The Day and Age of a Short Attention Span
April 4th, 2022
Good morning, afternoon, or evening!
This story is by far my longest story. Originally it was split up into two parts, but for this blog, I don’t see the use of splitting it up. This story starts with a very special piece of music. I think it is one of the most special pieces of music I have encountered in my whole life. Let’s hang a title to it, shall we?
May I have 6 hours and 30 minutes of your attention?
A few weeks ago I had two weeks off from work. In the second week, I planned a short holiday in Wallonia; alone. It was the first time I went on holiday on my own, and I really looked forward to it. A few days with nobody around me. A few days without any duties, any obligations, any social interactions. Just me, in a small house, doing whatever I wanted to do at that moment. I did take some stuff with me, just in case I’d get bored. Some books and notebooks, a guitar, a sewing machine, and a speaker with some downloaded music. A few days without plans. Although… there was one thing that I had planned: listening to that special piece of music.
You might think: why do you have to plan listening to a piece of music? You can just do it, right? Well, this musical piece takes around 6 hours and 30 minutes to listen to, and the only way to experience it properly is by listening to it in a single sitting… with your full attention... I wanted to listen to it for a long time, but I never could find a moment. I didn’t want to give up 6 hours and 30 minutes when I already had too little time to do what I wanted to do. But now, now I had time to fill.
By now you might be confused about what kind of music would ever take that long, and would require full attention. There is a little adder under the grass (thought I would throw in some Dunglish). The piece is not really a musical piece, at least not in the way we know music. It is more like a sound experience. The piece I am talking about is Everywhere At the End of Time by The Caretaker.
This story is by far my longest story. Originally it was split up into two parts, but for this blog, I don’t see the use of splitting it up. This story starts with a very special piece of music. I think it is one of the most special pieces of music I have encountered in my whole life. Let’s hang a title to it, shall we?
May I have 6 hours and 30 minutes of your attention?
A few weeks ago I had two weeks off from work. In the second week, I planned a short holiday in Wallonia; alone. It was the first time I went on holiday on my own, and I really looked forward to it. A few days with nobody around me. A few days without any duties, any obligations, any social interactions. Just me, in a small house, doing whatever I wanted to do at that moment. I did take some stuff with me, just in case I’d get bored. Some books and notebooks, a guitar, a sewing machine, and a speaker with some downloaded music. A few days without plans. Although… there was one thing that I had planned: listening to that special piece of music.
You might think: why do you have to plan listening to a piece of music? You can just do it, right? Well, this musical piece takes around 6 hours and 30 minutes to listen to, and the only way to experience it properly is by listening to it in a single sitting… with your full attention... I wanted to listen to it for a long time, but I never could find a moment. I didn’t want to give up 6 hours and 30 minutes when I already had too little time to do what I wanted to do. But now, now I had time to fill.
By now you might be confused about what kind of music would ever take that long, and would require full attention. There is a little adder under the grass (thought I would throw in some Dunglish). The piece is not really a musical piece, at least not in the way we know music. It is more like a sound experience. The piece I am talking about is Everywhere At the End of Time by The Caretaker.
* * *
The Caretaker is a project of the artist Leyland James Kirby. Leyland James Kirby is known for his magnificent sample work, and his talent to implement emotion and feeling in his sample work. Not in a way of something sounding like a specific feeling, but in a way of truly conveying a specific emotion to the listener. In his work as The Caretaker he discovers themes like memory loss and Alzheimer's. I believe the idea came from the fact that music is one of the last things a person with Alzheimer's disconnects from. This piece, Everywhere at the end of time, is the grand finale of his work as The Caretaker. It’s incredible how he has managed to bring people an emotional feeling that they have never felt before. I have read stories about people for whom listening to this musical piece made a huge change in their relationship with their grandparents, stories of people for whom this music has helped in their grieving process, and stories about people who suddenly found the importance and beauty of music again. And to be clear, this piece doesn’t include any audible text. Not even comprehensible music. It’s just a soundscape. How did The Caretaker create a piece with that power?
