How "Open-Eared" Are You?

TAoN No. 138: Maybe it's time for some unfamiliar listening. Plus an inspiring reader project, and more.

Photo by Echo on Unsplash

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A recent episode of Sound Opinions included an interview with Timothy McKenry, a professor of music at Australian Catholic University, on an interesting subject: the tendency to get less curious about new music as we age.

McKenry wrote about this in The Conversation: multiple studies, he says, show “our willingness to explore new or unfamiliar music declines with age.” And that’s a pity, he argues, because “the thrill of discovering new songs and new sounds can enrich people of all ages.”

It turns out there’s a pleasing (well, to me) academic term for the openness to new music: “open-earedness.”

The reasons for the frequent decline in “open-earedness” seem intuitive: music gets wrapped up in the emotion and identity-formation of youth, and as that fades into settled adulthood, so does the connection to new sounds. “When we stop actively listening to new or unfamiliar music,” McKenry writes, we cease making fresh music/pleasure connections. (Probably something similar can be said about a general decline in curiosity over time, but that’s a topic for later.)

Crucially, however, this is not universal. Some people remain adventurous music listeners — actively cultivating “open-earedness.” So toward the end of his article, McKenry offers some suggestions for being more open-eared. (These are also discussed in a Sound Opinions podcast extra that extends the show’s interview with McKenry.) Check those out. I’m going to summarize, extract from, add to, and tweak some of the suggestions that resonated with me.

• Make listening to new/unfamiliar music a habit, or even a ritual. In the subscriber edition of TAoN, we just had a fun discussion of favorite DJs (past and present), and I mentioned several WFMU DJs. Listening regularly to their shows and others’ (time-shifted via the Internet) is a really satisfying ritual, and one designed to keep exposing me to new sounds.

• “Make your taste subject to your intellect,” McKenry says in the podcast extra interview. We can and often do judge whether we “like” a song within seconds. Suppress that instant judgment and keep listening. Be patient with new sounds.

• Think of music as exploration. Instead of just liking or not liking, consider music as a window onto a world, a culture, a niche. McKenry writes: “You can help your brain form new patterns by knowing something of the story behind the music.”

• Cultivate musical friendship. If you know some open-eared person who has interesting listening rituals, get in on it! Find out what they’re listening to, encourage them to make you a playlist (and return the favor). My friend Sam leads a spin class, and he’s constantly seeking new music for that; I love checking out his suggestions.

• Target the Unfamiliar, Not Just the New. This exercise is not about keeping up with trends. “We’ve 1,000 years of music to explore,” McHenry notes, so don’t fall into the trap of over-focusing on whatever’s buzzy; be open to unfamiliar genres, music from countries and cultures you don’t know much about, that’s new to you.

• Listen to music you don’t like. This is basically my own blunt variation on all McHenry’s points. Some of what my Sam recommends doesn’t work for me, and neither does lots of what I hear on those WFMU shows. But I still appreciate having heard it! As that subscriber discussion suggested, a good DJ is like an extremely open-eared virtual friend — one who (unlike an algorithm) is not trying to please you, specifically. That can lead to a lot of difficult listening — but also, in my experience, to the most satisfying musical discoveries.

What about you? Is being open-eared important? How do you do it?

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DEPT. OF INSPIRING READERS

Photos by Nancy Egan

A few weeks ago I got a really exciting note from TAoN reader Nancy Egan. Back in the spring, she started a photographic project that has come to be called Everywhere Guadalupe — devoted to capturing images of Our Lady of Guadalupe around Santa Fe.

“As Santa Fe is home to the oldest shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe in the United States, I knew I would find a number of good examples,” she wrote. “Soon I was was seeing variations on the classic Guadalupe literally everywhere.”

“Over time my casual noting of the images became a practice, and I was further rewarded,” Nancy writes on the project page. “My list has expanded to over 20 beautiful depictions of Our Lady, all within a few miles of our home.” Moreover, she adds, a veritable “noticing team” of friends and contacts has been sending her tips, and she’s been doing related research — so I hope the project keeps growing!

I can only share a couple of images in TAoN so please check out the rest here. (And more of her excellent work here and on Instagram.) Thanks, Nancy!

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REMINDER

TAoN is a reader-supported publication. For access to past and future subscriber-only posts, discussion threads — and most important, to keep this free edition alive for all — support TAoN with a paid subscription.

THE NEXT FREE EDITION IN TWO WEEKS

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IN OTHER NEWS

• Joshua Glenn and I appeared on The Big Table podcast hosted by the singular J.C. Gabel, talking about our Lost Objects book. Fun! More Lost Objects news here.

• Wow now that’s a travel journal! Thanks for making the rest of us feel inferior, dude. :)

• The Materials Issue of lit journal Full Bleed looks terrific.

• A collection of pictures of hand-written signs around NYC. Delightful. (More on this subject in a future issue!)

• A gallery show to “highlight art that has long been boxed up and tucked away,” collected but not displayed. Cool idea.

• Friend of TAoN Paul Lukas makes good points about his local mailbox.

• Font comparison tool.

• Museum of Modern Brands.

• KERA Think podcast episode on small talk. Curious to hear any thoughts you all may have on this subject, another one I plan to revisit.

• Pleased to learn that Merrill Markoe, one of my heroes, has a newsletter — here addressing “women who write while lying on their stomachs.” Very funny.

• Concert Cougher, a totally silly little game.

• It’s sound advice to try new things and not worry about mastering them right away — or ever. But a round of applause to Belgian athlete Jolien Buomkwo for showing us all how it’s done. The shot putter was called on to run hurdles at an international track meet, and did about as well as you’d expect. But she managed to finish last with an air of absolute enthusiasm. Remember this is an actual world-class athlete, put in a position of certainly losing — and she did it with a smile. Now that’s a champ. Video on Twitter.

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OKAY THAT’S IT!

• As always, I value your feedback (suggestions, critiques, positive reinforcement, constructive insults directed at me, not at anyone else, etc.), as well as your tips or stories or personal noticing rituals, things we need a word for, and of course your icebreakers: consumed@robwalker.net. Or use the comments.

• —> Or just click the heart symbol. That always makes my day.

And thanks for reading …
rw

• RobWalker.net | NB: I use (some) Amazon Affiliate links

All this by Rob Walker PO Box 171, 748 Mehle St., Arabi LA 70032. Send me mail!

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