brianfending.com

I was thinking about this on the way home today while listening to some music that I don't often get to enjoy as much as I like. Sure, it's often ON in my car, but I don't get the same pleasure out of it all of the time. This is because I'm often with other people in my car, different kinds of people, as it were, who have different reactions to the stimuli:

1. Those that turn music down when the volume changes (Turn Downers)
2. Those that enjoy what the artist did in changing the volume (Enjoyers)
3. Those that turn it the hell up (Turn Uppers) [a.k.a.: Pantera fans...]

From just reaching over to turn it down/off to the freak who will turn it UP that moment, I have far more tolerance for the latter rarity. Let me paint you a picture:

I'm in my car, listening to something with a quasi-peaceful intro that either slowly builds or, more likely, just kicks in. (Think Foo Fighters, Gena Rowlands Band, or even some Rufus Wainwright. Whatever gets you by.) You get to that point... a cymbal crash, a power chord, a beat dropping in to change the mood... and THAT, my friends, is where I like to enjoy what the artist set up. You're cruising along, speakers at a sing-along-in-your-car volume then you're taken somewhere else. Maybe you can't hear your voice as well anymore, the timbre of the guitar has changed dramatically... This is the closest that artist can get to touching you outside of a concert, and you really, really need to Enjoy it.

Or Mr. Turn Downer is in the passenger seat, and turns it down. JUST when it got good, JUST when you were about to feel something communicated to you like magic... [poof], gone. On the other side of the coin is your buddy from high school, Mr. Turn Upper. He's just annoying, and sometimes he gets it right. But sometimes, oh... Oh, dear. It's Michael Buble, dude. This was not intended to deafen.

Anyway, I'm in the middle. I want my music to be a little louder always, so I can hear whispers from the singer at lulls in the music, have a chance to hear orchestration at those Wilco moments when I realize they've played with my memory. And louder when the artist intended it that way. The dynamics are part of the track - if I didn't want what that entailed, I'd have turned on NPR.

So the next time you're in somebody's car on the way to grocery store, ride sharing to points unknown, going to a party: Don't change the music, volume included. This moment is being shared by everyone in the car PLUS the recording artist(s), so don't be rude. Just enjoy it.

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