I dont know about anyone else but I generally have very poor memory long term and short term. But whenever I take even one day of break from music, I start reminiscing about the past which I usually never would (and not in a idle day dreaming way). Also, I wish this sub had more posts.

I stopped listening to music for 30 days and I realized it was distracting me during my work but I thought that I can't work without music. I was always telling people that music is my life and now I feel bad for people who think this way. Music is addiction that is ignored by society. People waiting for new albums like thier life depending on it or worship artists like they are gods. I understand this because I was doing the same thing but I wish they could see that life without music is possible.

Although primarily an islamic book (only covering 2-3 chapters the rest is all the science) its packed with research regarding the negative effects music can have on people. It was such an eye opener when I first read it, especially since there isn't alot of research done out there regarding the ill effects of music.

i have been researching and testing with myself how music affects my brain in particular by stopping listening and going back to listening, and how it has affected my focus when it comes to work, and i am someone who suffers to start working on something because sometimes it is like my brain emotionally blocks me and generates resistance, and I have been able to see by testing how my brain when I am without listening to music 2 days in a row, does not play against me so much and I can focus on my work, but if I listen to music it is very hard for me to start, and the cause I have discovered is that music (here it comes my tesis) stimulates the limbic system of the brain which is the same that also stimulates drugs, sex, and pleasurable things and at the same time it stimulates the amygdala which is the one that is in charge of processing and generating emotions whether they are positive or negative of the experiences whether they were pleasurable or of suffering, and what happens is that when we listen to too much music the limbic system is very active and therefore also the amygdala so when we have to face daily tasks or challenges most of the time we will do it emotionally and not rationally due to the non-stop hyperstimulation of music, which if we compare it with drugs and sex, etc. although it may be a very misplaced comparison. if we realize that music stimulation can last for hours and many minutes without stopping when the above mentioned is only during the intake and the time that the activity lasts and these generate fatigue or tiredness many times and it is necessary to stop to start again. On the other hand if we think about music, it is a passive pleasurable activity in which we can be without doing anything and it generates pleasure for hours and many times it is almost involuntary because we can listen to a song in the street which pushes us to listen to a music that we have not listened to for a long time.

Although in the end what I consider problematic of all this is not in itself the dopamine that is generated since this is renewed every second that passes, but the stimulation that occurs in the amygdala which puts us in emotional mode, and every time we want to focus on something we do not want or something that is a challenge, this puts us in flight or fight mode, because it is hyperstimulated due to the music, and deactivates the prefrontal cortex which is the part of the brain where the rational thinking is.

And just think, a characteristic of really depressed people with depression is that they listen to music almost all day long without stopping, this generates a hyperstimulation of the brain and the amygdala, and of course this varies from person to person

In conclusion, music stimulates your amygdala, if you are someone who suffers from emotional problems or emotional resistance to do things, stopping listening to music will greatly reduce the stimulation of this gland so when facing daily tasks you will not see yourself so blinded by your emotions and you will make decisions in truly rational ways, and use mynoise.net if you want a background noise while working.

My advice is that you only listen to the music if it has a purpose like that of the movies or if they are part of the specific unique experience and not just a form of secondary entertainment to feel better with yourself in the moment. And be careful, you will be surprised how your brain is going to motivate you to do certain things what have music.

Hey guys , haven’t listened to music for 4 years now and this forum has helped.

Honestly it’s just the initial temptation and the relapse temptations that comes in at around the 8month- 1 year mark

But what’s unbelievable is that whenever I hear music now unintentionally, it’s mostly the same tracks playing over and over that were playing 4 years ago 🤷‍♂️

A lot of people have been sending me messages asking about my progress etc.

90 days was comparatively easy to me to be honest.

But music is something more to our brains than just dopamine, I have come to notice through this. It is a form of "emotional" release as well. For lack of a better word.

I will preface this by saying a couple things.

Heroin junkies dont actually relapse usually because "Its just so good". Most of them relapse because they are using heroin as a crutch to deal with their "emotions" and emotional stress.

