So, I’ve been talking about decluttering our digital lives for a long time now. Today I want to talk about the post-deletion process: how can we replace the messy stuff we deleted with organized, good new material? Obviously, this process applies to every kind of things, from music to movies, from ideas to your bedroom’s furniture, from your desk to your digital workspace.
The point is, we are so addicted to our social environment that we get easily used to things, ideas, concepts, services and medias everyone around us relies on. We get so used to hearing concepts everyone has in his own mind, things everybody knows, songs which play again, and again, and again on the radio. We are chronic repetitors. We repeat endlessly, again and again, and again the thought of others, the ideas of our friends or coworkers, the opinion of a so-called “expert”. It’s ok to repeat if you feel good enough.
But if you want something more out of your life, how can you shape the life you are meant to live?
Obviously, you will only take this step if you have developed a consciousness about the role technology has in your life.
This week, we’re going to talk about music, and how to replace your old material with something better.
To me, it’s a pity that:
-
•.talented musicians have to be leaved in the background while only “gifted” (you will never know why and how!) ones succesfully reach the largest audiences.
-
•.we usually have to pay for bad, bad music.
-
•.We only get to know what media suggests us
Bearing in mind the importance of experimenting and unthetering from digital clutter, I am taking several steps in order to detach, little by little, from corporation / lobbies’ music, in order to enjoy more of what’s commonly referred to as “open music”. Open music refers to uncopyrighted music, royalty free audio and creative commons music.
When free stuff is available to us, I think we have an opportunity to catch. Not only because somewhere you can find amazing bands playing beautiful music; but also we can develop a taste in music and develop a sane attitude towards “entertaining” and the whole concept of “modern entertainment”. We also save money, time, effort; plus, we create space for what’s really important in life, our hobbies and sports.
The sounds of independent artists reach the depth of my soul; they give shape and colours to the ideas sometimes spark in my mind. And I perfectly understand now that there is something more to listening to low quality commercial stuff (Coldplay, r’n’b, rock ‘n’ roll, Led Zeppelin, Rihanna or Tiziano Ferro, for example).
While listening to commercial music I have the vague impression I am just injecting my brain with something coldly calculated, created for the sake of feeding the mass, with no apparent interest for adding valuable content to the listeners’ lives. This is just my perception, and I may be totally wrong. But, given that I have learned to trust my instinct and my heart, I sense I’m doing something right in adopting open music in my life.
Where can you find open music? You can start by looking at: Archive.org, Netlabels in Archive.org, FMA (Free Music Archive) Jamendo.it
What about the genres and bands? I will bring this whole material into depth in next week’s article.
In the meanwhile feel free to answer these questions in the comments: I could use them in the next articles! what do you listen to? Why? How can you sleek down your entire music collection to include better qualtity music?