Why do we listen to music when we can just imagine it? I’ve been thinking alot about music and imagination and I think theres a fundemental question most music fans are completley overlooking, and nobody seems to be talking about this?? Why do we actually need to listen to music when we can just imagine what it sounds like Hear me out. I love music. Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Kendrick Lamar, Miles Davis. All incredible artists. But I’ve recently started questioning whether physically listening to their albums is even nessecary, because if you already know what something sounds like then what exactly are you gaining by hearing it again, I dont think people are considering this For example I already know what Radiohead sounds like. So why listen again?? I can just think about Radiohead and get aproximately the same intellectual experiance without headphones, its basically the same process if you understand how brains work. When you listen to music your brain interprets soundwaves. When you imagine music your brain is also doing something. Both involve brains, which I think alot of people arent considering and frankly this is pretty basic neurosceince Yesterday I was going to listen to Dark Side of the Moon but instead just thought about it for forty minutes. I remembered Time has clocks. Money has cash registers. The album has a beginning and an ending and I didnt even play it I think thats genuinley revolutionary!! We need to stop gatekeeping music appreciation around actually listening. Some people use headphones. Others speakers. Some remember listening in cars several years ago, these are all valid experiances and I dont see why one should be priviliged over another. And imagining is completley free. Spotify costs money but imagining Radiohead doesnt, this is something the music industry doesnt seem to understand I’ve been imagining music in lossless quality recently although I havent verified the bitrate. Its probly atleast CD quality since I dont imagine compression artifacts. I’m also experimenting with imaginary surround sound, although sometimes forget the rear speakers, but that doesnt mean its not surround sound necessarily Another question is whether we even need musicians. Obviously I respect musicians but yesterday I imagined a new Radiohead album. It sounded pretty good. I cant remember the songs but Thom Yorke sounded alot like Thom Yorke. Which demonstrates the authentisity of my experiance, I think thats a pretty important distinction I’m not saying my imaginary album is better then their real albums. But why automaticly assume theirs are better just because they exist?? Music communities have a serious bias towards albums that have actually been recorded, nobody ever discusses the albums that havent been recorded yet and I think this is a form of gatekeeping Frankly its exhausting. Last night I spent two hours not imagining a jazz album. It might have been the best jazz album I’ve never heard, although ranking imaginary albums seems intelectually dishonest because I havent actually heard them But now I’m reconsidering whether imagining is even nessecary. If I know I could imagine music why actually imagine it? Surely knowing its possible is itself a meaningfull musical experiance, and I think theres a fundemental philosophical distinction here that most people arent equipped to comprehend I’ve therefore stopped imagining music. I simply aknowledge that music could potentially be imagined under appropriate circumstanses, which I think is a more intelectually consistant position Occassionally I think about thinking about music but this seems unneccessarily repetative and I’m trying to not do that anymore although its difficult because I keep thinking about whether I’m thinking I dont think music needs to be heard. Or imagined. Or thought about Music could happen. Or not happen, depending on whether it happens Both are valid. I respect recorded music. Imaginary music. Music nobody has imagined. Music that might be imagined by people not born yet, I dont want to exclude anybody just because they havent been born I respect the absense of music. I’m sorry if this sounds dismissive of people who actually listen to music. Listening is valid, although not listening shouldnt require listening to be valid, because that would invalidate people who dont listen which is exactly the kind of exclusionary thinking I’m trying to challange Ultimatley music can exist inside your head, outside your head, or potentially neither depending how you define existance. And I think we should respect all three possibilities.