Article Response: Hitting The Wall

So, you thought YOU were nuts ;) Anyway, all the best Ned and I hope things are, as you say improving.

Actually the main reason for that was I met other people and they weren't going to People's Republik.

Its common enough if you are constantly getting enw stuff that it becomes a bit much and even more so if you "have" to listen and rate stuff. It can all be a bit overwhelming.

Get a pile of records that you really aren't ever going to listen to and get rid of them. not crap records - those are easy but some of those mediocre ones that are only quite good but never as good as the stuff you'll really like. Either you'll never play them or if you do you'll be thinking about how its only ok. Dump 50 and chances are you'll never regret more than one or two. Better still burn copies of the good songs on those albums that really only have one decent song. Then make one CD of shit hot material and lose 15.

Help help! I'm sure I would have been good company (well, at least I hope I was, ask the assembled multitudes yea or nay).

There was a spell in the late 80's when I was disenchanted with music and wondered if all this 'stuff' which I had a lot of time and money invested in was just pointless. Then of course madchester/rave came along and everything seemed fresh and interesting again. It can be quite useful as it can focus your feelings and when your enthusiasm comes back it'll be even stronger.

What I always think when I look at the mountain of stuff waiting to be listened to is that I'll (hopefully) be around for another 40 or 50 years, so I can make time for it sometime in the future.

But then something happened that made me feel better :

It occurred to me that Ben Franklin never got a chance to read Charles Dickens, and yet he seems to have lived a fine life without him. And Dante never got a chance to read T.S. Eliot, but he did ok in spite of that. Horace never read Shakespeare. Socrates never read Horace.

Marco Polo never got to New Zealand.
Moctezuma never got to Italy.

Gershwin never heard the Beatles.
John Lennon never heard "Loveless".

But it's ok.

We're each the product of what we read and listen to and follow and who we talk to and where we go. Our choices make us who we are -- make us different from each other. If we all had the ability to read every book and hear every cd and go to every place that each other recommended, then we'd probably start thinking and looking and sounding too much like each other. And that's kinda scary.

So if you just want to listen to Slowdive b-sides and reread Tolkein for the fifteenth time -- instead dutifully trudging through Barthes and Britney like everyone's told you to -- that's ok. Put the Avalyn ep on and go chase some trolls through MiddleEarth again. Don't feel bad about it when you do it.

Yes, they might call you "Someone Who Hasn't Read Barthes", but remember, you're also "Someone Who _Has_ Read "Lord of the Rings" ... And there are a lot of people out there who've never read that, you know. Myself included (though I'm working on it now).

Please don't think pessimistic thoughts about being gone in ten years. If those thoughts start to get you down, remind yourself : "I have to stick around longer than ten years : "I want to read "Rings" a few more times, and I still haven't read Barthes yet!"

In this way, you'll make the things you haven't done yet be the good reasons for sticking around longer, not the good reasons for checking out early.

*big hug*

As a result there are huge swathes of new popular music I haven't heard. I'm automatically cut off from massive chunks of the debates on here. (Sugarbabes - no, couldn't whistle one of their tunes; Andrew WK - never heard him but someone pass the poor bloke a hanky.)

Maybe you feel extra pressure, Ned, as a music writer, feeling that you have to be aware of everything going on or otherwise your opinions are somehow less valid. (I'm not saying they are less valid, of course, I'm just going from the way that I feel about expressing my opinions. As a matter of fact there can't be a music writer alive who's got an in-depth knowledge of everything.)

So I guess what I'm saying is don't judge yourself to harshly if you don't get to hear everything. I can guarantee you're at least ten times more clued up than time-poor downtrodden nappy changers like myself.

But the real question is could you have given me a detailed description of Okenfenoke swamp?

And very much thanks to everyone for all comments -- I do like your takes, James, I think that does cut to the heart of a lot of it.

The function of music in your life is likely to change over time. I think that can be a tremendously scary and daunting prospect. Trust that your life will have a soundtrack one way or another.