Today is "No Music Day"

[Daniel A]

Britain to tune out on No Music Day

By Michael White

Published: November 19, 2007

LONDON: Life without music would be a mistake, Nietzsche said bluntly. But it's a mistake that many in Britain are prepared to make, at least for 24 hours on Wednesday, when the nation has been asked to knuckle down to a third annual No Music Day.

According to the official Web site (nomusicday.com), "iPods will be left at home," "rock bands will not rock," "choirboys will shut their mouths," "jingles will not jangle." All this is, of course, wishful thinking, because No Music Day has no legal force. It is simply the idea of one man: the maverick writer, thinker, conceptual artist and former rock star Bill Drummond, whose history as a member of the early-'90s band KLF gives him a certain authority on the subject of artistic self-denial.

At the height of its considerable success, KLF abruptly ceased playing, deleted its entire back catalogue and — for no good reason that Drummond can now remember — publicly burned the last £1 million (now more than $2 million) of its earnings. Drummond has since dabbled in avant-garde activities and ruminated on life without fame. But more broadly he has been considering life without music, prompted, he said, by "the feeling that music wasn't having the effect on me that I wanted."

"I remember going into record shops and thinking, there's too much of this to cope with," he added. "So I started wondering what it might be like to go without music for a year, a month, a week, all of which was a bit unpractical. So I settled on a day. And that's how it began: an entirely personal thing that was never meant to be a crusade but nonetheless went public."

He chose Nov. 21 because Nov. 22 is the feast of St. Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and staging an antithetical observance the day before followed traditions like celebrating Mardi Gras before the start of Lent.

The whole thing might look like one of Drummond's concept statements or, worse, a stunt. But in the three years that No Music Day has functioned (if that's the right word), there have been practical consequences. This year, for example, there will be no music on BBC Radio Scotland and a general abstinence on the part of thousands of people who have pledged themselves to silence on the No Music Day Web site.

Not all the comments on the Web site are approving. But most come from people promising to "cut the strings on buskers' guitars" or, more pacifically, to "go about my business in the splendor of silence."

"It's not music anymore," reads one of many similar remarks. "It's white noise. It's product. It's a core demographic. It's a target audience."

And there you have the issue in a nutshell. People like the idea of No Music Day because they believe that the commercialization of music has reached the saturation point: too much, too easily available.

The argument is not new. And historically it has been advanced by eminent musicians. When Benjamin Britten received the first Aspen Award for the advancement of the humanities in 1964, he devoted part of his acceptance speech to a denunciation of instantly available recorded music. The loudspeaker is "the principal enemy of music," he said, taking care to add that he was not ungrateful to it "as a means of education or study."

How he would have dealt with the age of personal stereos and iPods we can only guess. And there was an element of paradox in Britten's words, coming from a man who spent much of his life in the recording studio, promoting the dissemination of his own works to their lasting advantage. What's more, it has clearly been to the world's advantage to have the works not just of Britten but also of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven on tap.

Yet the complaint behind No Music Day also takes in music that we do not choose: the music — or more properly, Muzak — that assaults our ears unwanted from loudspeakers and television sets placed in restaurants, bars, shops, hotel lobbies and the workplace. Practicing musicians tend to despise Muzak, and last year their number was very publicly joined by the pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim when he raised the subject, angrily, in his internationally broadcast Reith Lectures.

So great was the response to Barenboim's attack that the BBC decided to conduct a rough and ready follow-up survey of public attitudes. Listeners were asked to keep a diary of all the music that came, chosen and unchosen, into their lives over a 24-hour period, including everything from bird song to radio jingles and cellphone ring tones.

The resulting figures showed an average 2 hours 46 minutes of chosen music as against 1 hour 16 minutes unchosen. And attitudes to the unchosen music were 38 percent negative, 28 percent positive and 34 percent neutral: an ambiguous conclusion that potentially supported both the pro- and anti-Muzak lobbies. Piped music was not loathed by everyone — most people didn't actively object — but the largest single group was hostile.

Some respondents enjoyed the serendipitous discovery of new music issuing from a permanently switched-on radio. Many enjoyed street buskers but deplored singing in the office. And psychologists were quick to emphasize a proven relationship between the hearing of music and the raising of spirits.

But equally quick off the mark was a group called Pipedown International, which has been campaigning in Britain for 15 years (with a more recently formed American branch) against Muzak in all its forms. Since musical appreciation is a matter of taste, the group argued, the imposition is likely to depress at least as many spirits as it raises.

"Think of the misery of shop workers forced to listen to the same tape over and over again, especially at festive seasons," said Pipedown's founder, Nigel Rodgers, "According to the Royal National Institute for the Deaf, an average shop assistant hears 'Jingle Bells' 300 times in the few days before Christmas — enough to go mad. And it's the same in restaurants and hotels: bad for the customer but worse still for the staff."

A small but powerful group, Pipedown includes among its patrons the conductor Simon Rattle and the cellist Julian Lloyd Webber, who is punchily direct about what he calls "the spreading cancer of piped music everywhere: an aural pollution every bit as bad as cigarette smoke."

At an individual level Pipedown members carry printed cards to give to store and restaurant managers, graded in order of approval from "Thank you for having no music" to "Your music has lost you my custom." More sweepingly the group exists to lobby Parliament (where it is currently promoting a bill to ban Muzak from hospitals) and speak to the senior management of larger retail companies.

