It is impolite to remain silence to these comments. I therefore write this article as collective response.
I have been a music addict since my childhood.
I love instrumental music much more than vocal songs with a only few exceptions.
When I was 5th grade, the best audio equipment all families in my village had were AM radio receivers each with a tiny speaker capable of playing “music” with lowest treble and bass while with highest noises caused by AM wave interference.
Every time I inadvertently heard of a music performed by unwitting Japanese orchestra from a random neighbor’s radio receiver, I stood still and paid my full attention listening to the rhythms and the sounds of various instruments. I acquired greatest enjoyment during the half-way course of music play but also had been anxious that my neighbor might tune away that frequency away before the music finished.
I had more reasons to be anxious because bad thing also frequently happened that radio stations abruptly cut off their music plays and inserted advertisements into between program sessions or time slots inaccurately scheduled for advertisements. Some program hosts also had the bad habit that they started to talk before the end of their music plays.
I was extremely satisfied with the beautiful melody. Meanwhile, after the music finished, I hated myself that I had not approached my neighbor earlier so that I could have had the chance of enjoying that full music.
My family finally owned a tube radio receiver which played absolutely no bass and another portable transistor one when I was 6th or so grade. I started to hold that transistor radio receiver in my hands or above my laps and to keep tuning around wave frequencies searching for Japanese instrumental music. I often failed to run into any music I liked for several days.
After several years’ work, I finally was able to own this equipment to quench my desire.
The sounds electronic instruments mimic have always been obviously fake.
No matter how intricately an electronic device tries to pretend an instrumental sound, it always makes the sound with several details different from the sound that is played by that true instrument. Whenever an electronic device mimics any one instrument, it always ends up with sharp, harsh, emotionless, stiff, sound that hurts my auditory nerve. Any electronic fake sound pollutes and completely ruins a whole piece of music that was supposed to be a good one. Hence I call those electronic sounds as noises.
To what extend can an electronic circuit ruin this or this wonderful music by faking any sound of saxophone, guitar, or violins is completely beyond my imagination.
Electronic music were so annoying that they denied me in my childhood access to the genuine music I love. They bombarded radio programs when I had only radio receiver. During its peak time, pure electronic “music” were ubiquitous. I rarely was able to encounter Japanese orchestra or Paul Mauriat by tuning my radio receiver because they were expelled by pure electronic works cloned from original lovely instrumental or vocal versions and cheaply rearranged and performed en mass. As a result, I turned off my radio receiver altogether for a period of time and lived in a boring life due to the lack of true music.
I must clarify one viewpoint here. I like neither the music consisting of any electronic device pretending real instrument, nor the boring pure electronic music made up with only electronic sounds. However, I do like some music properly incorporating electronic sounds which play their own roles and do not mimic any genuine instrument. Some of Paul Mauria’s works, which I love very much, are good examples — they perfectly incorporate weird yet lovely electronic sounds unavailable in nature. I also suspect that the bass, an essential component, in modern music is mostly produced by electronic devices which do a better job than cellos do in many cases.
Electronic devices reduce more jobs from artists than they create.
About 30 year ago when I was switching around TV channels, an NHK enka program popped out from the screen showing a large Japanese orchestra consisting of about two dozens of instrumentalists all wearing ancient costumes and playing magnificent piece of music as the background supporting a singer. Its recording quality was excellent. That was called music!
On the other hand, every time when I inadvertently ran into a TV program showing singer(s) backed by one-man electronic “band”, I promptly switched to other channels or turned off my TV set.
What problems do we have here?
- One man playing electronic devices takes over the jobs from all artists that are supposed to be in a large orchestra performing music.
- The electronic “band” provides its audiences with background effects with so low quality that it profanes music.
Does music exactly help or hurt our health?
The rumor asserting that music help its audiences’ mental and physical health circulates everywhere. I thought the same too until I found the opposite.
As aforementioned, I was a music fanatic. In fact, I still am, but I have recently gained some successes in resisting music’s lure. This was me not long ago:
- I grasped the moment when I was alone and in good mood, and turned up the volume of my Carver amplifier to the highest level on which I could bear, and turned on its loudness switch.
- I randomly picked from my favorite collections like pearl fishers, 丘を越えて, 名月赤城山, surprise, 長崎は今日も雨だった, 高原の駅よさようなら, Queen of Sheba, Nous irons à Vérone, Viens viens, Il n’y a pas de fumée sans feu, 月琴, Anak, I started A Joke, Massachusetts, imagine, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina, and a hundred more.
- I consecutively played about two dozens of them, each of them for 3 or more times depending on how much I loved them.
- In order to maximize my enjoyment of music, I paid full attention listening to each one of them and tried as hard as I could to catch each and every detail of sounds — vocal, violins, drum, cello, trumpet, piano, bells, .. everything. Every sound was so pleasing!
What could possibly go wrong with consecutive enjoyment of music for 3 or 4 hours? Was it all pure fun? Did I feel good from the beginning to the end of the course of my enjoyment?
The answer in my own case is “No.”
Taking my experiences of Il n’y a pas de fumée sans feu and James Last — Paintings as examples, I recall these phenomena.
- physical effect: I felt tired or even exhausted every time after listening to my favorite music for a longer period of time. I lose my energy by listening to music. I draw this conclusion from my experience that music does not make you physically stronger, but weaker.
- mental effect. An unspeakable sorrow arose from nowhere especially in the female’s chord and James Last’s violins. Sorrow equates bad mood — the unhealthy mental state. I assert that even lovely music causes its audiences mentally ill, let alone the unpleasant music as known as noises.
