Editor's Note, 9/11

Since the rise of digital music consumerism, many new albums have been denoted by publications such as “Pitchfork,” “The AV Club” and “Rolling Stone” as “headphones music.” Music that tends to fall into these categories typically is electronic, beat-focused and relaxed, such as the music of FKA twigs or The Weeknd. This classification would have been unheard of fifteen years ago, with the advent of the iPod and Beats by Dre headphones years away and the glory days of the Walkman and the MP3 player not yet fading into the past. The other main implication of this classification is that music is thus confined to being a solitary experience, as headphones are not usually designed to be shared with others. The advent of personal audio devices increasingly makes listening to music a concert for one, and the process of sharing and spreading albums and songs is becoming less prominent. Music continues to be shared publicly, of course, but in ways that maintain its confinement to the personal sphere. The way music is shared today is ultimately self-limiting.

To the college student, music spreads from person to person through two primary methods—parties and online sharing. Parties are the more limited method of the two, as the scope of the music shared is usually either Top 40 pop or some form of electronic dance music that will sound good on a booming speaker system. That is not to say that the quality of the songs is poor. I heard one of my favorite songs of the year, Clean Bandit’s “Rather Be,” at a party in January and it has been on repeat on my iPod ever since. Parties are also a good way for multiple people to simultaneously enjoy songs, and this shared experiences makes the process of listening to music more fun. The main issue with parties as a venue for sharing music is that it fundamentally precludes songs that would be considered “bummers”—basically anything down-tempo, introspective or otherwise not conforming to the breezy and energetic head rush of typical party music. It promotes music as a vehicle for dance rather than song-craft. You wouldn’t play Kate Bush at a party.

The other main sharing method is through social media and the Internet. College students consume most of the music they hear these days from blogs, online publications or streaming services—all convenient and accessible forums that can be sent to a friend with the click of a mouse. This allows for more musical diversity, there are no stylistic or genre restrictions on what can be shared—personal taste is the only limiting factor. However, this method still propagates the culture of solitary listening, as it is likely that someone will listen to music sent via computer on their computer by themselves. Both methods are a mixed bag, and neither adequately addresses the loss of the social aspect of appreciating music.

Long gone are the days when a few people sat around a radio or went on a car trip and listened to their favorite LPs. These practices allowed people to appreciate diverse kinds of music in a small group setting without the distractions of dance-floor politics or technological isolation. What modern-day "music sharing" loses is true feeling. While songs and albums that we enjoy engender emotions in us that we might not be comfortable expressing to others, we should not be afraid to show these sentiments to fellow listeners.

One might argue that listening to music is an inherently individualistic process. I say that reacting to music is an inherently individualistic process. My favorite album of the last ten years is Fiona Apple’s “The Idler Wheel…,” which is emotionally raw and difficult to listen to because you can hear Apple’s pain vibrantly through the exquisite lyrics and spare production. I have listened to “The Idler Wheel…” with friends, and none of us have had the same response to it. Each song is capable of evoking melancholy, bittersweetness, tentative joy or whatever else you personally feel. What is important about this and the process of truly, actually sharing music together is that you are able to express yourself and talk about your emotions and reaction to the music with others. In truly sharing music with others, you transcend the paradoxically isolating nature of digitally-based music sharing. It is impossible to fully express your love of music alone at night with your headphones plugged into your ears.