As I mentioned before, this piece is made by sampling. Sampling means that an artist uses audio from other pieces and creates new music with it. I think it is mostly used in the Rap and HipHop scene nowadays (although I’m not sure). Some people don’t like sampling, because it would be less creative than creating the audio files yourself. But I think we should not underestimate the power and creativity you need for good sampling. I mean, I get it: copying a piece of audio from another song and pasting it a few times isn’t really creative, but the art of sampling is not just pasting audio from another track to your own. It’s what exact sample you choose, and even more importantly, what you do with it next. This piece is an extraordinarily good example of what sampling can really sound like.
The project started with The Caretaker collecting records at a record shop and choosing the ones with a beautiful nostalgic feeling. With chops of these nostalgic records he built up this piece. The piece contains 6 stages. In the first stage, we hear those nostalgic-sounding records, but it is slightly distorted; slightly rough. Also, there are no understandable voices. This is his own description of stage 1:
STAGE 1 - Here we experience the first signs of memory loss. This stage is most like a beautiful daydream. The glory of old age and recollection. The last of the great days.
In the following stages, the music gets more and more distorted. In the final stages, it’s just sound, just a continuous undefinable rumble. I have pasted the descriptions of the other stages below, in case you want to know it more in-depth, but feel free to skip past the italic part:
STAGE 2 - The second stage is the self-realisation and awareness that something is wrong with a refusal to accept that. More effort is made to remember so memories can be more long-form with a little more deterioration in quality. The overall personal mood is generally lower than the first stage and at a point before confusion starts setting in.
STAGE 3 - Here we are presented with some of the last coherent memories before confusion fully rolls in and the grey mists form and fade away. Finest moments have been remembered, the musical flow in places is more confused and tangled. As we progress some singular memories become more disturbed, isolated, broken and distant. These are the last embers of awareness before we enter the post awareness stages.
STAGE 4 - Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where serenity and the ability to recall singular memories gives way to confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition and rupture.
STAGE 5 - Post-Awareness Stage 5 confusions and horror. More extreme entanglements, repetition, and rupture can give way to calmer moments. The unfamiliar may sound and feel familiar. Time is often spent only in the moment leading to isolation.
STAGE 6 - [no description]
For now, I am not going to explain too much more about the piece itself. If you want to learn more, there is a beautiful documentary on Youtube about this piece by Pad Chennington: A Deep Dive into The Caretaker's Everywhere at the End of Time. And, of course, you could listen to it yourself. The full piece is on Youtube (I am not sure if there are adds in that one nowadays, because that would be problematic) and it is also downloadable somewhere.
This piece of music is truly incredible. I never knew a piece of music could have such a huge effect on the people listening to it. A piece of music without any words that opens eyes, and somehow brings wisdom to some of the people listening to it. It brings wisdom the creator of the music probably didn’t even think about.
As I mentioned before, this piece is made by sampling. Sampling means that an artist uses audio from other pieces and creates new music with it. I think it is mostly used in the Rap and HipHop scene nowadays (although I’m not sure). Some people don’t like sampling, because it would be less creative than creating the audio files yourself. But I think we should not underestimate the power and creativity you need for good sampling. I mean, I get it: copying a piece of audio from another song and pasting it a few times isn’t really creative, but the art of sampling is not just pasting audio from another track to your own. It’s what exact sample you choose, and even more importantly, what you do with it next. This piece is an extraordinarily good example of what sampling can really sound like.
The project started with The Caretaker collecting records at a record shop and choosing the ones with a beautiful nostalgic feeling. With chops of these nostalgic records he built up this piece. The piece contains 6 stages. In the first stage, we hear those nostalgic-sounding records, but it is slightly distorted; slightly rough. Also, there are no understandable voices. This is his own description of stage 1:
STAGE 1 - Here we experience the first signs of memory loss. This stage is most like a beautiful daydream. The glory of old age and recollection. The last of the great days.
In the following stages, the music gets more and more distorted. In the final stages, it’s just sound, just a continuous undefinable rumble. I have pasted the descriptions of the other stages below, in case you want to know it more in-depth, but feel free to skip past the italic part:
STAGE 2 - The second stage is the self-realisation and awareness that something is wrong with a refusal to accept that. More effort is made to remember so memories can be more long-form with a little more deterioration in quality. The overall personal mood is generally lower than the first stage and at a point before confusion starts setting in.
