Sunday, June 26, 2016

Music Isn't Your Religion ... At Least, Not Anymore

When Lotho said music has not been religion to him, I was obliterated and could not even really grok his answer as my only thinking was 'how can it possibly not have been your religion?'  It was religion for everyone in the sixties, right?

Well, not exactly.  The non-grokness slowly subsided to, well, I guess it just wasn't religion for everyone but, even now, it's kind of mystifying.


So I thought I would ask for the Millennial perception of music and they say it's not religion either but it's not for the same reason.  The response from that team is the music sucks and the preferred music is more to the vintage side than anything current because ... it sucks.  Generally the thinking is the earlier music is good and it can do the things music does but divine epiphany is not one of them.

(Ed:  it's the drugs, mate!)

Not true, Doctor Spock, as Lotho was trippin' balls and almost certainly ate more acid than I.

(Ed:  then the drugs prevented the epiphany!)

We're not shrinking Lotho, ok?  Shrinking the perception of music, cool; shrinking Lotho, not cool.

So we don't believe drugs have anything to do with the perception, it's just cooler to be stoned or whatever your preferred non-alcoholic indulgence other than soul-killing narcotics.

Note:  keep in mind the Millennial in this observation is coming up on the Living Death of Age Thirty when the dreaded Electicism often sets into the soul.


What we find in Millennials in general with any aspect of religion is a moderate crew of sensible ones, a whole farm full of evangelicals with their hair afire, and others who have abandoned it altogether.  The ones I encounter seem to have kept the core but chucked the rest but that's not entirely clear.  Their passion lies elsewhere but it's also not clear where.  One thing definitely clear is their passion is not the music.

It's also not the visual art as the perception of video or any kind of photography is a mobile phone does a good enough job and that's all it needs to do.  It bugs the burning hell out of me that such shabby standards are so common for photography (e.g. Instagram) but this doesn't seem to bother Millennials because it's all it needs to be for what it is (i.e. not much apparently).


The Big Millennial Safari Hunt continues because the curiosity remains:  if your passion is not with these classically hippie freak things such as music and photography, etc, where does it go.  We know it goes somewhere but we're not sure where.  More to be discovered.


(Ed:  what does this do to your musical religion?)

Nothin', man.  Why should it! (larfs)

It's just a novel observation and a surprise so that makes me curious to learn more.  There's no way I can 'convert' anyone as if I show them the Light then they will see the Divinity in music.  It's not that kind of thing and it would be insulting to try to pitch anything of that nature.

For me, there is deep spirituality in what happens when we listen to music because we transport from where we are but where do we go.  There's also a spirituality over millennia because we wonder why we were ever driven to make music in the first place.  It's hardly a necessary thing that music exists in the Universe and yet it's vital to us because it's soothing or any of a million things to any given individual.  It's not so much a revelation of God but rather a revelation of Us and some may say, well, that is God.  That's as may be but it's not the point.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I truly dont understand you catergorizing drug use.
None of the women that I associate with in thier recovery woke up and said I will put a needle full of herion in my arm today. Or hell today is a good day to load up a glass pipe full of crack.
Noone knows why some continue the journey and cant not get off the ride. Some say it is genetic some say there us an accompanying mental issue. Some just started for fun
The later are the easiest to help in thier recovery. And the most least likely to relapse.
But they all have one thing in common it started either "low level" drugs or from Dr ordered pain killers for a legitimate reason.Again the latter category much easier to help.
My hope and prayer is that the nation will soon understand the issue but not likely.
If I go to an ER room for a drug OD I am given a NARCAN shot and sent home with a phone number to call for help PS exactly what was done with Prince.
If I go for a cardio issue. I am treated then admitted to get to the cause of the issue.
Most addicts want to quit but thier brian chemistry is so altered that they need to be clean fir at least 90 days before thier brain operates properly again and they can begin to think clearly. But most rehab programs are 28 days at best.
Sorry I rant.
My millenials 2 of the 3 are music devotees travelling wide and far for the right music. I indulged thuer music desires by taking them all over the country chasing the band if the day. It never died in either of them. Side note those two played instruments from an early age. Second note both went on to take multiple years of calculus
For Lotho music was a religion in the early years but somewhere it became secondary. Dont know why at some point quiet was better.

Unknown said...

It's no rant as it's deeply-personal hard-earned knowledge. Part of the reason for differentiating here is the thinking most use of reefer / mushrooms is benign whereas any use of narcotics hardly ever is. I mean once you go over to street narcotics. Beyond that your expertise comes into it because mine only relates those who don't go on to narcotics.

My sample on religion in music was from the same trio of Millennials and that one can largely take it or leave it so I was surprised. As to having the religion and it fading away, that makes a whole lot more sense than it was never there at all.

Anonymous said...

The Raven listens to music. But the girls could not understand life without. They probably have a better knowledge of early hardcore punk than any other people that I know.

And I used to seperate out recreational drugs from others but after seeing how all these ladies got to where they are I no longer do that.
I beieve there is a report validating the reduction of heroin addiction in states with medical marijauna states but I never researched it to see if it was true or internet knowledge

Unknown said...

I'm familiar with report(s) of that nature but I haven't seen anything which convinced me of much credibility. There's a tremendous amount of false information flying around seemingly as part of some grass roots movement but there is so much of it and so much purposefully false it seems something more insidious than punks with too much time.