Q: How durable is your interest in music?

[take5_D]

Q: How durable is your interest in music?
Something of a follow-up to the ``Are you ever bored with music?'' poll but with a slightly different angle.

This question is prompted really by conversations I had recently with two people I know, both of whom studied ballet, one of them from age about 10 to 18, and the other for I think an even longer duration. In fact, the second of these was aiming to go professional and then decided to go to college instead.

Both of them are in their mid-30s now and neither of them ``goes to the barre,'' as it were, much anymore, actually, not at all.

Hence the question at hand, which I construct because it seems in comparison (in comparison to ballet or other activities that are much more specifically athletic) that a person's interest in music, be that listening or playing music, is for some reason, far more durable than these people's interest in ballet. Part of this really doesn't make much sense in that I'm sure that when they were teenagers, they were as passionate (probably more passionate) about ballet as I was about music. Yet now, neither of them has all that much to do on a daily or even weekly basis with these art forms. How does that sort of passion fade? It's not as if they were, for example, big, big fans of Three's Company or Friends and then they grew out of it. This is a major art form. However, now, it doesn't really interest them on, as I said, a daily or weekly basis.


The same rarely happens with musicians. It usually isn't the case that someone grows up playing an instrument and liking to play that instrument and then simply doesn't play it later on, even when that instrument turns out to be something really cumbersome like drums for example. Is this dropping off of interest specific to the two people I've just mentioned? Or does it have to do with the art forms?

[lemon]

I guess priorities get in the way. Though I can't imagine it, if I should ever get married and/or have kids, I think music would begin to take the backseat in my life, at least for a while. I doubt I'll ever be as obsessed about music as I am at the current point in my life. But then again, I don't actually ever see myself moving out of this point, so maybe music will always be my main thing.

[BARON CORNY DOG]

I'm a lifer. No doubt.

[sensi]

I hope that I will always be as passionate about music as I am now....I've done my 'here at your beck and call' bit for the kids and now they're getting older and less demanding...I'm going through a 'got my life back' phase and I'm loving it....I just don't want to end up like my Mam and settling for easier on the ears music because the loud stuff (that I so much love now and she used to too) hurts her ears now!

That would be sadder than anything for me!

[Billybob Dylan]

I've never had much interest in ballet, but I've loved music since I can remember. Even if I never bought another CD, I can't imagine I'd ever lose my interest in music.

The same rarely happens with musicians. It usually isn't the case that someone grows up playing an instrument and liking to play that instrument and then simply doesn't play it later on...

My dad played professionaly in the late '50s/early '60s and gave it up just like that. He never explained why.

However, since he retired a few years ago, he took up the double bass again and now plays regularly in an orchestra. If you live anywhere near Guildford, you have been warned!

[The Modernist]

I'm a lifer. No doubt.

Same here. I am, as I mentioned in another thread, going through a bit of an apathetic stage at the moment, however I know these rarely last long. What fascinates me, is even if I was really disciplined and forced to buy, say, just jazz for the rest of my life, there would still be great music in that genre that I'd missed out on. The depths to which you can go in finding out about different music seem inexhaustable so I can't ever imagine not being interested.
And I definitely plan on learning an instrument in the next few years which will open up a whole other avenue.

[Guest]

The same rarely happens with musicians. It usually isn't the case that someone grows up playing an instrument and liking to play that instrument and then simply doesn't play it later on...

My dad played professionaly in the late '50s/early '60s and gave it up just like that. He never explained why.

However, since he retired a few years ago, he took up the double bass again and now plays regularly in an orchestra. If you live anywhere near Guildford, you have been warned!

Same thing with my father. He's been a guitar picker all of his life, and I have most of mine, and while I think we both get bored with music sometimes, neither of us has outright quit listening to it. Too much of our being depends on it, I think.

[king feeb]

I'm already an old fart, and it shows absolutely no signs of abating at all. Even if I go deaf, I'll probably still listen to the vibrations...

[Prez!]

