Could You Live Without Recorded Music?

[Florestan]

Suppose power is off for the rest of your life. Could you survive? 

[ritter]

Mankind adapts to everything....

[Rinaldo]

Survive? For sure. Feel like missing a vital organ? All the time. Though I guess it might do interesting things to my perception of sounds around me – and I can only imagine how precious concerts would become. Just like the old times!

Also reminds me of the question if one would rather lose hearing or sight. The former seems like an obvious choice, convenience-wise, but...

[Jo498]

I could hardly imagine it. Although I didn't care about any recorded music until I was 14 or 15, so I could live like that although I didn't know what I was missing. In such a case I'd try to revive my mediocre clarinet skills and try to find people to make some music together. Or sing.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

There was a time many years ago when I was living abroad and did not have access to recorded music (except for occasionally hearing it over a cheap radio). During that time I went to a number of concerts. I noticed that my attention was really heightened and intensified at these concerts, with the crutch of recorded music being unavailable at the time. And my musical memory was better. Maybe listeners in the 19th century experienced music this way.

Without recordings I'd live like a 19th century listener, playing piano reductions of orchestral works (badly, but still), and treating all live music as a special experience.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I have a large personal library of scores and I play the piano. Increasingly badly, but I play.

[foxandpeng]

It's a first world question for one of only a few generations of complete privilege. I could live without recorded music, because almost everyone who has ever lived, did. Enormous numbers of people still do.

Would I ever want to? No. Would it have a profound effect on my mental health and well-being if I couldn't access it? Without a doubt.

Good reminder to be extremely thankful. Not just for the availability of anything, but that at the push of a button, I can listen to almost everything.

[Mirror Image]

I would survive, but it won't be easy.

[San Antone]

Suppose power is off for the rest of your life. Could you survive? 

Yes.  I'd play my guitar more, practice banjo more, read more, find someone with whom to play chess, and live a quieter life.  But when the power does go out I am always very grateful when it is restored.

[bhodges]

It's a first world question for one of only a few generations of complete privilege. I could live without recorded music, because almost everyone who has ever lived, did. Enormous numbers of people still do.

Would I ever want to? No. Would it have a profound effect on my mental health and well-being if I couldn't access it? Without a doubt.

Good reminder to be extremely thankful. Not just for the availability of anything, but that at the push of a button, I can listen to almost everything.

This comes the closest to my thoughts, especially the "extremely thankful" part. It really is kind of miraculous that with a few clicks (granted, with a computer, Internet access, and halfway decent sound) you can summon up not one, but three performances of Kalevi Aho's Sieidi, his concerto for percussion and orchestra. (I used this solely because Aho is off the radar for most of us. And no, I haven't heard that piece yet.)

All of that said (and now I'm grinning), just because the power is off, doesn't mean musicians can't give concerts. So, live music it would be.

--Bruce

[kyjo]

Simple answer: no.

[amw]

No, but as things are currently, recorded music is only delaying the inevitable anyway; it serves me mostly as a means of palliative care. Eventually, I'll lose interest.

[Madiel]

Suppose power is off for the rest of your life.

If it came to that I would be also fretting about everything from the television and the phone through to the heater, the fridge and the oven.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

But when the power does go out I am always very grateful when it is restored.

Indeed. Last summer we had the educational experience of losing power for 20 hours due to a storm. I felt so helpless. Then, naturally, I forgot that feeling as soon as it came on again.

A minor fear I have is that the power will go out when I'm playing a record, with the stylus causing deep damage to the grooves.

[Mountain Goat]

The short answer is yes. As in, I would survive, but it wouldn't be easy. I imagine I'd go to a lot more concerts, and it would probably encourage me to take up playing the piano again more seriously.

Indeed. Last summer we had the educational experience of losing power for 20 hours due to a storm. I felt so helpless. Then, naturally, I forgot that feeling as soon as it came on again.

That happened here only a month or so ago, it made me realise how dependent we are on things we take for granted! The evening it happened I ended up going to bed around 7pm because I couldn't do anything, it was dark, there was no light and I couldn't cook or even make a cup of tea. The next day I had to go into town, mainly to get something to eat because I couldn't cook at home, but also to be able to charge my phone in the car on the way. Such a relief when it finally came back on!

[Karl Henning]

Mankind adapts to everything....

'Tis true.

[Crudblud]

I think if there was no power I'd be more worried about other things. In terms of music, I've got a few guitars. Come winter they might make decent firewood.

[bhodges]

I think if there was no power I'd be more worried about other things. In terms of music, I've got a few guitars. Come winter they might make decent firewood.

OK, this gave me a (grim) laugh. It's true, and as others have said: With no power, music might be the least of anyone's worries. 

--Bruce

[Madiel]

The piano is not getting burned. No way. Even after everything else is gone, the lid of the baby grand will provide shelter.

And also... in a week I complete the purchase of a new house where one of the key goals was having a better space for that baby grand, dammit.

[vandermolen]

I would survive, but it won't be easy.

+1