venta

Today I have mostly been marking No Music Day, which is another bright idea courtesy of Mr Bill Drummond.

This morning I got in the car, and my tape player ground into action; I heard about a quarter of a song before the tape reached the end of its side, and clicked over to radio 4. There I head Bill Drummond explaining to the Today program that today was No Music Day. Music has run its course, and No Music Day exists to give you time to decide what you want from music. Synchronicity fans will be delighted to hear that the tape I'd had on was The White Room.

I decided to observe No Music Day; last year I heard about it too late. This is partly because I think Bill Drummond is exactly the sort of insane genius we should be encouraging, and partly because I think he has a point.

The point was amply illustrated as soon as I got into work. I sat down at my desk, put my headphones on, dragged up Winamp... and then thought hang on, I'm not meant to be doing this. Switching my music on when I arrive is purely reflexive. There's no wondering what I want to listen to (I'm probably still in a playlist from yesterday), no wondering whether I want any music.

Throughout the morning I was aware of feeling exposed and (bizarrely) cold without my headphones on. My 'phones are clumpy, closed ear Sennheiser beasts - I recently caught sight of myself in a reflective surface and observed that I look bloody ridiculous when wearing them. Technically I could have fulfilled the criteria by wearing my headphones without music (something I often do by mistake), but eschewing the headphones seemed like part of the deal.

I was more aware of the noises in my office; the guy behind me testing bits of an audio application, my boss drumming his fingers, the bloke across the corridor with the incredibly loud voice. These are faint irritations from which I'm usually protected. More annoying, however, was the faint and pervasive feeling that something was missing, I'd forgotten to do something.

Occasionally when I put on my headphones, I have to pause to work out whether there's music playing. I have my music on very quietly (so I can hear anyone trying to catch my attention) and often putting the 'phones on leads me to believe I can hear faint music. I assume this is a similar phenomenon to the people who record white noise and then play it back listening for voices. This suggests to me that music has become too much of a background, something just to be 'on'.

The comments on the No Music Day website are very varied, from utter pretentiousness to "this is the lamest idea I ever heard" (and why is it that use of the word lame in that way always makes me think the writer is a twat?) I don't imagine everyone thinks it serves a useful purpose. but I think it's done me a good turn. I'm looking forward to listening to several things tomorrow. Next time I'm wandering through my mp3s thinking "bleh, don't know what I fancy listening to", perhaps I should leave the music off til something starts to appeal again.

Incidentally, Bill Drummond's main website is well worth a browse around, for equal measures of inspired and barking mad.