"Luke, you've switched off your targeting computer, what's wrong?" -that guy from Star Wars

I just read an article from my former professor, Sergei Medvedev, and have been moved to thought. I know, Le fou, it's quite the dangerous pastime.

For quick reference, here's the article (available only in Russian, sorry). http://www.vedomosti.ru/friday/article/2012/09/21/20471



For those whose Russian is a bit rusty, the article is about how people in Moscow (and I'll extend this to the developed world) more and more check out of day to day life by listening to music constantly. From the second we wake up to "I Got You Babe" on our alarm, to our radios blasting T-Swift on the way to the store, to the pop music distracting us from all the money we're shelling out inside the store, back to T-Swift in the car to the gym, I don't remember what people listen to in gyms in the US (here it's club music, I think it's weird so I always wear headphones...since I go to the gym ever so often...), to the sappy music at the dentist's reception room, to the endless stream of youtube videos at work/school, and the countless other influences of music in our day to day lives. We are putting up a sound barrier to the people around us. In a city of roughly 13 million people, I can avoid contact with a person all day thanks to my ipod. Not only this, but somehow I'm convinced my trip to the store was meaningful because I listened to "The Final Countdown" (not actually on my ipod) on the way. We feel the need to be constantly surrounded by music. I was pretty liberal in my summary of the article (the funny parts, as you can guess, are from me...because unlike me, some people can write an entire page without desperately searching for a cheap laugh, and the article is serious), but you get the picture.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? Well, one possible draw back was voiced by Aleksandr Solzhenitsin, "The human soul longs for things higher, warmer, and purer than those offered by today's mass living habits, exemplified by the revolting invasion of publicity, by TV stupor, and by intolerable music." Often the sounds of life are drowned out by whatever we choose to replace them with (Solzhenitsin hated the radio and tv especially because they tell us what we will listen to). Often we lose screeching, loud, loathsome sounds--but maybe we need those. I sort of like the retired 'Dante era' idea that the cosmos make music as they rotate, and if you really listen it can turn out beautiful.

Then again, can't a person find inspiration, even from even the most banal lyrics supported by factory-produced riffs? After all, it's not as if our lives are constantly filled with moments worthy of the lyrics of Shakespeare put to the tunes of Tchaikovsky...sometimes Steve Perry does a great job supported by the piercing guitar, smooth keyboard, the penetrating beat of the drum, and that sweet sweet bass.