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Thai_Lord t1_ixj45oj wrote

Out of thousands of people I've asked over the years, I've met like 3 people that don't listen to music. Super creepy people. They're dead inside. They have doll's eyes. There's nothing going on behind them.

Music is math. Math is existence. Music is existence. We're hard-coded for music. The top answer is probably to respond to it as an emotional release or way to observe an idea or concept from a new/unique perspective you wouldn't ascertain on your own.

Also, music is.....so many different things. Heart. Soul. Love. Joy. Sadness. Hatred. Empathy. Melancholy. It's a release, and a guiding light to how your mind is operating subconsciously. If you hear a depressing song and it makes you sad...you're probably sad, dude. If you hear a depressing song and you smile or aren't super into it, you're probably not depressed. Music is a compass for the soul.

I don't wanna really go further than that, but yeah, it really bothers me when someone says something to the effect of "I don't really listen to music." I'm already at 200 songs today, not counting repeats. Not to gloat about how many songs I've listened to lol, but they serve a very necessary purpose. But so do psychopaths in war. It is what it is.

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jfgallay t1_ixk0pcg wrote

Haha, it's often hard for me to listen to music these days for a reason: I'm a professional performing musician and music theory teacher. It's hard for me not to start analyzing what I'm hearing and thinking how I would explain it to students. Music just feels like work these days (it didn't always). But, I've made some major life changes and I am looking forward to just listening and enjoying very soon.

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[deleted] OP t1_ixjgqgf wrote

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k_smith_ t1_ixjlozz wrote

That assumption wasn’t made? The first comment was about the three people this person has met. Not a generalization.

The actual “psychopath” statement also wasn’t an assumption, it was a parallel: music serves a purpose in this person’s life, “but so do psychopaths in war”, ie, “just because something serves a purpose doesn’t mean it’s good, so take this with a grain of salt”

edit: a punctuation mark

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[deleted] OP t1_ixjm4hk wrote

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k_smith_ t1_ixjmy6b wrote

I can see why. I read it as “people who don’t listen to music” not being the same as “people who can’t listen to music”. The first being people who simply choose not to for whatever reason, as opposed to people who have a reason not to.

Not that I think people who choose not to listen to music are inherently odd or that you have to have a reason not to like it, but I would definitely double take at someone who told me they actively choose never to listen to music without a reason other than “I don’t want to.” But then again, I’ve never encountered the concept that people may simply choose not to without another reason, and the more that I think about it the more I’m genuinely wondering if that has more to do with the people I tend to spend time with rather than with the general population.

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undangerous-367 t1_ixjt43w wrote

I don't listen to music. And I'm a mathematician. So your response was funny to me. I don't hate it. But I do not listen to it of my own accord and don't have music playing in my car. I am not dead inside. I just think music is so obviously synthetic sound and I prefer the natural sounds of birds and wind and such. It's so weird to me that people can't just pause and listen to the natural world around them. How can you possibly listen to music that much? Do you not have a job, or conversation with humans, or sleep, or a moment to just be?!? When I encounter people who listen to music to this extreme I always wonder why you're constantly trying to avoid having a conversation with yourself and why you are so afraid of the fact that people can be genuinely good and joyful people without listening to a single song all day long.

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Thai_Lord t1_ixjtim0 wrote

But they're not good and joyful, is the point I guess you missed. They're all terrifyingly weird.

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undangerous-367 t1_ixjtyy7 wrote

Haha, I assure you I am incredibly joyful and a good person. I don't force anyone to turn off their music. I just don't turn it on myself. It's not as uncommon as you think and your immediate judgement is definitely a part of you that makes you less than perfectly good. Not everyone loves music and that is absolutely okay. You might try reading a book for an hour instead of listening to music you'll find yourself becoming good and joyful before you know it!

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Thai_Lord t1_ixju96m wrote

Dude I write books for a living and I have to write in complete silence lol. We're both agreeing about the same thing, I'm just being kind of a dick.

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Remote_Ability_7179 t1_ixk8fl7 wrote

It's why I always ask musicians if they know we know that they are sad, happy, angry etc when they are playing. We can literally feel when you're into the music.

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