Is there a point where you just don't need any more music?

[ouchmonkey]

No. there's always more new interesting music to hear - there comes a point where you don't need a lot of your old music....

Spotify has dented my appreciation of entire albums somewhat, but I have thus far resisted the tyranny of ipods and still carry my CD walkman pretty much everywhere I go.

It does seem the appreciation of music has become stunted. It has become a mere commodity and it is becoming undervalued.

I can kind of see this argument but it relys on a fairly narrow idea of what an album is that existed in the late 60's, 70's and 80's but started to fade away, or at least alter, with the appearance of CD's and the comfortably longer running time they offered. in the 50's and early 60's the single was the dominant format and albums were hits + filler. Mp3's seem to be taking us back in a way to that thing where it's the song not the artist that's the main thing. it's not stunted or undervalued it's just a different form of appreciation.

 

[ouchmonkey]

- but every time I discover something new, I don't feel like i'm any closer to 'knowing all music ever'. In fact, in most cases it just opens up a whole new area I hadn't encountered before.

this^^

I remember hearing Elvis Costello saying that music comes to you at different times in your life - what he was on about was the way that if you love music most genres will hold something for you, and you might not see that now, or for years, but one day suddenly country music for example will stop sounding weird or stupid and suddenly become yet more music you love.

 

[jusali]

I don't think I'll ever stop buying new music. However the frequency I'm buying, of late, has dropped dramatically. I think the genre I really like seems to have become less populated or I have exhausted it. I'm happy that it is and that my music consumption is less frenetic in fact I've even started weeding out the stuff I was never "that" into.
It also helps now that I'm far less chemically enhanced and have the attention span to comprehend a couple of metres of vinyl without my attention becoming distracted by "that one record that would go with Humate's Love stimulation" and going off on a tangent.........

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'd be fucking depressed if my entire music collection consisted of two T-Rex CDs.

Not if you were riding a white swan and wearing a tattoo'd gown, it wouldn't.

 

[ViolentPanda]

quite. and frustratingly, as I get older my tastes are getting broader, not narrower, so now I feel like I'm going to die having missed so much wonderful music. Inevitable but disappointing

Not just frustrating, but wallet-breaking too, even if your chosen media are electronic. A 1tb hard-drive only holds so much and then you need another.

And another.

And another...

 

[ouchmonkey]

A 1tb hard-drive only holds so much...

clue in the name I believe.

 

[ViolentPanda]

clue in the name I believe.

You believe?

 

[ouchmonkey]

You believe?

I have faith, some say misplaced, in the word of electronics manufacturers.

 

[HobgoblinMan]

It's interesting, back in my teens I would only listen to metal/punk, and I felt like that covered all the emotions I needed. If I was happy - Green Day. If I was pissed off, Slayer. If I wanted something relaxing, put on "Nothing Else Matters" on loop.

Then I discovered Miles Davis, and suddenly when I wanted to relax, i'd put Kind of Blue on. Nothing Else Matters suddenly didn't relax me in the same way. Then I discovered Jungle/DnB/Techno, and I discovered that Green Day songs didn't quite make me want to dance in the same way anymore.

Fast forward 6-7 years, and my tastes span a whole host of different genres, different songs for whatever mood I may feel - but every time I discover something new, I don't feel like i'm any closer to 'knowing all music ever'. In fact, in most cases it just opens up a whole new area I hadn't encountered before.

All that and yet you still call yourself "Metal Malcolm".

 

[HobgoblinMan]

i think i know what he means

it's like when you have 500 albums and then 1000s and 1000s of individual tracks you just don't know what the hell to listen to cos there's so much

Haha, I have it the other way around... no matter how many albums you have, sometimes there just aint nothing in your collection you want to listen to. Ahhhhh!!!!! Anyone else get that?????

 

[HobgoblinMan]

i have to say im finding it quite liberating having to rebuild my entire music collection from scratch at the moment.

Hardrive died and i lost allmost all my cd's in a car accident within the space of about two weeks.

I can't find any 5 knuckle torrents though


dave

How do you lose all your CD's in a car accident???

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Not just frustrating, but wallet-breaking too, even if your chosen media are electronic. A 1tb hard-drive only holds so much and then you need another.

