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December 1, 2006 > Arts & Entertainment > Music collection triggers some serious introspection

Music collection triggers some serious introspection

By Tiffany Siu | Thresher Editorial Staff

Music is an easy way to identify with others. It is how I have found some of my friends. But Rice is strikingly different from many colleges: Music is not such a strong part of most students’ identities. When I ask people what they listen to a very common answer is, “Everything. Well, everything but country.” I think that this is the same response that I would give before music elitism became ingrained in my mind.

While examining my music collection on iTunes I came across some disturbing statistics. I have no fewer than 4,208 songs, about 11.2 days of music. I have listened to 65 percent of these songs at least once and average only 23 songs a day. So why on earth do I have so much music?

This is a collection I have built up over years, but it has been growing at an exponential rate. Buying music has become incredibly convenient. With the availability of music on the Web today, you do not even have to go to a physical record shop — there is a direct link to the iTunes store in the iTunes library.

I bought my first CD, Sixpence None the Richer, back in middle school. I listened to it many times over and knew it by heart — it was also my only CD for about half a year.

Since then, I have dramatically increased my rate of purchasing; I bought eight CDs over this past summer alone. I will admit that it was, in part, a direct result of desiring to be in the know of all the cool up-and-coming bands before everyone else.

Does my wasteful acquisition of music stem from the call of consumerism? Is it a product of my desire to be well versed in underground music or simply evidence of my poor money management skills?

Although my problem might stem from a combination of these causes, I feel the pull of my peers most strongly in this matter. Even in middle school it was cool to know the lyrics to the newest song before everyone else.

This kind of one-upmanship is still around, perhaps most easily identified with the indie kids who take pride in listening to bands most people have never heard of. I started listening to music because I liked it, not because I wanted to seem cooler than my peers. Unfortunately, I eventually slipped into music elitism.

In the beginning I was a newbie who listened to the mainstream edges of what is labeled indie-rock — think Death Cab and Postal Service. But my friends soon introduced me to much, much more.

Some of the music sounded really bad to my pop-pampered ears. I forced myself to listen to it nonetheless. Eventually it grew on me, and I wanted more and more. At some critical point I started acquiring more songs than I could listen to. My time was mostly spent in a continual search for new bands instead of listening to the ones I had just discovered.

Why did this quest take over my life? I believe that what a person listens to is an integral part of a person’s identity, as important as clothes or ideologies. Music makes for immediately accessible stereotypes. Hippies listen to The Grateful Dead, wear tie-dye and love the earth. Punks listen to The Ramones, wear tight pants and hate authority. The list goes on and on.

I think it was Rice’s blase attitude towards music that finally allowed me to step back and take a good look at my slightly ridiculous music situation. I have decided to take a break, to stop trying to find the next big band and spend my time on more pressing issues, like finals and breaking my new vice: Facebook.

Tiffany Siu is a Martel College freshman and assistant arts & entertainment editor.

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