More than caffeine

The blast of the rich coffee aroma when you open the door, the sharp whir of milk being steamed, the yelp of tongues being burnt on too-hot tea. Something missing?

Ah yes, the soft catchy tune of the musician over the loud speaker, strumming on a vintage acoustic guitar. Welcome to the coffeehouse, where drinking coffee is only a part of why people are seduced to not only step inside the doors, but set up their lives for a few hours with a computer, cell phone, bag, food and drink.

One of the major reasons people linger: the music.

Jack Johnson, the ridiculously famous feel-good singer is the ultimate coffeehouse artist. The ability of his songs to mingle together allows for an uninterrupted stream of laid back, mellow sounds. His soothing voice fills the air, swirling between the tap-tap-tapping of the laptop keyboards.

You only recognize the presence of his music when it is gone, and the whole coffeehouse turns self-conscious and awkward, like a ’tween on a first date. In fact, there might be some first dates occurring in the coffeehouse at any given moment.

When the tunes start back up again, the sigh of relief is almost audible, and people can continue with their introverted typing, the silences in conversations cushioned from sounding uncomfortable by the atmospheric music.

Mega-coffee shops like Starbucks have caught on to the connection between drinking coffee and listening to music. With the sale of actual CDs at an all time low, Starbucks is not only selling the usual heavily sweetened coffee concoctions, but entire albums.

Within the past year, Starbucks has gone so far as to hand out cards for free iTunes songs to strengthen the tie to music. From Ella Fitzgerald to James Taylor to Damien Rice, going to Starbucks has become synonymous with a feel-good, thought-provoking hangout.

The whole culture of drinking coffee has been extended to manifest a serene but effortlessly cool environment.

Though Starbucks has only marketed music for the past few years, the ties between coffeehouses and music is nothing new. From the beginning, coffee was meant to be consumed with others.

Coffeehouses served their drinks as a meeting place for social interactions: to listen to music, play chess, debates and poetry readings.

In fact, it is said that the great French theoreticians of the 17th century, like Rousseau, Diderot and Voltaire solidified their enlightened ideas within the walls of coffeehouses. There is even evidence that Voltaire was chugging outrageous amounts of coffee a day: around 50 cups!

There is an overwhelming movement for slightly obscure, alternative musicians to make their big break in coffee shops, perhaps because it offers a low-stress, bottom-up way to burst into the mainstream music industry.

Legend has it that the greatest folk singer of all time, Bob Dylan, played in coffeehouses when he was first starting out, living proof that the small cramped stages of coffee shops can act as a catapult to the very walls of the Hall of Fame.

And so I urge all of you, not only the procrastinators needing to write that paper due tomorrow, but everyone, to seek out the delicious, sense-heightening buzz of coffee in Bloomington’s finest coffeehouses to listen to the up and coming local musicians.

Remember to get their autograph after the show because, who knows, you might be listening to the next Bob Dylan.