"We've helped persuade two leading supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury, not to broadcast music in their aisle," Rodgers said. "And I suppose our greatest victory to date has been persuading Gatwick Airport to desist after a passenger survey found that 43 percent disliked it, 34 percent didn't and the rest were neutral. But other fights we've lost, including Marks & Spencer's, so there's a long way to go. And it's why we support No Music Day, although for us, one day a year isn't enough."

But that one day will be significant this year in Scotland, with BBC Radio's decision to abstain from music. The producer responsible, David McGuinness, said it would mean "no songs, no bands, no orchestras."

"But it will also mean no music in trails and no jingles to introduce the news, which will make a qualitative difference to the little bits of sound furniture that make up a radio station," he said. "We're also closing down for the day the BBC Scotland music Web site, which is a huge music portal. And to get the message on the streets we're sending out a No Music Day squad to effect citizen's arrests of people wearing headphones."

In other words, a stunt.

"No, absolutely not." McGuinness said. "Of course there's an element of fun, or I hope there will be. But there's also a very serious statement here. We want people to realize how ubiquitous music has become, how it invades their lives in ways they don't realize, and we want to challenge them to stop and think what that means, to consider how they might become more informed in their choices. These are important things. No way are they a stunt."

Meanwhile Bill Drummond has ambitions for the future of his day. "Next year I want to organize nationwide screenings of films without music soundtracks," he said. "And the year after I'm hoping to get iTunes to close for 24 hours. This will be a challenge. But I'm up for it."

From http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/arts/18whit.php

[7/4]

Not in this household.

[Jim Alfredson]

I take breaks from music every so often, lasting up to a week. It helps clear my head and I find myself being very creative, especially after I break my "fast".

I have also argued extensively on this forum that one of the reasons people do not value music as much as in the past is because we are inundated with it at every moment of our lives. In the grocery store, on the TV, at the dentist, in the book store, at the restaurant, etc. etc. Any time you go to any public place, there is some sort of music being piped in. I frequently ask if it can be turned down at restaurants and the waiter or waitress looks at me like I'm insane.

I want to talk to my wife, not hear Hotel California for the 1 billionth time!!!

[brownie]

I'm not British.

Will be enjoying music today like any other day!

[sidewinder]

I'm not British.

Will be enjoying music today like any other day!

I am (we all have our crossses etc. etc.) - and I've broken it by blasting Horace Silver 'Retrospective' at full crank. :rsmile:

The decibel level of the Tolliver Orch. should be next up..

Edited November 21, 2007 by sidewinder

[Claude]

I'm ok with the no supermarket or airport music part, but it should be extended to a year at least.

[7/4]

I take breaks, but there's no need to get crazy...

[ejp626]

Britain to tune out on No Music Day

... "And to get the message on the streets we're sending out a No Music Day squad to effect citizen's arrests of people wearing headphones."

As if there wasn't already enough nannying and nagging in the UK. I don't use an iPod, but the idea that this self-righteous group can take it upon themselves to go around telling people to turn off their own (not piped-in) music (even in a humorous way) is odious to me. Come try it in New York or Chicago, and you'll probably not get the response you are after.

[AndrewHill]

I can think of better things to take a break from for a day: tv, smoking, maybe even using the computer...

[Rosco]

I won't be listening to any KLF records all day. Does that count?

[JSngry]

If you have your own music inside you, you really don't need to hear it anywhere else, unless it's a consensual act among others, and even then, that's probably more a desire than a need. I mean, yeah, we all want to share that which is dear to us, but "music as product" is a much bigger Pandora's box than we realize, and that includes "hey, check this out!", becuase then at some level, perhaps subconsciously, perhaps not, perhaps benevolently, perhaps not, we're peddling ourself through music. Again, this isn't inherently evil, in fact it's usually quite good, very nice. But it is using music as product, and that does hold the potential to turn into something else altogether. Because anytime anybody puts music out in the open to be heard by somebody else, something is being peddled, be it an emotion, an idea, a desire, product, something. There's always a reason why somebody makes a sound to be heard by somebody else.

So - what are you listening to right now?

[MoGrubb]

Maybe Drummond's just being honest with himself, doesn't like music, chose to stop listening and playing crap that "passes" for music, which is commendable, or simply hadn't found his taste in music.

Anyhow, I'll ignore "No Music Day."

[Van Basten II]

They should say that to our very crappy local radio stations, then i'd support the idea.

Edited November 21, 2007 by Van Basten II

[Jazzmoose]

I personally think this is a great idea, and I'm going to pencil it in on my calender. Let's see...I'm booked up for quite a while; how's the Monday after "No Breathing Day" sound?

[Jazzmoose]

They should say that to our very crappy local radio stations, then i'd support the idea.

I was ready to agree until someone told me about this cool gospel station the other day.

[Chuck Nessa]

They should say that to our very crappy local radio stations, then i'd support the idea.

I was ready to agree until someone told me about this cool gospel station the other day.

Does "cool gospel" have vocals by Chet Baker?

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, since I don't watch TV or listen to the radio and don't live in Scotland, I didn't know about this until too late.

Of course, even had I known about it, I wouldn't have taken any notice. If I want to listen to no music (which does happen very occasionally, believe it or not), I'll do it on my own time, not because someone else is doing it.

MG

[J Larsen]

I do this intentionally every now and then - I find "reseting" my ears to be useful every now and again.

[Rosco]

And now it's 'Buy Nothing Day'!!

http://www.buynothingday.co.uk/