Do You Enjoy Just Sitting and Listening to Music? Why?

 

    I’m not much of a music person. This might come as a surprise to those who know me because I frequently sing solos at church, I love to worship through song, and I’ve performed in and directed many musicals. But while I know many people who spend a great deal of money and time buying and listening to music for its own sake, I just...don’t. Though there are special songs that have impacted my life, I don’t have a favorite band or musician.  

In our household growing up, my parents rarely purchased cassettes or CDs unless they had a specific purpose, such as special music for church, or a special purchase for a birthday or Christmas. My mother often took us to the library and we checked out cassettes of musicals. Some of my favorite memories involved dancing and singing along to Phantom of the Opera, The Man of La Mancha, and Hello Dolly.  But as money was often tight, my parents didn’t spend money on music for themselves.  

In high school, other kids would spend a lot of money on CDs and seemed to enjoy sitting in their cars or their rooms, and listening. Just listening to music. I would listen if I was with them, and tried to muster some enthusiasm, but I never really understood the draw, and I kept wondering, “what am I supposed be doing right now?”

People, I understand, also go to concerts. The few concert-like activities I’ve ever attended were very loud, crowded affairs, where I wondered what I was supposed to be doing, and when I could go home. I was supposed to sit or stand and listen to music for an hour or more? Why? And people pay a great deal of money for this experience. No one can talk in a concert because of the noise, and unlike a musical or a play, there isn’t a story or characters to follow.

My husband used an iPod for years and filled it with his favorite movie soundtracks and techno music. After I lost his iPod, we started just playing iTunes off our computer- but it’s almost never me who turns it on. On his days off from work, my husband turns the music on almost as soon as he wakes up. He says it gives him energy and makes him feel good. Curious.

So what’s the draw? If you are a person who spends money and time on music, not to perform, not to lead worship at your church, not because you’ve been casted in a musical, but just for pure joy….why? Do you like concerts full of loud noises and people you don’t know? Do you like sitting in your car and doing nothing but listening to a song repeat its chorus over and over? What am I missing?