STAGE 3 - Here we are presented with some of the last coherent memories before confusion fully rolls in and the grey mists form and fade away. Finest moments have been remembered, the musical flow in places is more confused and tangled. As we progress some singular memories become more disturbed, isolated, broken and distant. These are the last embers of awareness before we enter the post awareness stages.
STAGE 4 - Post-Awareness Stage 4 is where serenity and the ability to recall singular memories gives way to confusions and horror. It's the beginning of an eventual process where all memories begin to become more fluid through entanglements, repetition and rupture.
STAGE 5 - Post-Awareness Stage 5 confusions and horror. More extreme entanglements, repetition, and rupture can give way to calmer moments. The unfamiliar may sound and feel familiar. Time is often spent only in the moment leading to isolation.
STAGE 6 - [no description]
For now, I am not going to explain too much more about the piece itself. If you want to learn more, there is a beautiful documentary on Youtube about this piece by Pad Chennington: A Deep Dive into The Caretaker's Everywhere at the End of Time. And, of course, you could listen to it yourself. The full piece is on Youtube (I am not sure if there are adds in that one nowadays, because that would be problematic) and it is also downloadable somewhere.
This piece of music is truly incredible. I never knew a piece of music could have such a huge effect on the people listening to it. A piece of music without any words that opens eyes, and somehow brings wisdom to some of the people listening to it. It brings wisdom the creator of the music probably didn’t even think about.
* * *
But I also have to be honest: when I finished listening to this piece of music, I was confused. I did not have an emotional response at all. It kept me thinking: is the time I spend on this piece wasted? I listened to this piece at the beginning of my short holiday and in the following days, it came back to me, several times. The reason I am enthusiastic about this piece is because of all the stories I read about it, but what about my own experience? I don’t know.But I also have to be honest: when I finished listening to this piece of music, I was confused. I did not have an emotional response at all. It kept me thinking: is the time I spend on this piece wasted? I listened to this piece at the beginning of my short holiday and in the following days, it came back to me, several times. The reason I am enthusiastic about this piece is because of all the stories I read about it, but what about my own experience? I don’t know.
This was my listening experience: after 3 hours of listening, I got extremely distracted and bored. The time ran so extremely slowly. I think I have never been that disappointed by looking at a clock. I couldn't focus on the music. I couldn't shut down my thoughts. I think it became more of a match for me than an experience; I wanted to finish listening to the piece so I could say I had listened to a piece of music for 6 hours and 30 minutes.
I listened to the piece at the start of my lonely holiday. And the days after that I thought about it. More and more I found out I had a hard time focusing. Just focusing on things. Even focusing on thinking about focusing was ironically hard. But why?
Well, I think I am not the only one with this problem. Maybe it isn’t even really a problem, but more of a change. This might sound way too big, but maybe it’s a change in the way we act as humans. I think I have talked about it before, but when I watch tutorials about producing and releasing music I hear it all the time: the music must be interesting in the first few seconds, otherwise people will skip. You won’t get a second chance. You have to release something every month. Et cetera, et cetera. Everything has to be quicker, shorter, more compact…
I think it is all a simple spiral. Some years ago you needed to buy everything you wanted to watch or hear. If you pay 18 euros for a cd, of course you’re not going to skip something after a few minutes, and of course you listen to it multiple times. But now we have everything at our fingertips. And in some ways that’s great. I mean, how many movies have I watched 8 times, just because we had the DVD? And isn’t it great that we can easily try out new music, every day?
On the other hand, because we have more at our fingertips than we can possibly listen to, we skip as soon as we don’t enjoy. We barely give it a second chance. And it truly is a spiral. Because it means we have to find that fulfillment earlier. If a song takes 9 minutes, it cannot be successful. So artists start writing shorter songs. But if all songs are shorter, songs of 7 minutes might not be successful anymore. And you also see this trend in the consumer social media. It started with Youtube video’s of around 10 minutes. Then came Instagram with a max video lenght of 1 minute and the stories of 15 seconds. Youtube started doing shorts. TikTok entered the game, which is also focused on short and mostly quick content. It is a spiral. In my opinion a downwards one, but that depends on your view on it. But one thing is for certain, our average attention span is getting shorter than ever. And when I get myself involved with a lot of short form content, I almost notice my attention span decreasing.
