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Interesting article. I think the last paragraph is the most important part.
Music is much better than alcohol as you can't get a DWI with music and it is also much better than fast food. You don't get the runs with music, hence the name fast food!
Life is short so make sure you spend as much time as possible on the Internet arguing with strangers.
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My name is Misha and I am musicaholic. Bob, thank you for sharing, good read! P.S. check this out: Cheese
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Might as well face it I'm addicted to music ♪
Might as well face it I'm addicted to music ♪
At least it's legal
And I'm not going to any 12-step program.
Notes ♪
♪ with apologies to Robert Palmer
Bob "Notes" Norton  Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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eddie1261
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The only thing I would take issue with, and maybe Bud will have opinion given his work life calling, is the use of the word "addictive". If you suddenly have no music you wouldn't go through physical withdrawals commonly associated with addiction deprivation. Liking something a lot is not necessarily being addicted to it.
I can honestly say that if I suddenly lost my hearing I would still be able to hear Mozart in my mind.
I liken this theory and thesis to the scenario I am going to describe here.
Luigi has a string of pizza shops all over Anytown. Luigi devoted his life to pizza for 45 years. Finally Luigi retired, sold his pizza empire, and never ate pizza again. I don't know that you can say that Luigi was "addicted" to pizza any more than Mario who cam in to Luigi's flagship location and ate pizza every day Luigi was open. They just liked pizza a lot. But once Luigi was done with the pizza business, he realized that he was sick to death of pizza and never made or ate pizza again.
So where does "addiction" fit in there?
I base that scenario only on my personal take on music. Right about now in my life makes 65 years since I started. I am really pretty much music-ed out and really care very little about it. Unlike people who have never been anywhere but the fan zone and who HAVE to have those stupid earbuds tucked into their ears every waking moment, wishing they were members of the "Musicians club for men". I have gigabytes of music on my computers that are never played, 2500 songs on a thumb drive in my car (The math works out to 2 trips Florida and back without ever repeating a song.) I never listen to them. My car could have no radio at all and other than teh convenience of the blurtooth I would never miss it.
I believe that just like an athlete who shouldn't hang n too long, there comes a point to close the door. You folks who still play every day and have skills are in a different group. I can honestly and freely admit that my skills have so badly eroded that I literally suck at this nowadays. I can barely hold a pick or grasp the neck because of the pain in my hands. I can't spread even an octave on a keyboard anymore, and my fingers can't move as my brain tells them to when I play sax. If I relied on this for money anymore I would be starving in a shelter somewhere because I just don't have it. I still KNOW music extremely well. I just can't DO music anymore. And it's the KNOW part that would allow me to continue to hear music in my mind if I suddenly went deaf. The sound of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik will never leave me.
Like many things I post here, the standard disclaimer is the same.
But that's just me.
Addiction? I disagree with use of the term.
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The ability to resist the urge to play music, buy guitars and so on, requires the proper functioning of neuronal circuits involved in top-down control to oppose the conditioned responses that predict reward from playing the music and the desire to play the music. Imaging studies show that addicted musical subjects might have impairments in dopaminergic pathways that regulate neuronal systems associated with reward sensitivity, conditioning and control. It is known that the neuropeptides that regulate energy balance (homeostatic processes) through the hypothalamus also modulate the activity of dopamine cells and their projections into regions involved in the rewarding processes underlying playing music. It is postulated that this could also be a mechanism by which overplaying and the resultant resistance to homoeostatic signals impairs the function of circuits involved in reward sensitivity, conditioning and cognitive control. I am sure you have seen these poor fellows at blues jams. Due to the fact several threads posted lately seem to be completely beyond human understand I thought I would jump right in and continue and add to these esoteric postings.  Recovering music junkie, Billy
Last edited by Planobilly; 04/09/21 04:43 PM.
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eddie1261
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Those guys are why I never go to jams....
