Have you considered listening?

Why

Caring begins with listening

I used to listen to music on my Walkman at night when I should have been sleeping. The darkness and the silence let me focus on the lyrics and the music. Nothing distracted me. I became absorbed.

Loving music is like any relationship: the more you put into it, the more you get out. The more attention you give, the more you notice. The turn of phrase. The ending you expected, replaced by a turn you didn’t. A sudden change of time signature, then a surprising run of chords. The casual listener might notice something has changed. The attentive one absorbs it, and waits for it on the next listen, drawn in further while the noise of life drops away.

We block out time for sleep, for eating, for work and for friends. Why not four minutes for a song?

A song can take you back to a feeling, to something shared with a friend, to a moment in a nightclub. Giving it your whole attention is a kind of meditation, and that’s good for the body and the mind.

Every artist who became popular was once known only by a few. The music moved because the people who thought it worth listening to supported it, shared it and spread it far and wide. No algorithm can replace that: people passing on their sometimes obscure, many-layered tastes to each other.

Before anybody buys a ticket, shares an album, buys a T-shirt or supports an artist, they have to care about the music. And caring begins with listening.

Mat, subTotem