For this class-we are using The Composition of Everyday Life custom edition by John Mauk and John Metz. Each chapter features invention questions that are designed to help students expand their initial ideas and to take their thoughts beyond the obvious.
I have decided to analyze my own relationship with music for my topic and will attend to the questions below:
Is this relationship difficult? Why? The relationship used to be the easiest thing. With every year I find it more difficult to maintain. I used to love listening to music and especially seeking out new music and seeing it live and did it obsessively-starting with at age 5 with "We Are the World" and continuing on up to about four or five years ago. I still like music but I am not necessarily compelled to listen to it or to sacrifice anything to seek out or find new music. It used to be my favorite thing to talk about and think about and now it gets on my nerves. I think music used to mean more to me when you had to go and buy the physical object. That financial obligation lead me to giving things more than just a cursory listen. I think in today's day and age-especially if you illegally download music there isn't as much impetuous to listen. You hear a minute or so of a song or an artist or an album and if it isn't good-you go to something else. You can check a band's myspace page or find their video on YouTube. Gone are the days of walking into the record store and hearing something you like and grabbing it or even buying something unheard on some friend or critic's recommendation. Now you'd be fool not to seek out a sample before spending your hard earned money on it.
What keeps it going? It is everywhere and I listen to last.fm or WUAG 103.1 when I need an unexpected fix. I keep Cd's in my car and have an ipod and have i tunes on my computer. I also have a record player and burgeoning collection of mostly used, mostly before 1990s music on vinyl. I like to listen to music when I exercise sometimes or when I'm writing. The problem with when I'm writing is if the music is too catch or familiar, it becomes a distraction. I am also hesitant to walk around with my Ipod on, because I feel it's somewhat anti social. I find that I enjoy reading about music (interviews, record reviews, other criticism) almost as much as I like writing about it-so that keeps my interest in it. Many of my friends are musicians; I am an amateur musician myself-and I feel that has both helped foster my appreciation for music but also perhaps lessened it. when you are able to sit down and figure out how to play a song-it may take away some of the magic.
How does the presence of one entity (person or thing) influence the other? In what hidden or indirect ways do they influence one another? Music has had a profound influence on me-I doubt that I have had any influence on it. I considered being a music major and often regret not continuing with piano lessons when I was a kid. I play the guitar and keyboards regularly when I have 30 minutes to an hour to kill and some of the happier moments of my adult life have been playing songs with my friends-at my brother's wedding, at my friend Jacob's wedding, at my friend Megan's Graduate Thesis (which is incidentally where I met the love of my life). She saw us perform and thought I was cool. Is still visit record stores and download new music-I just don't have a boundless craving for it the way I used to.
What would occur to one if the other were gone? If someone were to take music away-I think that might be a good thing. I think it's all too easy-I have at least 20 albums on my I tunes that I've never listened to. What's the use of that? If music were gone-I bet you I would miss it in a hurry. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that recorded music is relatively a young phenomenon and it's not as instilled in our consciousness. I am sure that aging has something to do with it to. The music I've enjoyed the most recently has been either obscure music that was never popular that has been released through a variety of boutique labels or music that I can't understand the words to at all. I think part of my frustration comes from a difficulty with writing new words to my own songs-I have lost that inkling of what songs should be about and how to make them sound cool and original and not trite.
In what ways do I interact with this medium? That's part of the problem as well. I used to mainly listen to cds in my car-I don't drive as much as I used to. I don't really think I am a headphone person-I did enough damage with my Walkman when I was a teenager-cutting lawns and listening to Ride the Lightning by Metallica and The Chronic by Dr. Dre.
Does the relationship reveal something about people's strengths or weaknesses?
Why is it important that people see the meaning of the relationship?
Is there something unusual or usual about this relationship?
Does this relationship show how rewarding or valuable a particular kind of relationship can be?
What brief story will help the reader to see my point about the relationship?
What vivid details will help demonstrate the precise nature of the relationship?
Can I compare the relationship (or the entities in the relationship) to an animal? A thing? A place? A person? What new dimension would this comparison reveal?
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