Negative Inspiration

As I mentioned in the last post, I just got a job (as well as a bunch of other big life changes). And I promise that I'll get back to all of that and post some more details. Right now, however, I've got stuff on my mind worth writing about, so that'll take prescedence.

 

So I'm here, at my new job, on my lunch break. They've got me down in the basement in this shared cubicle that kinda sucks, but it's what I'll have to deal with until they are able to make room elsewhere. Down here, and throughout most of the building, they've got music playing in the background. One of the few places where there's not music playing is where I'll likely be moved once there's room.

 

At first glance, this looks like a good deal - I'm trading the luxuries of upstairs for having background music. Sounds great? And I was sorta thinking that it'd be alright. I mean, it's fine, but I've got some concerns.

 

This isn't music that I have picked. It's some commercial-free radio; perhaps SeriusXM or a non-free Pandora. I don't really care what it is.

 

The main point is that it's some radio station playing radio music. Since no one can agree on music, there's some sort of weekly schedule with a different genre each day. From what I've gathered, today is pop, Monday is classic rock and soft rock, and Tuesdays are country. I hate country. With a firey passion. It is the worst.

 

But that's not what I'm [mainly] concerned about.

 

Radio music sucks. Maybe there was some diversity on Monday. Maybe. But yesterday and today, everything falls into this cookie-cutter radio mold. I've basically heard the same song like 10 times today - same chords, same melodies, etc. The radio really speaks to culture today, but again this isn't my concern.

 

What is my concern? Think of this: As a child, you repeated your multiplication tables over and over again until they were engrained in your memory. If you have to make a new password for something, you repeat it until you get it. The more you practice an instrument, the better you get at what you're practicing.

 

Could it then be postulated that listening to crappy music makes you a crappy musician? I mean, this isn't the occasional drive with the radio on - this is 40+ hours a week. Ideas are spawned from inspiration, but if your source of musical inspiration is the same idea over and over again, how does musical creativity escape that bind?

 

Is this idea of negative inspiration a valid theory? If that's the case, then is silence more inspiration or as detrimental to the creative mind?

 

Thoughts