Broadly put, there are two basic ways to listen to music: critically and naively. A critical perspective, the one I’ve adopted on this blog for example, attempts to connect the music in question to other topics or examples. This can range from analyses of cultural and historical background to simple comparisons of the discussed music to other artists or genres. In other words, a critical perspective is anything that attempts to make explanations of a musical piece.
The other way to discuss music is naively. That word isn’t meant as a pejorative; a naïve perspective is simply one in which only the music in question is being discussed. Nothing else is brought into the conversation, and for that reason such discussion is often limited to stating facts (“That keyboard is a Melotron set to imitate a flute.” [A fabulous no-prize to anyone who guesses that one]) or opinions (“I like this song.”). Understandably, such a perspective often gets short shrift.
One of the things music snobs like me lose is the ability to listen to music in a naïve way, at least not without expending some minor effort. My past few years of greedily devouring as much music as I could afford (often considerably more than that, to be honest) means that anytime I listen to a new song, I instinctively compare it to something else. I suspect this is what prevents, along with many others, from enjoying bland radio pap; when I hear something like Shinedown’s “Second Chance”, my mind parses it with a library of other similar songs and finds that one woefully lacking. I’m fundamentally incapable of making it past “Well I just say Hailey’s Comet, she waved/Said why you always running in place?” without vomiting up a stream of dismissal, critique, and violent sarcasm. The song deserves it, no doubt about it, but I’d hardly call that a typical response.
As far as I can tell from casual observation, the typical response to such music is to pay as little attention to it as possible. Most people, in my experience, do not pay close attention to what’s playing on the radio when they’re in the office, the club, or even their own car. It’s just noise to work along to, dance along to, or drive along to; a superior alternative to silence and little more.
