Britain to tune out on No Music Day

[영어도우미]

Britain to tune out on No Music Day

 

By Michael White

Published: November 19, 2007

LONDON: Life without music would be a mistake, Nietzsche said bluntly. But it's a mistake that many in Britain are prepared to make, at least for 24 hours on Wednesday, when the nation has been asked to knuckle down to a third annual No Music Day.

According to the official Web site (nomusicday.com), "iPods will be left at home," "rock bands will not rock," "choirboys will shut their mouths," "jingles will not jangle." All this is, of course, wishful thinking, because No Music Day has no legal force. It is simply the idea of one man: the maverick writer, thinker, conceptual artist and former rock star Bill Drummond, whose history as a member of the early-'90s band KLF gives him a certain authority on the subject of artistic self-denial.

At the height of its considerable success, KLF abruptly ceased playing, deleted its entire back catalogue and ?for no good reason that Drummond can now remember ?publicly burned the last ? million (now more than $2 million) of its earnings. Drummond has since dabbled in avant-garde activities and ruminated on life without fame. But more broadly he has been considering life without music, prompted, he said, by "the feeling that music wasn't having the effect on me that I wanted."

"I remember going into record shops and thinking, there's too much of this to cope with," he added. "So I started wondering what it might be like to go without music for a year, a month, a week, all of which was a bit unpractical. So I settled on a day. And that's how it began: an entirely personal thing that was never meant to be a crusade but nonetheless went public."

The whole thing might look like one of Drummond's concept statements or, worse, a stunt. But in the three years that No Music Day has functioned (if that's the right word), there have been practical consequences. This year, for example, there will be no music on BBC Radio Scotland and a general abstinence on the part of thousands of people who have pledged themselves to silence on the No Music Day Web site.

"We want people to realize how ubiquitous music has become, how it invades their lives in ways they don't realize, and we want to challenge them to stop and think what that means, to consider how they might become more informed in their choices."

Meanwhile Bill Drummond has ambitions for the future of his day. "Next year I want to organize nationwide screenings of films without music soundtracks," he said. "And the year after I'm hoping to get iTunes to close for 24 hours. This will be a challenge. But I'm up for it."

 

for full story: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/19/arts/18whit.php?page=2

 

 

VOCABULARY LIST :

 

bluntly - used to describe the way you are expressing an event or opinion

knuckle down - to start working or studying hard

jangle - to make a noise like metal hitting metal

wishful thinking - the imagining or discussion of a very unlikely future event or situation as if it were possible and might one day happen

dabbled - to take a slight and not very serious interest in a subject, or try a particular activity for a short period

avantgarde - the painters, writers, musicians and other artists whose ideas, styles and methods are highly original or modern in comparison to the period in which they live

ruminated - to think carefully and for a long period about something

ubiquitous - seeming to be in all places

 

DISCUSSION POINTS :

 

1. How important is music in your everyday life?

2. What can you say about a "No Music Day"?

3. Why do you think Drummond came up with this kind of idea? 

4. Why do you think more and more people have participated in a "No Music Day"?

5. How would you react if there would be a "No Music Day" in your country?

6. What do you think life would be like without music?