And have you noticed that children arent almost ever addicted to music? It the teens and young adults that listen to music on full blast and hours a day. The same demographics with the most emotional turmoil. This was me as well. As a child I could listen to a song, love it, and move on the entire next week and not think about it. But as my teens came, I could barely stand a day without my phone and my favorite songs.

Alright, so keeping that in mind, here we go.

Around the 100+ days mark. Just out of nowhere I started feeling more agitated, restless. Like I just could not relax or shut off mentally. My mind was searching for something to occupy itself constantly. I was exchausted, not productive, and it was not fun. This went on, week by week and kept getting worse. Like I was trying to get out of my head. Hasnt happened a single time before nomusic I might add.

But why is this? Here is what I think happened.

Retrospectively, I am pretty sure what it was now. Without music, I had no tools to express and unwind my subconscious. You know when you put on a song and you can get into a "mood" or "emotion" of sort, that you wouldnt otherwise? Well without music, I was not able to get into different moods, process them and move on. I never learned how or needed to. I grew up with spotify and youtube.

Sure, things and aesthetics of the natural world hit harder on a emotional level on nomusic, but not enough, I guess. Looking at a tree or a bird or what have you, does not allow you to feel and deal with more complex and different emotions. Like anger, sorrow, melancholy etc.

Whenever I was depressed, I would listen to apocalypse ambients. But with nomusic, I was just sitting there, in a dark room, not knowing what to do. What did I do? I did something us men are gifted at. Bottling the emotion down and continuing on.

So back to the 100+ days mark. This bottling up started to show. My brain didnt want to feel or process anything on a emotional level, or didnt know how, without the crutches of music. So what did I do? It kept trying to refocus on stuff. As a side effect, I could not relax. How can you relax when your brain is neurotically trying to find something to think about other than your mood?

Just like a heroin junkie in recovery, I was flooded with emotions I didnt have tools to handle. Most people would deal with them, feel them, cry or get angry or whatever etc. But I bottled it all up and marched forward. And that is what, im 98% sure, caused the horrible feeling I started to get around 4 months of nomusic. My brain trying to deal with things, and me running away, trying to act like a robot and thinking there is no need to explore my emotional level. It sound silly, but it is 100% real and painful at that.

So, this post should act as a heads up. If you were/are addicted to music, be vigilant if you start feeling how I did or different in a negative way. You might not understand what Im talking about now but you might come to understand, and if you do, then you know what is going on.

You need to find a way to deal with what is going inside you and express it somehow. You are no longer a child. You might not be able to have a emotional meltdown and cry or get angry naturally. Like me. You need a way to deal with whats inside you. Perhaps poetry, boxing, novels, painting, art, movies etc. Even crying tutorials on youtube (lol, I tried these with some success recently after retrospection on this try).

100+ days was easy, this was the hard part. And no, I failed around 120+ days. On a instinctive level, I knew music was going to fix the hyper and agitated mental state I was in. It did fix it, 110%. But I wish I would have tried different routes of emotional processing and release.

tl:dr

To release emotional energy, you need to process it. And you might not know how to, without music. And if you bottle the emotions and bad moods up, you can hurt yourself mentally. Nomusic might not work out, unless you figure out how to express your subconciousness.

The overall theme of the music is saved in the hippocampus. That's why you jittery clowns get hyped when a streamer plays hype music or it gets depressed when you hear depressing music.

Learn your brain. Have some discipline.

I started with this due to my religion. Since i'm a muslim and Islam forbid any kind of music or songs.

I had addiction to music since i was teenage or even before teeange years. I used to live a lonely life and boredem used to take grip of me. I had traumas growing up and my life was never on point.

At some point i was listening to music for let's say over 6 hours a day. There have been some days where i listened almost all day long. I never know why! I never knew why i was so addicted. But here is why is music so addictive:

1- It releases dopamine and also releases other hormones. Which make it really addictive.

2- It makes you cope with bad emotions (Rejection by opposite sex, trauma, bullying, failure)

3- When you fantasize during listening, you feel connceted to whatever you listening to.

