Music is a universal constant. It has always been here, in one form or another, and will continue to do so. Everyone listens to the radio and most go through life with a song in their head. For some people, music is more than just background noise or something that they listen to so they can make it through the day. Those with addictive personalities are highly prone to becoming obsessed with a musical artist, to the point where it somewhat take over their life. It's not necessarily healthy, but that doesn't make it bad.
There are a few steps that can be taken to spark this phenomenon. They work best on people with the right personality, of course. Those with a past of a series of intense loves for TV shows or other such related forms of media that spiral beyond normal viewership will produce the best results. It’s also important to keep in mind that this process usually happens fairly naturally. It can, however, be forced, by following these steps, which have been carefully studied by a person fairly experienced in this field.
The first step is, simply enough, discovering the artist. This is the most natural step, and generally occurs when someone finds a song that they especially like. For example, imagine a young woman named Julia. She loves music, and has had multiple varied obsessions with things in the past. One day, she stumbles upon a song by an artist she’s never heard of, and she likes it. She listens to it again the next day, and before she knows it she’s played it a thirty times in two days. This could happen to anyone, and they might have found the song from any number of sources. Perhaps they heard it on the radio, a friend sent it to them, or it was in a playlist they dug up* online. Overall, the only thing that matters is that they discovered it, and the process begins.
The second step is to listen to the artist’s entire discography. Depending on how long they’ve been around and how many albums and b-sides they have, this could take anywhere between an hour and a few days, if they have to hunt old songs down. To continue the previous example, Julia decides that she’d like to hear more from her artist of choice. She finds that he has one album, but a collection of other songs scattered across the web. Her hunt to find all of his music begins, and a few days later she knows most of the words to every song he’s ever sung. When she wakes up with seven of his songs playing in her head at once, she knows that it’s time to continue climbing up the obsession ladder.
The third rung of the aforementioned ladder is to learn about the person or people behind the music. Whether it’s a single singer or a band, someone has to make the sounds. An easy way to kickstart this is to watch the artist’s music videos. After seeing the face or faces of the creators of the music, the statement that most people attribute to the real beginning of obsession becomes relevant: “I only wanted to know their names.” Julia becomes curious and starts watching her new favorite artist’s videos. As it turns out, he’s British, ginger, plays guitar, and is everything she ever wanted. (It is an unsurprising fact that one of largest things that kicks off obsession is sexual attraction.) She watches more videos, and grows more and more interested in this mysterious musician who sings so very nicely.
Part four of the obsession process is leaning as much about the musician(s) as possible in a short, rabid amount of time. This step involves watching interviews, tour diaries, and other relevant videos, as well as googling the artist and going through forums and blogs. Julia spends hours scouring the internet, learning everything that there is to know about the gingerbread man. She becomes familiar with all the little bits of trivia, and fills her hard-drive with photos and sound bites. After following everyone he’s related to and has ever worked with on Twitter, she sits back and revels in all of the new knowledge in her mind.
The fifth and final step is the continuation of everyday, average life, but with the new addition of a deep and powerful, ever-growing love. Julia will continue to look for information and photos that she has not seen yet, and will keep an eye on all of her favorite social networks for news about the artist. She’ll wake up in the morning with the songs in her head, and thoughts of the singer spinning in her mind as she stares at the coffee maker sleepily. She’ll listen to his album hundreds of times, and beg her friends to listen to it. She’ll find other friends over the internet who feel the same way about him, and they’ll all talk about their obsession together. She’ll go to his concert and it will be the best night of her life. Time continues, but with a special something else that brings endless joy.
With those five steps, anyone can be like Julia. They can climb a short stairway to an unshakable love for a musical artist. While at first glance it seems fairly unhealthy, having something positive to think about in moments of little motion keeps up a person’s optimism, and prevents their mind from getting too bored and over-thinking other things. In the end, the benefits outweigh the problems. Everyone needs a little bit of obsession.
