On a Long Forgotten Morn

A particular trend that I've noticed through most of my high school years is the ability for a teenager to tune the world around them out. Now, this can be incredibly useful at time--such as while on an eight hour bus ride to Utah with fifty Theatre kids--but for other times, I wish that more people would just stop and listen.

The most common practice of achieving this ethereal state is to use standard headphones. Now, I have no objection to listening to music--and I love music as a complete entity--but I would much rather appreciate the events around me rather than having music constantly pumped through my ears. While walking the streets of New York, most of my fellow tourist companions were completely engrossed in whatever they were listening to. I, on the other hand, was listening to a couple break up on 7th street, a car alarm on 5th, and a man trying to sell me a belt buckle in Harlem. These are the things that can only be heard in that specific area--but the modern citizen feels the need to cover that natural beauty with beauty of his own choosing. I simply don't understand.

My relationship with music is deeply personal--and I think part of the reason that I took such a liking to vinyl was that it is not exactly practical. It feels special; as if that slab of vinyl needs to be cared for and cherished--not just thrown on on iPod and picked apart for playlists. It feels as if music has lost that sense of connection to the world and now just acts as background noise.

Granted, that connection can still exist between Man and iPod--it is just much harder to achieve. Someone I go to school with always has his headphones in. Whenever I try to talk to him, I have to repeat the first sentence--after he's taken the buds out of his ears. This isn't what music is supposed to be. I'm not at all religious--but I still believe that there is music everywhere in the world. So why deny to yourself what has been given for free?

The conversations missed, people ignored, and sounds lost just don't seem worth it for a constant stream of auditory pleasure. It makes me think of the the soma tablets in Brave New World--where citizens in the future take drugs to stimulate themselves when they feel any negative emotion. Nobody knows how to deal with their personal problems anymore--they just pop their headphones to their ears instead of facing the problem--using music as an "escape." True, I sometimes use music to shut out my own personal demons--but I don't ignore the problem as if music cures my troubles. It simply helps me evaluate life.

I've learned more about music with my headphones out than I have with them in.