Is this process going on forever though? I don’t think so. First of all simply because there must be some kind of physical limit of how short content can be, but secondly, things are changing on the socials. Instagram did make the possible length for reels longer twice in the past year. TikTok also increased the max video length; all because of community feedback. And, although short-form content has made a big increase past years, we also see a huge rise in long-form content like podcasts, vinyl, and the good old side of Youtube. And the communities surrounding long-form content are mostly way more active and invested. In my opinion, that’s a good sign. Because I think artistry can bloom better without a time limit.
This was my listening experience: after 3 hours of listening, I got extremely distracted and bored. The time ran so extremely slowly. I think I have never been that disappointed by looking at a clock. I couldn't focus on the music. I couldn't shut down my thoughts. I think it became more of a match for me than an experience; I wanted to finish listening to the piece so I could say I had listened to a piece of music for 6 hours and 30 minutes.
I listened to the piece at the start of my lonely holiday. And the days after that I thought about it. More and more I found out I had a hard time focusing. Just focusing on things. Even focusing on thinking about focusing was ironically hard. But why?
Well, I think I am not the only one with this problem. Maybe it isn’t even really a problem, but more of a change. This might sound way too big, but maybe it’s a change in the way we act as humans. I think I have talked about it before, but when I watch tutorials about producing and releasing music I hear it all the time: the music must be interesting in the first few seconds, otherwise people will skip. You won’t get a second chance. You have to release something every month. Et cetera, et cetera. Everything has to be quicker, shorter, more compact…
I think it is all a simple spiral. Some years ago you needed to buy everything you wanted to watch or hear. If you pay 18 euros for a cd, of course you’re not going to skip something after a few minutes, and of course you listen to it multiple times. But now we have everything at our fingertips. And in some ways that’s great. I mean, how many movies have I watched 8 times, just because we had the DVD? And isn’t it great that we can easily try out new music, every day?
On the other hand, because we have more at our fingertips than we can possibly listen to, we skip as soon as we don’t enjoy. We barely give it a second chance. And it truly is a spiral. Because it means we have to find that fulfillment earlier. If a song takes 9 minutes, it cannot be successful. So artists start writing shorter songs. But if all songs are shorter, songs of 7 minutes might not be successful anymore. And you also see this trend in the consumer social media. It started with Youtube video’s of around 10 minutes. Then came Instagram with a max video lenght of 1 minute and the stories of 15 seconds. Youtube started doing shorts. TikTok entered the game, which is also focused on short and mostly quick content. It is a spiral. In my opinion a downwards one, but that depends on your view on it. But one thing is for certain, our average attention span is getting shorter than ever. And when I get myself involved with a lot of short form content, I almost notice my attention span decreasing.
Is this process going on forever though? I don’t think so. First of all simply because there must be some kind of physical limit of how short content can be, but secondly, things are changing on the socials. Instagram did make the possible length for reels longer twice in the past year. TikTok also increased the max video length; all because of community feedback. And, although short-form content has made a big increase past years, we also see a huge rise in long-form content like podcasts, vinyl, and the good old side of Youtube. And the communities surrounding long-form content are mostly way more active and invested. In my opinion, that’s a good sign. Because I think artistry can bloom better without a time limit.
* * *
Back to my holiday. It was the next morning. I was walking through the hills of Wallonia. The day before I had listened to that terribly long piece and I still didn’t fully get it. Why couldn’t I keep my attention on this piece while other people could? I mean, on the internet I had seen loads of posts and stories about people who listened to it; the full 6 hours and 30 minutes. And I saw a lot of comments from people who were scared of starting because they thought it would be terrible, but I didn’t see a lot of comments from people who listened to it and hated it. I only saw positive glory.Back to my holiday. It was the next morning. I was walking through the hills of Wallonia. The day before I had listened to that terribly long piece and I still didn’t fully get it. Why couldn’t I keep my attention on this piece while other people could? I mean, on the internet I had seen loads of posts and stories about people who listened to it; the full 6 hours and 30 minutes. And I saw a lot of comments from people who were scared of starting because they thought it would be terrible, but I didn’t see a lot of comments from people who listened to it and hated it. I only saw positive glory.
