Lost Art of Music Appreciation

I know music means different things to people but everyone is universally drawn towards rhythmic sounds in some way or another. Being a lonely kid necessitates the development of good music taste. With that much time on your hands, what choice do you have other than to refine your taste and move away from what is fed to you? As such, I've been enamored with music since a young age. However, I feel like I've recently discovered how to appreciate music on a whole different level since my dive into Radiohead's discography. I know it may sound corny but this is a band that has changed my life and I know this is the case for many others out there as well.

When was the last time you really listened to music? I mean like really listened. When was the last time you spent as much time intently listening to a piece of music like you would at an art museum? When I look at art, there are so many things that race through my head: when was this piece made? By who? In what context? For whom? And then when breaking down the artistry: what medium is this? I wonder how long it took. Why are the shadows so dark? What must they be bringing attention to? Why are the figure's eyes so large? Were old timey people really that serious? This stream of consciousness that enters my head when looking at art is also present when I listen to music.

With the amount of recording and music technology today, almost every sound that you hear in a song is a choice made directly by the artist, much like the strokes of a painting. Each instrument deliberately sounds a certain way, which culminates in a complete painting of a song. Every song has a time signature, a tempo, a key, and a chord progression but these are just the bones. Every instrument has a pitch, tone, timbre, duration, and texture that creates just one aspect of a song. And the choice of which instruments and effects to put on those instruments further delineates every song from another.

I guess this also just turned into a list of thoughts but I'll come back to this because I think there's something here!