track, the Pod bit detached from the headset… and fell between the cracks in the planks of the wharf! Couldn’t believe it – it was just… gone. By the way, i-Pods look as though they’d float on the water, but no… this one sank!
Andrea Francesca
I totally agree that music provides a (very welcome) distraction from tedious everyday routines. Not only do ipods/mp3 players create audio boundaries between the listener and the rest of the world, but they also allow the creation of another metaphysical space. Headphones physically block out noise which means all our auditory attention is drawn to the music. They also dissuade others from talking to us by acting as a signal that we aren’t listening to them. So both these distance us from the situation at hand. Because we have all our own music with us, and because we have so much control and selection, we can create a mental space that overlaps the actual place.
Riding on the bus is the one time that I actually fully concentrate on doing nothing but listening to the music. In other situations I’m usually always multitasking, (other than maybe when I first buy a CD) I’m always doing stuff when I play music. The bus is also a place where I just allow myself to daydream. In this sense it’s quite a creative place for me; I kind of continuously brainstorm for an hour. And I’ll think to the music. I leave my ipod on shuffle and whatever I’m thinking moves with the mood of the songs. It transforms the whole experience of being trapped on a musty overcrowded bus... because by having control over my audio space, that hour is actually spent traveling through songs and ideas.
...And of course, the withdrawal is dreadful if I can’t escape because my ipod is- at home, dead, or filled up with water (thankfully I’ve found that hot-water cupboards can dry out rain-soaked ipods). I’ve become addicted!!
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