I still don’t know the reason why there aren’t that many negative stories about this piece. One possibility could be that there is some shame in admitting that you’re not emotionally touched by this piece. Cause maybe that means you’re bad at showing your emotions, or it means that your attention span is out of shape. Another possibility is that people who didn’t like it never finished listening. Or maybe a lot of people on the internet are lying about it. I don’t think so but I might suffer from some naivety.
But when I’m honest about it, my experience wasn’t necessarily negative. Well, maybe right after I listened to the piece I was disappointed, but, as you can hear by the tone at the start of this story, I still think it is a great piece of music. I think I am more disappointed in my ability to focus. And I wanted to do something about it.
I planned to train myself a bit in watching longer content. One important mindset I learned was that it shouldn’t be a match. I think that’s what went wrong with listening to Everywhere at the end of time. I was just too focused on time. It makes sense because planning to listen to this piece in my day already was quite difficult. For example, I decided to start around 4:30 pm. That way I could cook and eat during the first two hours. Guess who is bad at focusing during cooking… You, and me, and all of us I think. I mean, imagine you’d have the luck to play in a big movie, and your mom is going to watch that movie while she is cooking. I wouldn’t be pleased (I also wouldn’t be mad. I mean, it’s my mum).
What did I do practically? I love movies. And movies are easier to keep your full attention to than music. I once listened with my full attention to Darkside of the Moon and when I was halfway through I was so insanely bored (I am sorry to all people who see that album as one of the world's wonders). Maybe I need some more training on that as well :). Also, I found out that I was watching less movies lately. I heard myself saying: “When movies are longer than 2 hours they are just too long for me”. And without me noticing it caused me to watch mostly episodes of series.
So, for this experiment, I chose a long movie, but more importantly, I chose a movie that I wanted to see; a good movie. I thought it would be a good idea to gradually choose longer movies; first, a movie that’s like 2 hours and 15 minutes, then 2 hours and 25 minutes, you know, just a gradual, slow, and calm increase in length; that would be the best way to increase my attention span step by step, and that would obviously lead to the best results over time. Right? Yeah, that’s a great plan. So the first movie I carefully chose was Schindler’s List.
How did I prepare? First of all, I tried not to focus too much on the length of the movie (3 hours and 15 minutes), but on the great movie I was going to watch. Secondly, I did think of the length of the movie, by buying enough snacks and drinks, starting on time, and making sure there wasn’t a roommate that came home when I was 1:45 hours (or ‘barely halfway through’) the movie. This all sounds very planned and static; it wasn’t that way, but I think the worst thing I could do was start with Schindler’s List at 11 o’clock.
And now, le questionne de jambon (is a bit of Dench allowed? Or is it called Frutch? Françlandais?): how was the movie? Well, I couldn’t finish it…
No, I’m joking, of course, I have finished it. It is a great movie. It was a bit weird that a raindrop fell on my cheek at an emotional moment during the movie. But never mind. You see, I think it isn’t that hard at all. Though I do agree with everything I said in this story, it also sounds like I see long content as a monstrosity in the caves of the internet, but it totally is not. Of course, there is a difference between good and bad content. If someone makes a movie of 6 hours simply because he wants to make a movie of 6 hours, please don’t. But if an artist tries to send a message through his works, and he needs a lot of time for it, it’s totally fine, and also totally worth putting your time into it.
I know what you’re thinking: “That cheeky little Danny Fella is trying to get me listening to his 40-hour extension of one note on a piano”. No worries, that’s not going to happen. I would never choose a piano for something like that. But if you’re also feeling like you cannot watch long content anymore; it isn’t that hard to change. But only change it if you want to change it. I do think though that there is lots of beauty to discover in the long media, just as there is beauty in the short media.
I still don’t know the reason why there aren’t that many negative stories about this piece. One possibility could be that there is some shame in admitting that you’re not emotionally touched by this piece. Cause maybe that means you’re bad at showing your emotions, or it means that your attention span is out of shape. Another possibility is that people who didn’t like it never finished listening. Or maybe a lot of people on the internet are lying about it. I don’t think so but I might suffer from some naivety.
