Too Much Music

[purlieu]

Oh forgot the radio. Thinking especially the Peel sessions etc. I envy your radio culture.

Yeah, I mean Peel and stuff definitely helped, I discovered lots of interesting things on late night radio, still have a bunch of tapes somewhere with tracks that I never identified.

I think the '90s was a real high point for it too, I remember tuning in one early evening and they were premiering the new Orbital single at 8PM or something. I still have my tape of their '96/'97 New Years performance taped off Radio 1. I got into Photek and Aphex from simply listening to the Top 40 every week. 

 

I definitely listen to less music these days than I used to, which is another reason I need to cut down what I'm buying. It comes in peaks and troughs, sometimes there'll be a few hours / days / weeks when I just don't really feel like anything's doing much for me, and although this sometimes feeds into some mental health issues I have as well, I just think 'ok well I'll just watch more stuff now then' and wait for the music bug to come back.

 

One issue is being part of a music 'scene' of sorts, with a bunch of friends, and putting my own music out there, there's almost an obligation to listen to what everyone else is putting out. Even if a fair bit of it is great, sometimes it gets overwhelming in itself. 

[BoomTssPhace]

Sheesh, hopefully i dont stop caring about music in my later years.. but apparently it is a thing for some people. I just try not to take in more than i can consume at a time. