Musical Listening Lethargy

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FairiesWearBoots

Well-known member
having an ipod had definitely killed my appreciation of the album format, or at least, shortened my attention span,
that said I buy more vinly now that I have in years?
 
Aera Aleph

Aera Aleph

Drag Me Away
used to work at a music distribution company and was basically
forced to listen to new music everyday. which is of course a great way to earn your living but at the same it can be a bit too much, you're not really able to digest everthing you hear.

now that i left some months ago i feel like i had to take some time out, no i-pod, not buying new records...also didn't really go out that much.
and i feel like my love and excitment for music is slowly coming back.

but it generally goes up and down with the tides...
 
Landfill Elektronikz

Landfill Elektronikz

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definitely feeling the malaise...in the past year i've experienced a near-devastating decline in my interest in new music, and a complete lack of enthusiasm for downloads, mp3 etc. my eldest son loves spotify (after i introduced him to it!), but i've gone back to the old ways - i have a listening area where i play vinyl through loudspeakers when time and mood allow, and that's about it. i occasionally buy new records (latest being the Leyland Kirby ambient thing) but my main area of enthusiasm is rummaging through boxes of tatty old records in charity shops, going for the totally random score. yesterday i bought four elpees for a quid, two of which were late '70s K-Tel pop compilations, purely for the nostalgia value. but then again, i think i'll probably be buying Zomby's new one on Ramp recordings soon..
 
nochexxx

nochexxx

harco pronting
i reckon as a producer you listen to your own music, much more than any other music. after and inbetween track construction other artists music is served often as a means of measurement; comparing production values etc or to re-adjust your ears by hearing a new set of parameters. it's important to escape from the hard minute grind and switch off and on to other emotive head states. it's part of the creative process.

bearing this in mind when production increases this inevitably leads to not hearing as much, also not dj-ing frequently is another reason i haven't listened to much.

however this doesn't stop me from buying records or enjoying them as i have to rock out to music at least once a week, usually whilst very drunk. i find it very therapeutic and it still beats any other form of entertainment. also i like not knowing my records too well because for me first listens are best.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Has anyone actually tried deliberately restricting their listening for a while to try to get back into the way you used to develop a very intense relationship with a small amount of music? One the one hand, it's great being able to get at such a range of music, but I kind of miss the way that as a teenager I'd buy a record and listen to it almost constantly for the next month, and end up knowing virtually every beat on it.

So yeah, I was wondering about ways of artificially trying to do that - maybe pick a given record and listen to it at least once a day for a fortnight, or pick a dozen or so and listen to nothing else for a month...
 
Benny Bunter

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Slothrop said:
Has anyone actually tried deliberately restricting their listening for a while to try to get back into the way you used to develop a very intense relationship with a small amount of music? One the one hand, it's great being able to get at such a range of music, but I kind of miss the way that as a teenager I'd buy a record and listen to it almost constantly for the next month, and end up knowing virtually every beat on it.

So yeah, I was wondering about ways of artificially trying to do that - maybe pick a given record and listen to it at least once a day for a fortnight, or pick a dozen or so and listen to nothing else for a month...
Click to expand...

Didn't some blogger write a sort of manifesto for this, restricting their consumption, like a sort of experiment? Can't remember who it was now...:slanted:
 
M

muser

Well-known member
I've completely cut off downloading new music in the past month or so, for production it makes me want to do it more, learn more and try and be more creative to fill that void. Ive also found I appreciate music more when im going out or at home, hadn't realised how edgy the mind state can get constantly searching for new stuff until I gave it a rest.
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Slothrop said:
Has anyone actually tried deliberately restricting their listening for a while to try to get back into the way you used to develop a very intense relationship with a small amount of music? One the one hand, it's great being able to get at such a range of music, but I kind of miss the way that as a teenager I'd buy a record and listen to it almost constantly for the next month, and end up knowing virtually every beat on it.

So yeah, I was wondering about ways of artificially trying to do that - maybe pick a given record and listen to it at least once a day for a fortnight, or pick a dozen or so and listen to nothing else for a month...
Click to expand...

I have often thought about doing this sort of thing but never got around to it.

My hard disk broke a couple of years ago with all my music on and i listened to nothing but Rinse for a few weeks. It was quite fun.

