The experiment: As of the date writing this text, new years 2022, I, the author of these works, have completed 7 years of a bold musical experiment. This being refraining from listening or creating any music made with 440Hz even temperament, 1/3 inverted rhythmic structure. There has been some unavoidable exposure, when out in the world, occasional reviewing, remastering of my older works, watching occasional movies/online content or the unintentional use of 1/3 inverted rhythms from habit. I have remained aware how much music is hidden in everything though and I tried to limit my exposure. I estimate my overall reduction of exposure over 7 years is somewhere in the 90 percentile range.
What happened was in some ways at first very subtle. Now it's not so subtle. When I do listen to mainstream music, it does not get stuck in my head very easily. I can listen to an album or watch a movie and when it stops, the music in my head stops. There is actual quiet in my head. Actual calm. There are actual moments of real peace. No longer do audible sounds and thoughts so easily trigger old music endlessly looping in my head. All it used to take was hearing the name or seeing a picture of a music artist like MJ and one of his songs would immediately start endlessly looping in my head, regardless if I wanted it to or not.
Though my emotional reaction to music has not diminished, mainstream music does not take up so much of my head space. I have much better control of what plays in my head. I did not realize just how much mainstream music was effecting my emotional state, till I gave it up for so long.
It seems to be a saturation effect. It took about a year for the effects of modern music to begin to fade. Liken to an old drug addiction though, it only took a few days of old listening habits for the effects of modern music to return. Songs endlessly getting stuck in my head. Latching onto and prolonging negative thoughts. Agitating my mental state. Effecting my moods. That was at the 1 year mark though. Now that is has been 7, I would imagine it would take a little longer to re-saturate. The odd thing is, I no longer have a desire to find out. During the first year or so, I would crave listening to my old favorite mainstream music. Occasionally giving in for a song or 2. Now I don't. Even if I listen to a song, I do not immediately crave re-play, like I used to.
It all makes me feel eerily like getting over an actual drug addiction. Mainstream music had been an integral part of my every day life since I was 6. I had thought it was a positive part of my life. Now that it's gone, it seems it had more negative effects on me, than positive ones. Strangely I can not attribute these negative effects to my choice in genres, since, I use to listen to most everything. From hip hop to electronic, techno, Jazz, R&B, ambient, rock, progressive, alternative, movie scores, video game sound tracks, you name it, even classical. Though interestingly, classical never had quite the negative effect as the others.
Now that I have gone this long without mainstream music, I don't feel like I can ever go back to it.
Long time composer/production engineer. Apparent pioneer of the "Nontoxic music movement". This site features a wide variety
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