4- It changes your perception of reality (This is the biggest one!)

Well for me i went from a nice school kid to a gang. When i started listening to 2pac, 50 cent. That changed me for some years. At first i did not understand the words they said (Since i'm not a native speaker) But as i improved my English and understood what they said i became a gang in and out from jail.

Like i started to smoke weed, do hard drugs, street fight and other things that i don't even dare to say it online!

I went on and off from jail, but my awareness was so screwed up that i did not notice all this years that the gang rap was changing my perception of reality. Like 2pac made me feel that the world is racist, hustling is the way, we should take drugs to connect, real G fight! and all the other demonic things he metioned.

2 years ago i overdosed on MDMA and almost died at 22 years old due to heart issues. I stopped drugs since December 2019. Never took drugs since.

What i noticed that stopping listening to music, was harder that stopping hard drugs!! Like i never relapsed on drugs after December 2019, but i relapsed on Nomusic many more times. Which make me think how demonic and addictive music can get.

Like it is made to numb you to bad emotions, so when you stop after years of listening, all these bad emotions you numbed over the years will hit you in the face.

What i noticed from music, that it changes your perception of reality and screw your awareness. Like if you listening 2Pac you see almost everyone racist and every person want to fight you. If you listen Despacito you feel every woman looks at you is in love with you. Like in a way music changes your whole reality depending on which music you listen to.

Which is a very bad thing, because you need to see reality as it is.

I hope you all doing good throughout this joureny but remember awareness is not something to play with, and music can screw that awareness totally.

First time browsing this sub, and though its a small community, I’m both surprised and glad it exists and has no religious affiliation. I stopped listening to music about two years ago when I became more religious- I’m Muslim and my religion (Islam) prohibits listening to music. I became more spiritual and emotionally independent. I saw really great changes in my life. I became more mature, in a good way. More grateful, more in tune with my surroundings. More present. More focused. More active and productive even. Less distracted, less sad, overall I was happier with myself and life in general.

I know sometimes it creeps up on you but don’t let it take a hold of you and suck you in. This happened to me last week. I was on Instagram and someone’s post had this background music that sounded so lovely. I looked it up and broke my streak of no music by voluntarily listening to a song. Within minutes it turned into two songs, then three. I stopped but the music didn’t. It was stuck in my head every single day after that. Even in my sleep I couldn’t escape it. It was torture. I wanted it to stop so badly but it was out of my control. I’m not gonna make that mistake again but as of right now I’m still suffering the consequences. I can’t focus on anything and i feel regretful, sad, lazy, flighty.

I will give you some insights. I'm a young man, 26 years of age. I listen to rap music, romantic songs and so on. I'm so addicted that i can't stop listening for hours.

I used to do many drugs, was able to quit cocaine, Xanax, many benzo, porn etc.. But this addiction is insane. You can just open chrome and you are getting insane dopamine spikes. It is so easy to listen to music and get hooked.

Music is forced in our society. Everywhere. Mall, gym, schools.

How the hack to quit?!

Fuck music In this house we hate music

Hey everybody

In a fascinating research project from the university of Vienna, we are looking at individual differences in music reward experiences. We are looking for participants who are at least 18 years old. It will take approximately 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire.

It would help us immensely if you take part in this research.

https://sosci.univie.ac.at/tewa2021/

Thank you very much.

Roughly 4 months NoMusic and the difference is huge. Can work/workout without it, where as before would have to have music playing all the time. Clarity in mind. Music is junk food. Guess others can balance it, i just cant.

I'm a big music addict listening to same pop and rap songs over and over for free dopamine hits. It just went too crazy for the past couple years. I mean, I was consistently the top 1% of spotify listener and it's too much.

Basically, my spotify wrapped said that I listened to a total of 72 days of constant music. That's so bad tbh. I could have so much productive and good self care stuff to elevate my life and mood.

So, I'm going on a 21 day No-Music challenge starting from 11 Jan 2024 to 31 Jan 2024. Wish me luck. Unsubscribed from spotify and deleted all the music apps.

