Hobby would definitely be music. I sing a bit, but what I'm referring to mostly is just listening to music. I do it for the majority of my days when I'm on my own. I literally play music when I'm cooking, cleaning, writing, reading, and even sleeping. I tend to dance when I'm on my own, and it is easily the most liberating part of my day ha-ha. Not a great dancer, but the act of it is just really liberating. I also do a lot of writing which is usually very soothing for me.
You are one of my people... I'm the same way. I play music constantly, and I'll jump from classical, to jazz, to hip hop, to everything else. When I'm feeling sad, music makes me happy, if I'm already happy it makes me happier, when I'm worried listening to music, and especially playing, quiets my mind. There's this quote by Tom Waits, something like "I love beautiful melodies that tell me terrible things" and that perfectly describes what I love to listen to the most (which would explain why I listen to Tom Waits). Do you have a favorite style/kind/genre/or anything?
One of my hobbies is listening to music in general but I get special satisfaction from finding great stuff that is super obscure. Any genre except not usually pop. And I love hip-hop, funk and jazz. Something like this stuff: 1970s Soviet Funk Jazz. I would ad to that list this from the same genre. And as you may guess my other hobby/passion is learning about things, especially historical things. So I can go deep just because. When I look back it was scary how much I knew about musical history when I was 25. Alas, I am sure I have forgotten most of it. Also, if you want check out my latest post which is probably the one and only gospel song I have ever loved. Well, that is not entirely true. I also really like The Doobie Brother's Jesus is just Alright and I suppose ZZ Top's Jesus just left Chicago is gospel too!
I kind of love everything. Regardless of genre, if it's good I probably like it. I have season tickets to the opera, frequent jazz bars, I love all kinds of rock bands, but really, I listen to just about everything. Good is good, regardless of the style of good.
Is music a hobby if you aren't doing anything? I can understand how it can be a major interest - hell, I listen to music whenever I can - but in my head, a hobby is something you explicitly do or achieve - like writing, dancing, climbing mountains and everything in betwen.
I don't mean to offend your interests or activities - I'm trying to make sense of the world we express through words. So far, I'm having difficulty justifying the status of a hobby of listening to music. It may be pleasant and even euphoric, but it seems too passive for such a definition. It's an activity and a way to gain pleasure and spend time, no doubt. I have no difficulty calling reading books a hobby because it requires active participation - otherwise, no reading occurs, or, perhaps, no understanding of what you've read, which is the point. But listening to music - at least, if you aren't engaging to it actively, with all of your mind's attention - is hardly an exercise in activity, especially when you do something while listening to music. I've never heard people calling taking hot showers a hobby, and most people won't call eating their hobby either. So, why is music-listening on the list?
I'm very critical of the music I listen to. Whether its lyrically, or instrumentally. I have a wide spread collection of music just for listening. I have friends and groups at my university that share music we find not necessarily to critique the music in any meaningful matter, but to share the experience of listening to the music. I would say that listening to good music is a hobby. Eating food can be a hobby. Food critics are very critical of the food they eat, but their jobs are simply to eat different foods, and explore taste. When I take a shower there is really only one way to take a shower, but there are an infinite number of ways to experience listening to music.
The only way I determine what good music (Music I like) is by listening to music all the time which is what I do. Listening to music is a very active part of music, and really isn't passive in any sense. If you are passively listening to music you really aren't listening to the music, you are just hearing it.