What is Slow Music?

Slow Music, as with all things scientifically unquantifiable or mathematically unprovable, is subjective, relative and open to interpretation. Do an online search for "slow music" and you will get several suggestions - from literal interpretations referring to musical tempo, slow music as a community enabling form of live entertainment or as an antidote to modern music commercialisation and consumption. I concur with all of those opinions, but would like to offer some further thoughts on what slow music is, and could be.

Slow Music has much in common with other slow movements and fully supports and advocates a cultural shift towards slowing down life's pace & connecting more meaningfully with others, our surroundings and ourselves. I'd like to think slow music makes people reflect on modern living, stimulates debate on the pressing issues of our times and encourages people to come together and make a positive difference.

Admittedly slow music here at The Slow Music Movement HQ often means a drop in tempo. In this modern world of over stimulation and unrelenting information bombardment I enjoy the mentally soothing sounds and textures of ambient and more relaxed music. Its assistance in helping me to switch off from the stresses of modern living, ability to aid reflection and the sonic joy it provides makes it a powerful force.

Maybe it is just part of the ageing process, the knowledge of self and place gained by experience, awareness of the perils of continual growth in a finite world or just largely abandoning those late night parties, but I feel less in need of propulsive music these days. Saying that I still like to dance when the stars align; movement to music is a wonderful, liberating, exhilarating experience, so there are times I need something a bit faster to throw some shapes to. It certainly won't be pounding techno, commercial EDM or death metal though, and I find that dancing to slower music is often a more sensual, communal experience, and I highly recommend dancing with others rather than standing in rows staring at the DJ whilst filming a non-experience for the purpose of an enviable social media status update.

Any form of community building, especially in an autonomous space, even if it is a temporary, fleeting experience - as happens in dance clubs or concerts, with people uniting through communal listening, movement and its associated joy can only be a good thing, and is often a welcome and necessary release from the grind of daily life. Events like this can assist in altering perceptions, encouraging creativity and highlighting the power of collective behaviour - a key component in making the world a better place. So fight for your right to party, move those hips to a slower groove & make some new friends whilst you're at it.

I also suggest that slow music is not commercial music. Most commercial music comes from three large, multi-national companies and as with most big business their overriding concern is to make money. TSMM prefers to champion artists and labels whose first purpose is to make music, and who then work to monetise this art (or not) to support themselves and facilitate further musical creations. Music should come from the heart and be made for the love, not driven by financial objectives and bonus chasing executives.

Commercial music has to be popular to succeed in its money making ambitions, and it's a rare talent to be able to write something that appeals to millions of people, but as much as I can appreciate good pop music my heart and ears belong to the musical underground. That is where the real art is, a place where musicians and producers can let their minds run free, say what they feel, experiment and create without restriction. Saying that the major labels do also control some more creative sub labels with a focus on interesting genres and also have some of the world's best musicians on their books, so I keep half an eye on what they do and support good music where I find it, but slow music on the whole, lies in the world of independent artists and labels.

Slow music is also about the consumption of music. The world's literature, every film and TV show ever made are available at the click of a few buttons or keys, and now there are tens of millions of songs to listen to on your favourite streaming service. It is an impossible amount of culture and music to comprehend, let alone even start to listen to, despite the promise and excitement of endless possibilities. A tub of chocolate chip is manageable, a free pass in an ice cream factory an altogether different proposition.

Here at TSMM I encourage a less is more mantra, and an escape from the tyranny of choice. Listening to a small amount of music intently is more rewarding than flipping through an endless stream of new releases. That is why the site has a slow approach to music recommendations. Just a few releases a week are proposed to TSMM's community and the temptation to measure success by hits, clicks, likes and reposts is resisted. Rather than blindly post press releases we keep the recommendations personal, heart felt and to a minimum. Hopefully you'll learn to trust that judgement, although as music is so subjective I don't expect you to agree with every recommendation. The real test is your brain's reactions when those sound waves reach your ear drums. Why read about something that is created to be listened to? Don't believe the hype - trust your ears.

Slow music is also about active listening. Music is increasingly becoming a passive experience as it is increasingly consumed whilst multi-tasking, often staring at a screen, whilst commuting, checking photos, working, exercising, idly messaging friends or sometimes all of those things at once. Rarely is attention just on the music. Ideally music should be listened to in a dark room with eyes closed so the full focus is on that musical creation. When was the last time you did that, if ever? Try it. Even if you have listened to that track or LP several times the chances are you will be hearing that music in a new light now it has your full attention. I appreciate time is precious though and that the tedium of jogging and road trips are alleviated by a fine music selection, but once in a while just close your eyes and take a moment to listen to something properly. Just make sure the hand brake is on.

Slow music is not about format at TSMM, although there seems to be an assumption that a return to vinyl or cassette should be part of the slow music world. Despite living through the vinyl & CD years, before embracing the digital revolution, it has always been about the music not the format for me. Don't believe the hype that vinyl sounds better. For sure it sounds better than a low resolution MP3 but it has limited dynamic range compared to CD or high resolution digital. It has a different sound not a better sound, and all format's sonic qualities are heavily influenced by the equipment, set up, acoustics and even power supply. Use the medium that suits you best, but I would strongly advise researching how to improve the experience, and there is no doubt that spending moer on audio equipment will help no end.

There is also a good argument that digital formats are more environmentally friendly than vinyl and cassette. For instance just imagine the natural resources that go into the production of a piece of vinyl, and then the energy required to ship that vinyl from the pressing plant to the distributor, from there to the global retail network and then finally to people's home. Then think about the energy used to rotate a heavy vinyl platter and convert that vinyl into sound waves. I don't know the exact figures, but I'm sure it is significantly more than downloading a high resolution digital file once and then playing it on demand, or even streaming the same music multiple times from your streaming provider.

I'd love to do an article on the energy consumption of the various formats if I can find someone qualified enough to do the project justice, but as slow music is also intrinsically linked to the other slow movements then my present guess is that, just on environmental grounds, digital music (that excludes non recyclable CDs) is more "slow music" than vinyl. Embracing slow living & slow music does not always mean going back in time.

Selling physical formats and merchandise, especially at live shows, is an important extra revenue stream for many live acts struggling in difficult times for artists, but until that well researched paper on the environmental impact of physical music and how those effects can be made carbon neutral is published, I would suggest that you plant a few trees every time you produce, sell or buy a record or tape. In fact when you buy or produce anything!

Slow music is many things to many people and TSMM is not about to start dictating what it is or isn't, although I'm happy to get the conversation started. Above are a few suggestions and thoughts and I might come back and update them in the future as my thoughts evolve. Take from them what you will, and if you have any suggestions then don't hesitate to get in touch, I'm open to suggestions and even changing my mind if I hear some well reasoned, politely delivered arguments.