# Could you live happily without recorded music? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 3, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144 "2008-01-03T17:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/21 "2008-01-03T22:47:58Z")
The only recorded music I listen to are 1) whatever NPR plays between segments and intro sequences to TV shows, and 2) whatever the background music happens to be on in the computer game I’m currently playing. ---
**Author:** ![redman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b2d939/32.png) [@redman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redman)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2008, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/22 "2008-01-03T23:05:06Z")
Worthwhile consideration: No recorded music equals no more RIAA. Could we get rid of recorded music for say… a month? then the RIAA goes away, we can bring back recorded music. ---
**Author:** ![Dying\_Butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dying\_Butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dying_Butterfly)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/23 "2008-01-04T00:22:09Z")
Yes, easily. I hardly ever listen to music. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/24 "2008-01-04T00:23:57Z")
I did for ages, and I could probably get used to it again. I’d miss it terribly, though. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/25 "2008-01-04T00:29:58Z")
Short answer: no. But, does “no recorded music” include movie and TV soundtracks? How about bumper music on talk radio? I could gladly do without Muzak, that’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/26 "2008-01-04T00:58:46Z")
The people who participated in [Regency House Party](http://www.pbs.org/previews/regencyhouse/) (think: what if Jane Austen produced reality TV instead of novels?) all said that going without recorded music was one of the unanticipated hardships of their experience. When musicians came to play for them it was a really big deal. Me: probably go stark raving within a few hours. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/27 "2008-01-04T01:27:11Z")
Other than incidental music, such as the background music on T.V. or movies, I never listen to recorded music. I do love to make my own music (by singing), and do so on a daily basis, but recorded music doesn’t really hold my interest. I was thinking about this the other day (I believe in response to an SD thread) and realized that my attitude toward music is similar to the way some people feel about my collection of TV shows on DVD. They think that it’s silly to watch a show that you’ve already seen, and I feel like once I’ve heard a song a few times, I don’t really need to hear it again. Of course, without recorded music, my ability to learn new songs would be hampered. But I’d probably just listen to live music, read sheet music, and of course, make up my own, which I do now anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/28 "2008-01-04T02:43:32Z")
One thing to consider: with no recorded music, live music would be vastly more important - and more widely available - than it now is. IMHO, there would be real benefit to this. ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/29 "2008-01-04T03:13:44Z")
I don’t listen to a lot of it except when in the car, and only if I can’t get / am not interested in whats on public radio. But I’d miss movie soundtracks / scores Brian ---
**Author:** ![Strinka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/strinka/32/512_2.png) [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/30 "2008-01-04T03:34:22Z")
I could, but I wouldn’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![bundykala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@bundykala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bundykala)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/31 "2008-01-04T06:14:35Z")
Nooooo! I need music just as much as I need chocolate in my day-to-day life. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/32 "2008-01-04T06:15:59Z")
No. I don’t listen to a lot of current music, and I’m not exactly on the cusp of new, indie music…but I do like what I have. It’s great having a soundtrack. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/33 "2008-01-04T14:46:53Z")
To elaborate, Here are some of the things that no more recorded music would mean to me: Never again to get to listen to _Abbey Road_ or _Pet Sounds_ or any of the literally hundreds of other albums I have come to love. Never again to look forward to the new album by one of my favorite bands, or to have the adventure of discovering albums by new or new-to-me artists. Never again to hear a symphony or string quartet unless someone happens to be playing it live somewhere near. (And even then, what if I like it so much I want to hear it again? Or what if it takes several listens for the work to really sink in?) Never again to have music to listen to while I’m driving or reading or grading homework or… And where’s the fun in dancing around the room in my underwear to complete silence? Live music wouldn’t fill the void. It’s a different animal, with its own advantages and disadvantages. Live music is to recorded music as live theater is to movies and TV. Neither can really take the place of the other. ---
**Author:** ![buttonjockey308](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@buttonjockey308](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buttonjockey308)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/34 "2008-01-04T15:14:34Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink] Live music wouldn’t fill the void. It’s a different animal, with its own advantages and disadvantages. Live music is to recorded music as live theater is to movies and TV. Neither can really take the place of the other. [/QUOTE] This is my thought as well, I mean even if you were a virtuoso on any number of instruments, the odds are pretty good you couldn’t play any one of them while working or cleaning the house or going for a drive or any number of tasks that today have, through the advent of technology, been enriched with a soundtrack. Sure, you could hum, whistle, sing, fart, drum your fingers, but why go backwards? Recorded music, at least to me, is as important as the daily newspaper, it brings things into my life that I’ve never been without, and I wouldn’t be happy at all if that were taken from me. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144/35 "2008-01-04T15:23:54Z")
I don’t know that I’d miss it for long; it would probably only be a couple of months until I died from falling asleep in the car or from food poisoning because I never cleaned anything in my apartment. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-you-live-happily-without-recorded-music/432144.md?page=1)