Those Who Sing Songs that Nobody Listens To, 2022-2026
- Nov 1, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 10
Those Who Sing Songs That Nobody Listens To.
Một
In the days when music was distributed on discs or tapes, long tracks that lasted for tens of minutes were common. Occasionally, I would carve out time to listen to these extended pieces, donning my headphones and letting the music envelop me . After the music ended and I took off my headphones, I often felt as though I had returned from a journey I could never physically visit. As time went on, the way music was distributed changed, and we entered an era of online streaming. Due to the nature of streaming formats, shorter music, typically around 3 to 5 minutes, became the norm rather than long tracks. Later, social media ushered in an age dominated by short videos. Music becomes the backdrop to these videos, and now the music is often lasting no longer than a minute. In this new era, it became more familiar to scroll aimlessly through smartphones and stumble upon interesting videos rather than search for them. As people scrolled through their smartphones, the 2 or 3-second broken snippets of music that automatically played with each video filled my surroundings. To avoid it, I often found myself retreating into white noise.
Hai
My ex-girlfriend would wake up with her smartphone in hand and fall asleep with it still there. As a result, I was forced to listen to the 2 or 3 seconds fragments of music streaming from her short-form video platform from the moment I woke up to the moment I fell asleep. I never imagined that I would have such a strange thought that: I wanted to live in a world without music. Life is indeed strange. What eventually liberated me from these fragmented music was not communication, empathy, or any shift in her attitude toward music itself. It was when my ex-girlfriend started using wireless ear sets. Gradually, I found myself free from the torment of those tiny musical fragments. I began to enjoy the noise of the city during the day, I even felt comfortable when the dogs barked at night.
Ba
My job is to make and sing songs that no one listens to. But at some point, I began making and singing songs that people liked, or at least songs they might like. Eventually, I felt ashamed of myself for making and singing those kinds of songs. I realized that I no longer had a place to share these feelings. I felt a bit lonely and isolated. One day, I wrote a song about this situation—a song filled with nothing but grumbles and self-pity. The song lingered briefly amidst the broken music, before fading away completely.
Dô!
"Tonight, I raise my glass to the sounds that fill my world—the hum of the fridge, the neighbor’s shouting, chickens clucking in the yard, the silent cries of a dog taken by a hunter, the broken melodies that drift through the air, and all the songs no one ever pays attention to. Cheers!"
("Một, Hai, Ba, Dô!" is a common phrase in Vietnam used when clinking glasses, equivalent to saying “One, two, three, cheers!”)
Comments