MUSIC DIARY 2012: SOME CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

From Monday, May 7th, 2012 to Sunday, May 13th, 2012, I took part in #musicdiary2012. For those of you who don't know what that is, take a look at this post or go here. Essentially, I kept track of every piece of music I listened to for a week. There were a few lapses--I don't remember everything that was played on the jukebox at the bar one night, and there were a few things I overheard while in stores that I didn't know/recognize, for example--but by and large what I posted for the past week was as accurate as could be, under the circumstances. Now, what's the use of this if not to discover some things about my own listening habits? A little self-reflexivity can be a useful thing, though too much, as I'll discuss in a minute, can be a problem. Let's see what I've learned. To start with, some figures on my week of listening:

• Number of albums* listened to: 28
• Breakdown by day: 7, 6, 3, 1, 3, 5, 3
• Number of songs independent of larger release listened to: 36 
• Breakdown by day: 13, 10, 4, 0, 5, 4, 0
• Number of artists listened to: 45
• Artist with the most plays: Four Tet (6); 1 album, 4 songs
• Number of albums* listened to from 2012: 9**
• Number of songs independent of larger release listened to from 2012: 18**
• Number of albums* listened from other years, by number: 7 (2011), 3 (2010), 1 (2009, 2005, 1996, 1995, 1994, 1993, 1991)**
• Number of songs independent of larger release listened from other years, by number: 5 (2010), 4 (2001), 2 (1996), 1 (2011, 1986, 1983, 1970)**
• Number of albums* listened to on computer: 24
• Number of songs independent of larger release listened to on computer: 27
• Number of albums* listened to on iPod: 4
• Number of songs independent of larger release listened to on iPod: 9

Some simple conclusions that can be drawn from this list: I listen to more contemporary (released in last 5 years) music than older music, I do the majority of my listening at home on my laptop, and I listen to albums and songs in roughly equal proportion. Unfortunately, because of the nature of #musicdiary2012 and the week in which it occurred, these conclusions are not exactly correct. The first point, that I listen to contemporary music more than older music, is true, but the second is not and it directly influences the third point, which is also untrue. 

I do the majority of my listening on my iPod while waiting for, riding, and walking to and from the bus. In an average week in the past year, I've had somewhere between 4 and 8 trips on the bus and it is on those trips that I do my most extensive listening. Furthermore, while I will occasionally listen to entire albums on the bus, I usually jump from song to song; sometimes I will listen to more than one song by an artist, but rarely will I listen to a whole album. I am much more likely to listen to an entire album when I am at home. This past week was the first week of the summer semester. I don't have to go into the office or even go to campus for anything in particular. Consequently, I rode the bus twice this week. While I took a number of long walks with my iPod (something I'm less likely to do during an average week--when I go running, I never take my iPod), I still did the majority of my listening at home via my computer, mainly because I was at home more often than usual this week. It would be really interesting to do a #musicdiary2012a during the Fall semester to see how the results change (I just might do that, if I remember).

One other factor influenced my #musicdiary2012 results more than I'm comfortable with: self-consciousness. Knowing that my listening for the week would be open to others did change how I listened to music this past week in a couple of ways. First, I listened to more albums than I normally do (even with the environmental factor of being at home more often than usual). The type of people whom I imagine take part in things like #musicdiary2012 are those who still validate the album form over the individual song, who bemoan the damage to our attention spans wrought by the internet which renders us incapable of the deep and attentive listening required to appreciate albums, who go to record stores and buy CDs (or even vinyl) not just to rip the music straight to the computer and never play the actual discs/records themselves again. In short, with that kind of imagined audience, how could I not play more albums than I normally do in an attempt to please the crowd? Of course, I don't exempt myself from some of the above descriptions. The very first post on this blog--in its pre-blogspot days--dealt with my relationship with Real Estate's self-titled debut album and how I felt I wasn't listening to whole albums as much since I got an iPod. Nevertheless, I've listened to more complete albums this week than I tend to these days.

Second, and perhaps more important, my listening this week was more varied than it usually is. In an average week, I will listen to some albums and songs many times, simply because I'm enjoying them at the moment and don't feel the need to listen to other things. If I'm planning on reviewing a particular album or song, then I'll play it even more frequently than I normally would. Knowing that my reports would get quite dull if I did that, I consciously avoided listening to albums or songs more than once. Over the course of the entire week, there were a very small number of repetitions: I listened to Melody's Echo Chamber's "Crystallized" twice, Four Tet's "Jupiters" twice, Lone's Galaxy Garden twice, and My Bloody Valentine's EPs and Rarities 1988-1991 twice. I can't say for certain what I would've listened to this past week had #musicdiary2012 not been taking place, but I imagine some of those songs/albums would've been played more than twice, and some others wouldn't have been played at all.

Ultimately, then, #musicdiary2012 was less a portrait of an average week's listening and more a report on what I listened to the week I decided to do a music diary. I don't want to give the impression that #musicdiary2012 was useless, though. If I didn't learn any earth-shattering things about myself or my listening habits, well, I didn't expect to. It did help confirm some thoughts I've had about the ways that I listen to music in various environments and using various music players, which is about what I'd hoped going in to this. Thinking practically, I'd be interested to see if doing this two or three times a year helps to balance out some of the distortions that different parts of the academic calendar and self-consciousness cause. Although, saying that now, I'm not sure that accuracy is necessarily the ultimate goal here. I suppose it depends on your purpose in undertaking the project. Over a number of years, I can see how the idea of the music diary as it  is formatted currently would build up to quite an interesting snapshot of your life, one that would only indirectly say anything concrete, but that might offer a list of triggers to memories more than just written accounts of those weeks could. You'd read that you listened to a song in a particular context, put it on having not listened to it in some time, and be transported back to that moment, perhaps.***

That's all for right now. I hope to see you all for #musicdiary2013, if not before then for #musicdiary2012a in the Fall (assuming I remember to do it)!

*I'm including in this definition EPs. Basically, anything that's more than a single song (or two song single/12") that I listened to in toto.

**Something played more than once is counted only once here.

***On a slightly more cynical level, I think #musicdiary2012 reveals just how much information about a person can be obtained through very small (and voluntarily administered) amounts of surveillance. If you were looking for ways to more effectively target internet ads/spam toward me, I imagine that the past week's entries would be very useful. The hashtag name--making it easy to link this in to social networking sites and a larger base of participants--offers quick access to demographic information for a large number of people with certain shared interests that could be targeted quite easily by advertisers/corporations and cross-referenced against other bits of personal information gathered about the subject.