During the past few years I've been thinking a lot about music and why it still feels so important to me. I believe in the long-term, far-reaching power of music in our lives, and I feel that many others do as well.
Answer these questions below. Pretend you are taking one of those online surveys, where each question has to be answered before you get to the next screen:
1. What is your favorite movie?
2. How many times have you watched it?
3. What is your favorite book?
4. How many times have you read it?
5. What is your favorite album or song?
6. How many times have you listened to it?
Chances are the answers to questions 2 and 4 vary between 1 to 9 times, while the answer to question 6 is a number above 100, or even possibly above 1000 listens.
Music is unlike every other "popular" art form. One can continue to discover new depth and meaning in a song in ways that we often don't in a movie or book. Maybe it's because it takes several hours to watch a movie, or three days to read a book, but only three minutes to hear a song. That a work of art that's only three minutes long can hold your attention for years, or decades, in ways that movies and books typically don't is telling. Only visual art – painting, photography, etc. – has the same staying power as music in our lives.*