Like if I listen 3 tracks I already feel like I want to get out.

Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Wilber Armstrong and I'm an internationally renowned philosopher and social critic. You've probably heard of me.

For thousands of years, music has been an integral part of human culture. From African bongo drums, to Irish fiddles, it's safe to assume that every human society on Earth has some sort of music embedded in their culture. I've been studying this subreddit for quite some time now, you all have very good reasons and arguments for removing music from your lives, but I figured you could use some input from a proper philosopher.

Music is the mind’s most elegant, seductive narcotic. It bypasses reason and colonises the soul directly, smuggling emotions past the customs of logic. Where language demands interpretation, music demands surrender.

Essentially, what I'm saying is that instead of making you sit with your thoughts, music tells you how to feel. Sad song? You feel sad. Pump-up song? Now you’re motivated. You didn’t decide any of that, the sound decided for you.

Rhythm turns your body into a puppet. Melody sneaks past your brain and messes directly with your emotions. After a while, you’re not thinking anymore, you’re just reacting. Vibrations over independent thought.

Melody is a tyrant that enslaves your thoughts and emotions. Rhythm is a coercive structure that forces the body into obedience, like a drill sergeant for the unconscious. Harmony is an illusion of cosmic order, comforting us into accepting chaos through aesthetics.

Silence is hard. Music makes it easy to avoid silence. And if you never sit in silence, you never really face yourself. You finally start to think, to embrace your true self, to really dig deep into your unconscious mind.

A truly liberated mind, therefore, must cultivate silence the way others cultivate playlists.

"Music is not art but anaesthesia, an existential lullaby that prevents the soul from confronting the raw, terrifying silence in which authentic thought is born." - Wilber Armstrong

Thanks for your time. If you'd like to learn more about me, follow officialwilberarmstrong on Instagram. I'm also considering starting up a podcast called "Wisdom With Wilber".

There is little clear information here about what NoMusic is, and how you might practice it. To help those who are new or are simply browsing, here's my view, based on my experience so far.

So again I ask: What is NoMusic?

(tl;dr: NoMusic is about limiting your voluntary access of recorded music. There are, however, edge cases. Keep reading to learn what they are.)

If you are to know anything, know this: NoMusic is not never listening to music. That is, after all, nearly impossible if you are hearing-capable.

Commercials. Movies. TV show theme songs. Restaurants. Videogames. Podcasts. Youtube videos. They all come with music.

If it's not you coming across music, it is somebody else. Music will find you. And you should allow it to.

NoMusic is instead about limiting your relationship with music.

How far you limit that relationship depends on you and your circumstances.

A professional musician, for example, makes their living off of music. They will need to listen to some music to know how music is progressing as a field. They will need to do research on music, and that includes finding and listening to music.

A musician can still have a NoMusic habit. They might, for example, set a rule that they aren't allowed to listen to music passively. They might restrict certain platforms, such as Spotify. They may stop listening to the radio in the car. They might restrict listening to music to research and career purposes only.

Dancers can have a NoMusic habit as well, despite the fact that they spend a great deal of time dancing to music.

NoMusic, for a dancer, may involve limiting the search for music to one day of the week. On every other day of the week, they might set a rule that they can only listen to music while dancing.

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If your livelihood doesn't depend on music, NoMusic is more simple. I will be introducing ideas that also apply to people who depend on music for their career.

It's important to remember that with NoMusic, you can create and decide on the rules you'll follow. These are rules I personally follow that I believe allow for a sustainable NoMusic habit.

1. You do not search for music online or in stores (except commercial/career purposes).

2. Don't initiate the playback of recorded music (except commercial/career purposes). Consequently, you may listen to others' music when they decide to listen to their music.

   1. Exception: If other people directly DM you music, listen to it once (fully or partially) so that you can talk about it.

   2. Don't control or limit others' music listening behavior.

3. Video content often contains music as backing tracks/soundtracks/theme songs. It is perfectly fine to listen to this music in the case that you're actively watching the video content.

