Silence for better listening
People expect a lot from listening, hoping that listening can be more than listening. It is often in that sense that they talk of ‘inner listening’, trying to give a meaning to speech, sounds and music. However it is possible to love sounds just for what they are. Sounds do not need to be psychological or anything else.
Philosopher Immanuel Kant said that two things do not need to be anything but themselves: love and music. Music being constituted of musical notes and rests, silence is part of music. For composers, the most interesting music may be music that is not composed yet, and it emerges from silence. In that sense, perhaps, listening is more than listening. And then it is the same for the listener: ‘inner listening’ may emerge from the silence they made in their mind, making room for something new.
Silence to make the uniqueness of music appear
When listeners really try to empty their mind, they create a new personal space where a new piece of music may take up some room. One memory drives out another one, and it is the same for a piece of music. Appearing after the collapse of the preceding one, a piece of music may be fully appreciated, occupying a specific position in time and space as well as in the mind of the listener. Two pieces of music may be similar, but they are never the same.
What people like is welcome in their life and what they do not like is an intrusion, whatever it is, sounds, images, etc. Sometimes, it may happen that people are indifferent to things they hear or see, but in any case, an attitude towards the environment is chosen. For music, when people love it, they are searching for more and more pieces that present the characteristics they love, a certain proportion of silence, for instance.
Music does not interrupt the listener
Brand marketer Seth Godin contrasts ‘interruption marketing’ and ‘permission marketing’. Interruption marketing as he defines it is something that, instead of finding what is convenient for people and what is the best moment to get in touch, somehow yells out an undifferentiated message at the wrong time. In contrast, permission marketing strives to know what message is suitable for each customer and when it must be delivered.
Music is like marketing: some pieces of music are ‘interruption music’, unwanted by listeners (produced by a mobile phone on the beach or in the underground) and seen as noise, other ones may be ‘permission music’, the piece that will lead them to a new delightful moment: in that case, the listener is choosing the ‘what’ and the ‘when’.