MUSIC DIARY 2012: WHY I'M DOING IT, WHAT IT IS, HOW YOU CAN TAKE PART

Around this time last year, I was reading this blog post from Nick Southall and feeling incredibly annoyed that I didn't take part in his Music Diary project. I'd had plenty of excuses not to--school was quite busy, I didn't have regular access to the internet, no one I knew was taking part so I couldn't share the experience with anyone--but none of them were really reason enough. In short, I'd been lazy and hadn't done it even though I'd known I'd wanted to. It was especially annoying not take part in it because Southall's writing for Stylus Magazine when that was a going concern had been so important to me as a music lover and listener who was gradually maturing in his interests to become concerned with how he was listening to music (not only in how I used the music [i.e. to soundtrack doing the dishes], but the very physical process of it: Headphones or no headphones? Stereo or laptop? Radio or iPod? With others or alone?), how he was exposed to the music to which he listened, and what the relationship might be between those things and his attitude toward and enjoyment of what he listened to. I've mentioned this all before. A chance to participate in something he was organizing that explored those very issues was too good to pass up, and yet I did.

So this year, I am taking part in Music Diary 2012 (#musicdiary2012 if ya nasty), partly out of a desire to make up last year to myself, but mainly to find out some new information about myself. How do I listen to music? Where do I listen to it? Why do I listen to it? With whom do I listen to it? What do I listen to? For those of you unfamiliar with the Music Diary project, its purpose is to "attempt to document, over the course of one week" answers to exactly those questions I asked above. The only qualifying criteria is that "you would ordinarily be listening to music in that week or any other week." Those of you at home who would like to play along, here are the "rules:"

For seven days this spring, from Monday the 7th May to Sunday the 13th May, anyone who wants to take part will keep a diary of everything they listen to, and publish it online somewhere. How detailed that diary is, is up to you. It might be an annotated list drawn from last.fm scrobbles and chucked onto a Tumblr; it might be a Tweet or a Facebook status every time you play a new song on your iPod; you might keep a detailed spreadsheet and post it on your blog at the end of the week [I'm doing a modified version of this one]; you could even keep pencilled notes in a Moleskine, photograph them, and upload them to Flickr.

It's surprising how quickly the actual process of simply recording your listening materials--to say nothing of annotating them for time, place, device used, other people present, purpose in listening, thoughts on what you listened to, etc., etc.--begins to reveal information about you and your listening habits. Of course, that quickly leads to a certain amount of self-consciousness, but the Music Diary project counts on this to a certain extent. The point is to keep the self-consciousness on the right side of deliberately fudging data:

Obviously keeping track of everything you listen to will change the way you listen, and you shouldn't ignore this fact, but the point is to try and record usual patterns of listening. It isn't about who listens to the most music or the coolest music or the most eclectic selection of music [Does this even mean anything in our current maximalist, post-everything, internet-fueled omnivorousness?]; it's just about understanding the different ways we listen.

Without further adieu, then, here's to seven days of thinking about listening to music!

Day 1 Report

Day 2 Report

Day 3 & 4 Report

Day 5, 6, & 7 Report
Concluding Thoughts