I think it might feel a bit forced though coming home tired from work and fiending for a bit of Sizzla and making yourself listen to some basic channel or whatever just cos it was part of the programme.:D
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
if you live in london you can just listen to the radio and it makes an enormous amount of sense. you'll be ahead of everyone on dissensus for a start.
try doing that in sydney and you'll go mad though.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
mms said:
i am waiting for my bernard parmegiani box set to arrive, i am badly hankering for that. QUOTE]

Got it yet? That's a superb collection.

I'm currently going through a period of lethargy regarding buying music but listening to loads on Spotify...can they be related? As someone else mentioned, Spotify threatens to make buying redundant....but there's always something great that's not available on there and of course the damn adverts are annoying (best used for listening to long pieces by Stockhausen then). Still, the buying habit dies hard.
Click to expand...
 
D

DJ PIMP

Well-known member
People talk about this happening via the "network is the computer" theory...

Eventually the compression issues of streaming will go away... and when data is globally accessible (online storage/ubiquitous wireless) there is no longer any need for individuals to keep copies of media for themselves.
 
Landfill Elektronikz

Landfill Elektronikz

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DJ PIMP said:
People talk about this happening via the "network is the computer" theory...

Eventually the compression issues of streaming will go away... and when data is globally accessible (online storage/ubiquitous wireless) there is no longer any need for individuals to keep copies of media for themselves.
Click to expand...

yes i think you're right. i wrote something similar about spotify a few months ago..


"Sometimes I feel weighed-down by the responsibility of maintaining this wall of 12" cardboard and plastic that I've put all my adult life into ("my possessions - will the howling never end?!"). Sometimes I almost wish I owned nothing. And with Spotify you really don't own anything. You don't even have to worry about how much space your MP3s are taking up on the hard drive - the burden of ownership, maintenance and storage has been passed on. Yes, Spotify reduces music to a souless stream of zeros and ones, and renders proper sleeve art useless, but it sure takes a lot of the worry out of my listening experience. Inevitably, this is the way most passive music consumers will access sound in future; there will no longer be individual character-defining collections, just one gigantic all-encompassing stream; especially when it becomes possible to access this kind of service from mobile phones, in-car systems, etc. Only producers and djs will need more 'malleable' media. For the rest of us, resistance will constitute little more than an alternative, 'eccentric' lifestyle choice."

and coming back to the original thrust of this thread, i found something else i wrote earlier this year that seems to resonate here...

"Well I really should be listening to all these new digital tracks on my hard drive, or at least formulating some kind of opinion/response to the whole funky/wonky scenario that others seem to think is actually intellectually engaging enough to bother discussing. Yeah, I enjoyed that Jamie Vex'd mix and Paul's new comp looks interesting, but still I'm disinclined to get involved right now. I suspect my lack of enthusiasm for current trends may be linked to a wider sense of doom and gloom about life at the present, and a lack of hope for the future, both on a personal and global scale. If one has no faith in the future, how can one engage with the music of the future?"
 
D

Dunninger

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Whenever I checked online music services like spotify, last.fm or even itunes I found it very frustrating that too often the music I want to hear is simply not available. There's surely more good music there than I could ever listen to, but what exactly it is feels a bit random. Plus I don't like listening to music with a computer, it kind of forces me to sit down in front of it and look at the screen.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
I don't think I could have got through this week without a tonne of Sizzla, Wiley, Trim, Asher Senator, Studio One and stuff.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
Nick Gutterbreakz said:
"Sometimes I feel weighed-down by the responsibility of maintaining this wall of 12" cardboard and plastic that I've put all my adult life into ("my possessions - will the howling never end?!"). Sometimes I almost wish I owned nothing. And with Spotify you really don't own anything. You don't even have to worry about how much space your MP3s are taking up on the hard drive - the burden of ownership, maintenance and storage has been passed on..."
Click to expand...

this makes a lot of sense. however, i always think...what if spotify (or whomever) decides in the future to jack their prices sky high? or suppose they simply go belly up? i would hate to have sold all my records/cds and then find myself empty handed.

i have a hard enough time accepting that a hard drive full of mp3s won't at some point crash and lose everything. maybe i'm a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy when it comes to music, but i'll hold on to my cds/records for the time being.
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
also I dunno about this future flat where there are no records or books.

flats with no records/cds or books freak me out.
 
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