But when I’m honest about it, my experience wasn’t necessarily negative. Well, maybe right after I listened to the piece I was disappointed, but, as you can hear by the tone at the start of this story, I still think it is a great piece of music. I think I am more disappointed in my ability to focus. And I wanted to do something about it.
I planned to train myself a bit in watching longer content. One important mindset I learned was that it shouldn’t be a match. I think that’s what went wrong with listening to Everywhere at the end of time. I was just too focused on time. It makes sense because planning to listen to this piece in my day already was quite difficult. For example, I decided to start around 4:30 pm. That way I could cook and eat during the first two hours. Guess who is bad at focusing during cooking… You, and me, and all of us I think. I mean, imagine you’d have the luck to play in a big movie, and your mom is going to watch that movie while she is cooking. I wouldn’t be pleased (I also wouldn’t be mad. I mean, it’s my mum).
What did I do practically? I love movies. And movies are easier to keep your full attention to than music. I once listened with my full attention to Darkside of the Moon and when I was halfway through I was so insanely bored (I am sorry to all people who see that album as one of the world's wonders). Maybe I need some more training on that as well :). Also, I found out that I was watching less movies lately. I heard myself saying: “When movies are longer than 2 hours they are just too long for me”. And without me noticing it caused me to watch mostly episodes of series.
So, for this experiment, I chose a long movie, but more importantly, I chose a movie that I wanted to see; a good movie. I thought it would be a good idea to gradually choose longer movies; first, a movie that’s like 2 hours and 15 minutes, then 2 hours and 25 minutes, you know, just a gradual, slow, and calm increase in length; that would be the best way to increase my attention span step by step, and that would obviously lead to the best results over time. Right? Yeah, that’s a great plan. So the first movie I carefully chose was Schindler’s List.
How did I prepare? First of all, I tried not to focus too much on the length of the movie (3 hours and 15 minutes), but on the great movie I was going to watch. Secondly, I did think of the length of the movie, by buying enough snacks and drinks, starting on time, and making sure there wasn’t a roommate that came home when I was 1:45 hours (or ‘barely halfway through’) the movie. This all sounds very planned and static; it wasn’t that way, but I think the worst thing I could do was start with Schindler’s List at 11 o’clock.
And now, le questionne de jambon (is a bit of Dench allowed? Or is it called Frutch? Françlandais?): how was the movie? Well, I couldn’t finish it…
No, I’m joking, of course, I have finished it. It is a great movie. It was a bit weird that a raindrop fell on my cheek at an emotional moment during the movie. But never mind. You see, I think it isn’t that hard at all. Though I do agree with everything I said in this story, it also sounds like I see long content as a monstrosity in the caves of the internet, but it totally is not. Of course, there is a difference between good and bad content. If someone makes a movie of 6 hours simply because he wants to make a movie of 6 hours, please don’t. But if an artist tries to send a message through his works, and he needs a lot of time for it, it’s totally fine, and also totally worth putting your time into it.
I know what you’re thinking: “That cheeky little Danny Fella is trying to get me listening to his 40-hour extension of one note on a piano”. No worries, that’s not going to happen. I would never choose a piano for something like that. But if you’re also feeling like you cannot watch long content anymore; it isn’t that hard to change. But only change it if you want to change it. I do think though that there is lots of beauty to discover in the long media, just as there is beauty in the short media.
* * *
Now, let me finish this story off with one last slightly unrelated bonus tip. I talk a lot with my friends about movies, series, music, and other types of entertainment. But I discovered in my own personality (and secretly by a lot of other people too) that I am inclined to just throw out every movie I love, in the hope the other person is going to watch it. What I don’t think about is that other people also tell me a lot of movies they find good. And the next thing I do with their recommendations is forget it, or forget about the nobly written note with the movie title and my promise that I really was going to watch that super interesting-sounding movie. I think it is great to hear a movie recommendation from someone, watch that movie, and then say to that person that you’ve watched it. It’s just a great way to show other people that you’re listening to them, and as a bonus, it’s a great way to watch some good movies. The chances someone’s favorite movie is Cat… ehm, like, the hypothetically worst movie in the world, are pretty small.
Danny Yellow
Danny Yellow