So yes, I'm a complete music addict. I listen to music pretty much all the time - at work, at home, in the car. I'm always designing new playlists. I'm always seeking out new music, and I feel naked if I leave the house without my iPod. Even if it's just to make the trip to the convenience store less than a mile down the street. Pathetic? Yeah, I'll accept that.
I'm not so sure of music being my escape, but I'm very aware of its influence in my life. I play in a band that is only together in the regard that we'll play a show if someone begs us to. We were much more serious about it for most of the last decade, but the business end of touring and the rigidity of the scene burned me out.
I have undergone some serious spiritual changes over the past few years, and in that process, I've become more aware of my many bad habits. My interaction with music has been put under a microscope during that period, since it's such a major part of my life.
This means I have scrutinized my habits with how I listen, and I am beginning to recognize my behavior patterns in how I acquire music. I've drawn parallels to the way I acquire music to the same mental process as addictions. The "thrill of the hunt" with music has led me to make many a poor decision when it comes to music; so much so that I literally spent the last year screening my entire music collection, and managed to eliminate over 5,000 songs.
I've found that I need a bit of order when it comes to finding new music. Becoming aware of my music habits is helping with that process. Take, for example, my affinity for skate punk - a blazing fast, heavily melodic, positive, uptempo genre. I associate this music with the beach and summertime, and thus, I usually start listening to it in mid-June, and am done around the end of September. This may seem strange, but I've found that it helps me to not "burn out" good albums by listening to them too much. It kind of gives me something to look forward to every summer, and I'm not abusing albums by listening to them all year long. I've been aware of this habit for the past four summers, but I've probably been doing it much longer than this.
Despite my seasonal exposure to the genre, I must implement measures to keep from reaching a saturation point with it. The latest measure has been a "transfer window", a term borrowed from my favorite sport, soccer. In soccer, it is a period of time that player acquisitions can be made, per soccer's governing body, FIFA. What I've done is set up a window where skate punk can be added to my collection. That window closes today. After today, I will not pursue finding new skate punk, and I will enjoy what I already have.
If this sounds crazy to you, consider this - anything in this world is at its best when the right balance of creative freedom and boundaries exist. When unchecked, I have burned out many great albums, acquired so many albums that I don't give myself the chance to enjoy what I have, and I reach the saturation point on musical genres before they've taken their natural course. I feel that the awareness of my faults and mental habits will contribute to establishing order, so that I can maximize enjoyment from one of the few things that I can enjoy anymore.