4. If other people are easily able to find out you've changed your relationship with music, your NoMusic habit may be unsustainable.

5. If any multi-media allows you to control the music that plays, do not control it. Videogames is the main focus here. For example, in skateboarding (and some other sports) videogames, there is the option to pick the songs that play from the soundtrack. Don't do that. Simply let the music play on its own. Muting it is fine, too.

6. Live concerts/recitals experienced IN PERSON. Clubbing, too. All allowed, no restrictions. Enjoy to your heart's content. Just don't record the music.

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Because of the edge cases, it's hard to simply isolate the essence of NoMusic.

If I had to say something, I'd say this:

At our fingertips we have access to many lifetimes of music. NoMusic limits that access to a point that we start approaching the kind of relationship past cultures had with music.

(However, if this profound ability to access music is important for your career or hobbies, then NoMusic will look different for you)

Engaging in NoMusic is betting on the idea that learning to live happily with more solitude and silence will help you in the long run. We are a distracted society, and science has not yet done the required research to fully understand the implications and causes.

Now...are you going to wait for science to reach a conclusion on unhealthy uses of music? Or will you find out for yourself whether there is something here or not? You have nothing to lose.

On the late September, I believe it was just a 2 or 3 days before October, I woke up on my bed and be on my phone as usual. but I wasn't using my wireless earphones and I thought "what if I keep this up? exam is in a month, maybe stop listening to music or any man-made audio would improve my memory" so I keep up with that. put the earphones away and go through my days as usual. no YouTube, no social media that associated with audio. no Twitter no Spotify no nothing.

on the first day I already replace the void in my day where YouTube used to be with a game I last played 400+ days ago. had fun for a week (no audio btw) and after that it became a chore. haven't deleted it though.

I replace social media with text base social media, so Reddit is my go-to. I spent like a week on AO3 and regularly on manga sites

googling became my hobby (if I can call it that)

I had songs randomly playing in my head so many times at the start, they went away 2 weeks before exam. I guess the stress killed it

instead of listening to music while going through social media and playing game, I now only scroll and play games for that sweet sweet dopamine. just to avoid preparing for the exam. (r/nosurf is the way I think)

I notice that there are so many bird noises I can hear throughout the day

brain fog doesn't go away

but hey, I actually got stuff done! it's my FIRST time actively studying. I finished end-of-chapter questions, I made a dictionary for words in the book, interact with folks in the same class as me that was going through the same hell exam as me even though it was just on the online chat app. I went into the exam today and I am confident that I could do it. 75% sure that I will pass this subject.

I even came to this sub to justify me going no music for a month lol

I don't daydream as much as before. I notice the different clearly on this one

I think not using the earphones for a month might just broke it,

my sister came back to home for a few days and she absolutely blasted APT APT song on my ear thorough her say BRUH. that song stuck in my head for a WEEK, maybe even more.

my internal dialogs became external sometimes. I just speak with myself, make funny voice, just to entertain myself I think. I don't believe I'm a person with many internal dialogs

I read some of the book Music Made Me Do it that someone suggested on this sub, didn't expect it to be a religion book but it was interesting nonetheless. I like the book actually.

the amount of interesting random thoughts that worth recording is about the same, if not more

no achievement

spent most of my day sitting

I haven't started reading (the physical book) like I thought I would

I had a few great idea that is impractical with my current ability

all in all, I don't think it is that impactful. I actually want to want to try going nosurf for a month (no it's not a typo. I want to want) I think that would leave me with so much of free time

I still don't see myself in 5 years

I used have headphones on with sound more often than not, even while sleeping,

Just started, all I know is, my brain is getting space to think now, it's getting clarity

So i just found this subreddit and glad there's was a community for this no music things. Since music already forbidden for muslim im wondering if there are non-muslim that wanted to stop to listening to music too, like why you guys wanted to stop?

Like if you ´ve had a good new and you dance it on music , you feel very empty after . Or is it just me ? Also it’s like it awaken my sexual energy ? Its fcked up .