I'm like a pencil;
sometimes sharp,
most days
well-rounded,
other times
dull or
occasionally
broken.
Still I write.
j.g. lewis
is a writer/photographer in Toronto.
Category: Uncategorised
Music: its always there; if you choose to listen.
Whether through the radio, on your mobile device, car or home stereo, music is one of those things that makes or marks your time on this earth. Music adds colour and vitality to your life. It keeps you company when you are solemn or sad, can lift your spirits, or take the party to the next level.
There is nothing else you can do, actively or passively, the same way as you can listen to recorded music. It can play while you read, or cook, or do housework or study. You can’t do that with the television.
I grew up in a household where music was always playing; my mother made sure of that. The radio was always on. My first record was Alice Cooper’s Killer and I played it a lot (it’s what you do when you only have one record). As my collection expanded, so to did my musical taste(s). I like to think I only listen to good music; that my time spent listening was well wasted.
I have, for nearly five decades, regularly, faithfully and passionately listened to music. It became more than a reason to spend my allowance or cash earned mowing lawns, washing dishes, or setting pins at the bowling alley.
Absorbed in music and pop culture, I’d read about it in the pages of Rolling Stone as a teenager. Later I’d write about it myself in a weekly column in a daily newspaper for three years.
I collected albums, and I still do
I began to wonder (one of those things I often do) how much music I have listened to in my lifetime. Further; I wondered how much music I listen to in a single year.
Last year I decided I’d keep track.
I began keeping a list(s) of all the albums I would place on a turntable, slap into the CD player, or play on my iPod or mobile device. I tracked only albums I would play completely. If I skipped past one of those songs that I simply never liked (Mother on The Police’s Synchronicity immediately comes to mind), the album did not make it on my list. If I didn’t listen to the whole album while driving from there to here, or if I nodded off part way through, I also did not make the list.
In total, I listened to 1,063 albums in 2019.
I’m still not sure if that is a lot, or just average. Even if there were couple of albums I didn’t write down, it’s not even three albums a day. I do know there were days I listened to far more than that, and a few days I listened to no music at all, so I can’t be sure if last year was an average year. I do know none of it was average music.
