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No Music Day (the 21st of November) is an event introduced by Bill Drummond to draw attention to the cheapening of music as an art form due to its mindless and ubiquitous use in contemporary society. Drummond explained "I decided I needed a day I could set aside to listen to no music whatsoever, [...] Instead, I would be thinking about what I wanted and what I didn't want from music. Not to blindly -- or should that be deafly -- consume what was on offer. A day where I could develop ideas."
The date of November 21 was chosen as it is the day before the feast of Saint Cecilia, who is the patron saint of music. This follows the traditional observance of antithetical events on the day before religious occasions, such as celebrating Mardi Gras before the start of Lent.
Notice
on no music day:
no hymns will be sung.
no records will be played on the radio.
ipods will be left at home.
rock bands will not rock.
conductors will not take the podium.
decks will not spin.
the needle will not drop.
the piano lid will not be lifted.
films will have no soundtrack.
jingles will not jangle.
milkmen will not whistle.
choirboys will shut their mouths.
recording studios will not roll.
mcs will not pass the mic.
brass bands practice will be postponed.
the strings will not serenade.
plecturms will not pluck.
record shops will be closed all day.
and you will not take part in any sort of music making or listening whatsoever.
nomusic day exists for various reasons, you may have one.
While No Music Day is on November 21st every year[2] from 2005 to 2009, it was actively promoted by Bill Drummond and observed by various organisations and places. No Music Day was launched in 2005 with a billboard poster at the entrance to the Mersey Tunnel, Liverpool. In 2006, the arts based radio station Resonance 104fm broadcast no music, as did BBC Radio Scotland in 2007. No Music Day was promoted in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2008 although Drummond states that despite graffiti announcing the day, his efforts to apprehend buskers and encourage music shops to close, he doubted that "there was even a fraction less music consumed in Brazil on the 21 November 2008 compared to any other day."[3] In turn, in 2009 the City of Linz, Austria comprehensively observed No Music Day with the backing of the mayor and the Horstadt (Acoustic City) initative. Shops, restaurants, schools and radio stations played no music, the cinemas showed only films without music soundtracks and theatres and concert halls only held non-musical performances.[4]