My point is that it is addictive in the classical definition of the word where there are physically harmful withdrawal symptoms doesn't really fit when the situation is nothing more than a time where you can't play or hear music. You can make the case about marijuana addiction being nothing more a conditioned behavior than an addiction because while people turn to it for various reasons, the chemical component of marijuana is not an addictive chemical compound. So where unwinding after work with a joint every day may become someone's normal behavior, they won't crumple to the floor in a ball from withdrawal if it suddenly isn't available. Music's level of pleasure will be different for different people. I found no joy in playing music when it truly became a job that didn't pay anywhere near enough for the amount of time I put into it. That, plus the ridiculous amount of truly untalented people playing in bands anymore, and the ridiculous racist, sexist, angry garbage that passes for music now, turned me off. I now really don't enjoy music in any way other than the creative outlet that is writing. I enjoy the writing process but I don't really care if the songs even get performed outside of the last tweaks to the writing. Thus the absence of my songs on the forum. That got old a couple of years ago. And though this sounds much more harsh than it should because I mean it only factually, I honestly don't care what anybody thinks of my songs. I write them for me. Thus I don't post them.
That was the only point of my post was to question the selection of the word addiction when it comes to an art form that in my mind is merely the musical vehicle for storytelling.
Last edited by eddie1261; 04/09/21 04:59 PM.
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eddie1261
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As to the guys who go from jam night to jam night playing the 2 songs they know, that is just a desperate plea for approval from people who are insecure about their talent and ability. Cheap applause from people who don't know good from bad is about as meaningless as it gets. A successful performance to me is when people are enraptured and sit transfixed staring at the stage because the music is so damn good they are mesmerized by it.
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You pretty much nailed it Eddie. It’s all dependent on one’s choice of an operational definition for the term. Clinically, addiction would be considered to have negative influences either psychologically or physically. But the term is used rather loosely nowadays. For example, I often say I’m addicted to hard mountain bike rides and the ensuing adrenalin rush, etc. I wonder if the level of music “addiction” varies by genre Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! A few of our videos are here on our website: https://www.janiceandbud.com/our-music.html
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eddie1261
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I wonder if the level of music “addiction” varies by genre Actually, even with the smiley face, that is a very valid point. The demographic who listen to the angry, racist, sexist garbage tend to have a great deal of latent anger in them and that music tends to fuel that anger. Apply the same to the rowdy aspect of Southern rock, the angry aspect of extreme hard core metal, and the laid back aspect of jazz and that paints a whole picture similar in concept to the circle of 5th. Different appreciations for different styles seems to be a common theme and they are all based on personal taste anyway. I was never one of those who elevated Van Halen to hero status. I didn't really like his playing. Lots of notes, but with a dozen of their albums I think maybe 4 solos I ever heard him play actually told a story. I was never (and will never be) impressed by how many notes a guitarist can squeeze into his 16 bars of glory. And to all the young kids who thought he invented the right hand on the neck tapping I offer yet another eye roll and a suggestion that the research Django Reinhart.
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On that note, Eddie, I've never been fond of John Coltrane. I agree he was a genius, he had complete control of his saxophone, he pushed jazz in a new direction, and there is nothing bad I can say about his playing -- but it doesn't speak to me. Stan Getz is my all-time favorite sax player. I am definitely addicted to playing music. I gave up a lucrative career as an electronics engineer to make a living by doing music and nothing but music. (I also took electronics in school, and in one of my two day-jobs I was a Cable TV Field Engineer.) I would have made a lot more money in electronics, but I'm a lot happier playing music. The Field Engineer paid well, it was a 3 day a week job (Monday and Friday were travel days), but although I could do the job well, I just had to get back to music full-time. I was a weekend warrior when I had that job, but the caliber of musicians and commitment to the music of the other musicians wasn't up to my standards. Of course, they had day jobs and families, so they didn't have the time to spend on the music. But I had played with some of the best and most famous musicians of the day, and didn't want to settle for less. So if giving up a great paying job for a happier life as a musician is a definition of addiction, then I'm an addict. --------- BTW, I do have a food addiction. If I don't eat every day, I get withdrawal symptoms. Same for water Insights, incites and some lame humor by Notes
Bob "Notes" Norton Norton Music
https://www.nortonmusic.com
100% MIDI Super-Styles recorded by live, pro, studio musicians for a live groove
& Fake Disks for MIDI and/or RealTracks
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eddie1261
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BTW, I do have a food addiction. If I don't eat every day, I get withdrawal symptoms. Same for water I'm that way with air. If I don't have it MANY times every day.....
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