- effect falling into undetermined category. Because I enjoyed the first piece so much, I replayed it to maximize my pleasure. However, my interest dropped as the number of replays increased whereas my impatience grew. After 4 ~ 10 replays, I ultimately stopped and moved to next piece. I sooner or later got the same experience from the second piece as the first one. I repeated this activity and spent 2 to 4 hours listening several dozens of different pieces of music in one go.
Phenomenon #3 begs me these questions.
- Why can’t I obtain the most pleasure from a single piece of music by replaying it for hours? Why I keep changing works instead of listening to only one piece?
- Why can’t I listen to music all day long to have a full nice day? Why am I fed up with music when I have had too much of it?
- Does being tired of something equates hatred?
- Is impatience a form of hatred?
- Is music similar to foods that no one should take too much to hurt our health?
I welcome your answers to above questions. If you do not have them, I invite you to experiment what I frequently did and derive your own conclusions.
I also have or had these physical symptoms:
- I become faint and unable to talk aloud anymore each time after I have loudly talked too much for too long.
- When I was 12 or 14 years old, I felt dizzy and disgusting immediately after I walked out from cinemas.
My experiences appear to coincide ancient Chinese wisdom.
- 《文選．枚乘．七發》：「縱耳目之欲，恣支體之安者，傷血脈之和。」(Both indulging in auditory and visual pleasures, and being lazy and unwilling to work, are harmful to one’s harmony of cardiovascular system.)
- 《孟子．離婁》：「從耳目之欲，以為父母戮」(Indulging in auditory and visual pleasures is a corruption that shames one’s parents.)
By the way, I felt uncomfortable when I saw my daughter walking on street on her way home wearing a headphone or playing her smart mobile phone.
I derive this perception:
- Exerting our five sensational organs — eyes, ear, nose, tongue, and body — are harmful to our health.
- Listening to music hurts our physical health because we exert your hearing organ and auditory nerve with that activity.
Indulging in music waste our lives while cause hatreds to arise.
In the essence of life and mental health, there actually is no difference between listening to music and watching TV shows, watching sports games, attending concerts, watching movies, or singing karaoke, etc.
- When sorrow arises from music, you are in hatred state.
- When the movie makes you recall your present or past misery, you are in hatred state.
- When you run tears because two lovers in the movie split, you are in hatred state.
- When you eager to see the bad guy in the movie severely punished, you are in hatred state.
- When the bad guy in the movie gets killed and you cheer accordingly, hatred hides in your deep mind.
- When you like the show and you wish the performance would last longer, you crave. Dissatisfaction equates to hatred which arises from lust.
- When you are not satisfied with the quality of the performance, you become angry regardless of how trivial that angry might be. Angry equates to hatred.
- When your favorite sports team loses, you become angry. Angry equates to hatred.
- When you bet on your favorite sports team and you win money but you feel your gain too little, you are in lust state and subsequently and instantly fall into hatred state.
These side effects always occur regardless of whether or not we are aware of them:
- We have been wasting our invaluable times, namely lives, in entertainments.
- Entertainments cause lusts and hatreds to arise.
Music is bad at wrong times.
I visited one of my uncles at hospital when he was ill of lung cancer and was near the end of his life. He was taking analgesics to relieve his pain. I asked, “where do you feel pain?” He replied, “my whole body.” I stopped talking because I did not know what to say then.
He laid down his head over his hands on the sick bed. His posture did not suggest me to think that he was sleepy. Rather, I suspected that he was in severe pain even having taken analgesics.
Now I ask myself this question, “If I am in such fierce pain, will I ask for music?” Absolutely not! Music would badly annoy me in such situation.
A venerable monk recalled his near death experience as such.
When I was on third floor in my home, I suddenly fell down for no cause. I could not move or made sound. A voice came from nowhere speaking to me, “Life ends here.”
The window was neither completely closed nor widely open. When the mild wind blew into my room through the window and touched me, I felt immense pain like millions of needles piercing into all my capillaries. This tells us that when we are physically weak, our blood stagnates and hence even soft touches cause us sever pain.
My hearing become extremely sensitive that when a nearby motorcycle passed by my building, I heard its noise as loud as thunder.
His words blew me off!
Will I enjoy music when I am dying? Absolute not.
Will I be mad if music is played near me when I am dying? Sure I will.
Where will I go after my death if I am furious at my very last moment? Heaven or hell?
I am mentally ill countless number of times every day.
Lust and hatred are mental illness.
Sometimes I became seriously ill while other times less so. Sometimes I frequently became ill while other times less often. Sometimes my illness lasted for a long period of time while other times shorter.
Life is short!
No more buzzwords! Everyone knows that! So allow me to make this last part short.
Three of my favorite geniuses, Paul Mauriat, 古賀政男, and James Last, who brought to me great pleasure, all died.
Where are they now? Are they enjoying their own masterpieces now?
I don’t know, whereas I believe few people happily died — Most of them grieved for physical pains, felt miserable for having little enjoyment, recalled past suffering, were reluctant to leave, hated someone else, craved longer lives, were unwilling to give up their wealth, regretted wrongdoings, were shameful for not achieving goals, were anxious due to being unaware of their immediate next destinations, etc.
The accurate version of the notion that
Heaven accommodates those who are happy while hell accommodates haters.
is
He who is happy lives in heaven while hater lives in hell.
What am I supposed to do next?
I have many meaningful things to do. Listening to music definitely is not my priority.
I decide to cure my illness once and for all while I still can. I mean, in this very life, in order to stop my illness from extending to my next life.