I have spells when I don't listen to much music,more out of indecision than boredom,but lose my love of music.Never.

[Matt Wilson]

Well since I've been obsessed with rock n' roll for going on thirty years now I guess I can safely say it won't fade.

Much like my interest in albino dwarf porn.

[Prez!]

Much like my interest in albino dwarf porn.

Would that be hirsute or smooth,sir?

[Matt Wilson]

Much like my interest in albino dwarf porn.

Would that be hirsute or smooth,sir?

Smooth, of course.

Don't be ridiculous.

[The Modernist]

Well since I've been obsessed with rock n' roll for going on thirty years now I guess I can safely say it won't fade.

Much like my interest in albino dwarf porn.

But you've got to admit Matt, the quality of Albino dwarf porn is not what it was.

[NancyL21st]

I have spells when I don't listen to much music,more out of indecision than boredom,but lose my love of music.Never.

Same here!

[Mozz]

Thanks must go to take5_D for raising what I feel is an interesting point, and for making me realise about something that's been occurring in the last few months without me realising about it until now; namely, that my passion for music has decreased.

Don't get me wrong here, I can still get passionate and excited about music (just start a conversation about it with me after a few pints and you'll see what I mean!) but the fervour I had for it as a naive and musically uneducated 16 year old was greater than it is now as a more knowledgable 20 year old, I feel.

When I was 16, I hardly knew of any music outside of the charts and I was living very much in ignorance. Yet when I firstly discovered The Smiths, Joy Division and Jimi Hendrix to name but three, I was hooked and I wanted to find out more. This appetite was further increased when I found the Q Message Board and learnt of many other great bands and performers who I hadn't heard of. I would buy at least 4-5 albums a month in order to join in with all these fascinating conversations / debates / slanging-matches on the board and, the more I bought, the more I learnt of the emotional impact that great music can have on you; if I was feeling down, I'd put Pet Sounds on and, before the introduction of 'Wouldn't It Be Nice' was finished, I'd feel better. Basically, I wanted all the music I could get my hands on.

Now, the best part of 5 years down the line, I feel as if I've reached a sort of limit to my musical 'upbringing' and I have the basics I need to get me through life; I find it more difficult to find an album that completely suprises, shocks and amazes me the first time I hear it. My interest for literature has, in the last year, surpassed my interest for music and I'm investing more of my cash and time into reading anything I can get my hands on, to the extent that I limit myself to an album a month now. I see my love for music like getting a new car: you think it's fantastic whe you first get it and you want to drive it at any opportunity, but over the following months, familiarity leads to decreased fervour, but you will always love it (you'll have to bear with me; I'm no good when it comes to thought-provoking analogies). It was Julie Burchill (someone I don't usually agree with) who said that anyone who is over the age of 21 and writes about music full-time ought to get a life. I don't completely agree with this but I can see what she meant.

[Matt Wilson]

Well since I've been obsessed with rock n' roll for going on thirty years now I guess I can safely say it won't fade.

Much like my interest in albino dwarf porn.

But you've got to admit Matt, the quality of Albino dwarf porn is not what it was.

Tis true, though I've recently acquired a video through the black (white?) market which sent shivers down my reptilian spine cascading in ivory rivulets of sheer bliss.

She stood four feet three with no teeth (only gums--see if you can guess why this appealed to me) and hair in long pig tails (the better to grasp and pull towards you). Her head was flat (so you could rest your drink on top when you're finished)...

Wait, I'm revealing too much of myself here.

[--]

I'm a lifer. No doubt.

Word. And it helps to keep me alive, too.

[Bad Ambassador]

I would buy at least 4-5 albums a month

Surprised you didn't implode under the pressure of such intense binge-like behaviour.

[Mozz]

I would buy at least 4-5 albums a month

Surprised you didn't implode under the pressure of such intense binge-like behaviour.

Wages from a paper round can only get you so far unfortunately.

[andymacandy]

Although I do occasionally go through spells when I dont listen to music, Im always up for talking about it, as Take5 well knows!