Am I the Only One?

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You are right CtR. You see it on all sides. The good and the bad. The smart and the dumb and everything between. It's not just sports or music but all facets of life. I wasn't suggesting that all who went into music were dumb, but showing(apparently not in a easily understood way, my apologies...) that they weren't more intelligent than those who didn't. The Ozzy comment was just joke to lighten the mood. I would put OJ way lower than Ozzy on the intellignce scale. I like his music. Especially Black Sabbath. His reality show on the other hand really pointed out how toasted he is. But still likable and helped to dispel alot of the old rumors. No longer an icon of 'evil' but a real person. I loved it when Stern wore the anit-OJ tee shirt on Letterman during the trials. Basically the ghostbusters symbol with OJs face instead of the ghost. Funny stuff.

 

You may as well go to an art gallery and dismiss all the work as pointless scribbling.

Music is utterly pointless, i'll give you that, but that's exactly why I love it.

It's the pointless things we do that set us apart from machines.

 

Which is exactly one of the reasons I don't listen to music. If I have free time, I'd much rather watch a sporting event on TV. I haven't bought a CD in over a decade, but every year I spend $240 on DirecTVs NFL Sunday Ticket so I can watch any and all pro football games regardless of whether they are on local TV or not. It's all in what's important to you.

Since I don't buy them, I really have no idea what CDs cost these days, but I imagine for $240, you could probably buy somewhere around 15-20 CDs a year for the same amount of money. (I'm guessing a CD costs around $15 - I have no idea though - it's strictly a guess based on what they cost 10 years ago.)

 

I bet the average teenager wouldn't know either (and might not even know what a CD is) ... they download all their music from iTunes.

This would be another me/you differential question, but personally I disagree. It may not have a clearly tangible outcome (like the results of a sporting event, where team A or B wins), but its overall reason-for-existence in your life, if you're a music lover, is far from pointless. It may be so significant to some that they wouldn't want to live without it, or at least its absence would make life boring, purposeless, and unfullfilling. That's reason or point enough.

Closer to the OT, I always found it odd whenever I'd hear people say "I like music" when describing themselves, because I assumed that everybody did to some extent or other, so it would be similar to saying something like "I like food." I guess that's not quite right though ...

I understand time constraints and that some might be bigger fans/consumers than others, but to say "I don't like music" would seem to be like saying ... "I don't like food."

 

You could probably make the same comment regarding pretty much any leisure activity. What is the point of reading fiction or poetry? What is the point of spectator sports, or even TV in general? What is the point of art? Of movies? The list could go on and on. The answer is that there isn’t a point, other than they give people pleasure. So to dismiss music on the basis that it is a sign of lacking intelligence actually displays a lacking of intelligence itself, IMO.

 

I only listen to music while commuting. My iPod keeps track of everything I listen to and at the end of each year, I can compile a chart of my Top 40 songs that I listened to the most. For some reason, I find this very interesting, even though it must be one of the more pointless exercises I could undertake.

 

So you think just because so many people do all these things there has to be some intelligence involved?

What I said was that to seize listening to music might be a sign of intelligence, like when one doesn't need external stimuli to gain pleasure or feel happy.

 

That's just nonsense. Extenal stimuli, whether it is from any number of sources, such as reading literature, music, visual arts, whatever, is a way of reaching out into the world and learning other points of view. It is actually how we aquire knowlege beyond our own egos, so that we aren't constantly tripping over them [becoming egocentric]. Self-knowledge is certainly important, but there are many things beyond the ego.

 

The way you center on certain words in my sentence seems egocentric to me. Anyway, theres plenty of stimuli to be had, whether you listen to music or not.

 

No, other than reading (which requires some degree of intelligence). But to suggest that people who don’t do those things (or at least don’t listen to music, which was your original statement) are more intelligent than people who do is ridiculous, for precisely the reasons Chandos described.

As for “seizing” (presumably you meant “ceasing”) listening to music being a possible sign of intelligence – well, no. It just means that the person has lost interest, and has decided to move on. Or it could mean that the person never really appreciated music in the first place, which is fine – to each his own. But to try to evaluate it in terms of intelligence is, as Chandos says, ridiculous.

 

“Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music … I get most joy in life out of music.”

-- Albert Einstein (concert violinist ... who also dabbled a little in Physics)

QED.

 

Music, like so many other forms of artistic expression, is a highly individual issue. Certainly to create music requires intelligence. But I'm sure there are really smart people who simply don't get off on music, and I know for a fact there are some seriously stupid people in this world who listen to music all the time.

Now, in a social sense, I wouldn't trust someone who doesn't like music of some sort. As an artistic pursuit, music has the capacity to bridge the gap that lies between human souls. I brings people together and allows us to experience something outside of ourselves. A person who doesn't like music at all would be somewhat robotic, and I would not trust that person's empathy and ability to relate to other human beings.

But I don't think that was the original poster's idea -- IIRC, he simply stated that he doesn't listen to music much. I don't recall him saying that he doesn't like music, just that it's not part of his daily routine. I can go for weeks (I just did, actually) without listening tyo any of my music, and then yesterday, I plugged in my I-Pod to the car stereo and blasted the tunage during a highway traffic jam. it was awesome.

It's funny how different people tend to focus on different elements of music (and how really intense people can have several areas that interest them.) Chandos seems to be into the instruments themselves (judging by the photos he posted) as well as the stereo equipment that can be used to reproduce music.

Others focus on lyrics and the deep meaning behind them. Still others focus on emotional venting, and like the unintelligble, primal screaming of forms such as death metal and speed metal. Then there's the people who aim for variety, and try to amass collections of music from all over the globe. It's fascinating, really, and in every category I mentioned above, there are smart cookies and dumb asses.

 

Says who?

 

I am quite like Aldeth. I very rarely listen to music, not because I do not like it but because I really do not like listening to music I have not chosen myself. I hate being forced to listen to music. I hate the background music prevalent everywhere, when I am in the car listening tothe radio I switch channel when they start playing music.

When I listen to music I want to *listen* to music, I want to be able to focus on it and actually enjoy it instead of it just being background noise. I also favour lyric heavy music so when I listen I want to actually listen to the words, not just the instruments. Oh and I loathe, I LOATHE all morons playing music on the cellphones thinking the rest of hte world enjoys it. I do not want to listen to your tinny fing music coming from the tiny speakers on your phone. Nor do I want to listen to the music from someones earphones, if I can hear the music from someones earphones then I pity their ears. I also despise loud music. I want to be able to hear my music, I do not want to have my ears assaulted. That is one of the main reasons I do not enjoy going to concerts much, it is way too loud and there is a special place reserved in hell for people who play loud music in their homes that disturbs their neighbours toghether with dicks who do concrete drilling at 8am on a Sunday morning cause they want to put up new shelves.

 

Right - I don't have a problem with listening to music, it's just not something I tend to do. My wife and son like music, so when I'm in the car with them, we will have music on - one of my wife's CDs typically.

 

Context reminder: the intelligence question began with Camel's comments, not AtFI's. So it wasn't a reactionary "Am I the only one?" ... "No, music lovers are NOT stupid!" type thing.

 

I thought this was interesting: NY Times | Science | To Tug Hearts, Music First Must Tickle the Neurons.