Spotify playlists and the commercial strategies of the major record companies, particularly for classical music and jazz, are making increasing use of labels : music for relaxation, for sleep, for yoga, for reading, for work, even for napping!
What these strategies have in common is that music cannot be listened to for its own sake anymore, but must be divided into different marketing categories according to its supposed use.
Another point in common is that the coherence of musicians' artistic projects (that is an album) is deconstructed by the systematic use of compilations or playlists, which are to listening to music what zapping is to watching films.
Does music need an instruction manual?
Is music just a colorless, odorless, impersonal backdrop, adapted to predefined uses, with no real listening experience?
Has ambient music in particular, which often veers towards the most traditional new age, become a mere prozac or sleeping pill?
Music for sleep! What a program!
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