Hearing Music vs Deep Listening: Reviving What We’ve Lost in the Capitalistic Economy of Distraction

There’s a difference between hearing music and really listening. Hearing is passive. Deep listening is active. In a world drowning in noise—Spotify playlists, algorithmic recommendations, the endless scroll—most of us hover on the surface. We let music wash over us. It plays while we commute or while we do chores. We “like” a track after Spotify has thrown it at us five times. But do we ever pause to wonder what else is there tucked into the songs, what the artist meant, how it might shift us? That capacity, the ability to connect beyond the obvious, is slipping away. And for musicians, that gap between hearing and listening might be the difference between a forgettable single and something that roots itself into people’s souls. Drawing from Jenny Odell’s insights in How to Do Nothing, this article breaks down what deep listening means for listeners and musicians. It critiques our modern-day attention economy. It asks whether we can ever return to a place of undistracted immersion—lying back, shutting everything else off, drinking in music. And it offers hope. Because even though the system seems rigged for fragmentation, there are ways to resist. Ways to demand something more for creators and consumers. […]

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