What if I want to actively enjoy music?

That’s pretty much it. I feel like a lot of time we just throw on headphones to listen to music, but am I really listening to my music? Or am I just drowning out the outside sound so I can do work?

It feels like the latter. I’m just trading the unpredictable and distracting sounds of my environment for a predictable and enjoyable sound. But rarely am I listening to it purely for enjoyment. It’s never like I would listen to it while I am driving. And even that isn’t really the type of active listening I’m talking about.

Background music is nice, I like throwing on an album or some mystical playlist or a sound track and reading a book in my room.

But what if I threw on an album and I sat in my room and I listened to it. Like actually just listened to the sound of the music, and appreciated the guitar solo, or appreciated the drums, or really thought about the base line. Not in some super intellectual, disecting the music kind of way, but in like a “thats the only thing I’m doing rn” kind of wy.

Anyway, no time for that. I’m just glad Mark Knopfler spent hundreds of hours currating his art and perfecting his sound and word choice for my background noise.