And another.

And another...

Yeah... I bought a new laptop with 250g thinking it would be plenty.

I never learn...

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

How do you lose all your CD's in a car accident???

The only scenario I can imagine is that the car caught fire, Dave escaped unburned, but his CDs did not.

 

[kained&able]

How do you lose all your CD's in a car accident???

they got trashed.


dave

 

[HobgoblinMan]

Mp3's seem to be taking us back in a way to that thing where it's the song not the artist that's the main thing. it's not stunted or undervalued it's just a different form of appreciation.

This points to a regression. After the early 60's, albums became an artform that reduced the filler, therefore the album and the single became important, not just the single alone. There is room and need for both.

Artists are equally as important as the song, if not more important. Artist development is the way forward. If we concentrate on the song this just creates one hit wonders and one hit wonders are no match for an artist with a decent back cat.

 

[HobgoblinMan]

they got trashed.


dave

Yeah, but how does a car accident do this??? It must have been rather nasty one and you can't of had too many CD's if your collection could fit into a car. Peace.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Yeah, but how does a car accident do this??? It must have been rather nasty one and you can't of had too many CD's if your collection could fit into a car. Peace.

Yeah, if I was taking CDs in a car, I'd take them in a carry case, so I can't imagine they'd all get broken

 

[camouflage]

My attituide to music is similar to this guys attitude to planets...

Nah, not really, I'm not some sort of music locust, I revisit favoured feeding grounds (albums, playlists) when the plundered area has sufficiently regrown (sounds fresh and new again).

 

[sojourner]

no. there's always more music to listen to.

yup

 

[kained&able]

Yeah, but how does a car accident do this??? It must have been rather nasty one and you can't of had too many CD's if your collection could fit into a car. Peace.

flipped a car. soil and general shit all over the cds and big arsed scratches on all of em. There were 100 ish in my car. i now have 50-75 after selling loads of em cos i had em on my puter anyway.


dave

 

[smmudge]

I think good music always has something to offer no matter how many times you've heard it, and the best music doesn't offer anything easily. But unfortunately it's difficult to know after a couple of listenings if it's hard to get into it because it's dull or it is in fact a work of genius.

I've been buying much more music than I've got time to listen to recently. It seems there will always be something better, and not just because a lot of music I'm finding rather banal. But then I'm not going to find anything great if I don't listen to it properly!

 

[atitlan]

A few months ago I started feeling a little bit like the original poster, but the problem wasn't my interest in music but the way I was listening to it. I'd fallen into the habit of just listening to everything on shuffle and also, at home, listening on the computer where (like I'm doing now) I'll be on the internet at the same time.

By going back to listening to whole albums on a proper hi-fi and, most importantly, not treating the music as background to doing something else I regained my appreciation and enthusiasm.

It's now mainly iPod shuffle for the car and proper listening at home.

(and talking of proper listening I'm now going to go and give the new, and rather excellent, Madness album another listen)

 

[ViolentPanda]

All that and yet you still call yourself "Metal Malcolm".

Sssshhhh!

He's called Metal Malcolm because of his tin legs!






Honest!

 

[Orang Utan]

quite. and frustratingly, as I get older my tastes are getting broader, not narrower, so now I feel like I'm going to die having missed so much wonderful music. Inevitable but disappointing

that's how i feel too, i feel bad for listening to a piece of music more than once cos i know it means missing out on other stuff - ridiculous isn't it?

 

[ouchmonkey]

that's how i feel too, i feel bad for listening to a piece of music more than once cos i know it means missing out on other stuff - ridiculous isn't it?

that is ridiculous, most things worth the effort take at least a few listens to get the most out of them for starters

 

[Orang Utan]

there isn't time though! i do revisit things years later that i passed over before and am amazed at how different i feel this time round

 

[Wonky]

I have a few hundred cds stored at my parent's house but I'm gonna have to get rid of some of them when I'm my settled myself and keep only the ones which mean something to me

 

[Greenfish]

yep, after listening to Bob Dylan.

 

[Meltingpot]

There's more good music produced than I'm ever like to hear. I think people who say they're tired of music just need to hear something different, e.g. rock fans should listen to classical, and vice versa.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Nope, definitely not.