Music Abuse and MGMT

Do you buy records and play them over and over and over again waiting for them to grab you because you know it’s eventually going to grow on you? For some of my favorite bands, it seems like the more they grow as artists, the longer it takes for new stuff to grab me. It’s an artform to be able to do that. The record is a time released capsule that will inevitably lead you to a richer and deeper listening experience, but, only if you happen to decide to put in the time for it to grab you after, say, the 11th repeated listen.

When I listen to MGMT, it’s like I took acid 2 or 3 hours ago and I’m still wondering if I’m going to start tripping any minute. Everyone else who got the same dose flew out of their head within the first 15 minutes. Maybe it’ll happen next time I hear it. Maybe I just don’t have the ear for it. Maybe it’s genius. Maybe it fu#$ing suggs.

I suspect that the social learning theory in regards to drugs works exactly the same way for music, e.g., “When I first tried MGMT nothing much really happened. I thought it was just like smoking a cigarette.” I may have missed out on learning how to listen to music. Maybe I became addicted to it while I was trying to figure out what the fu#$ it sounded like and now I listen to this sh#$ even if I don’t like it. Music abuse. Oh, no. Could be I just have a poor music metabolizer.

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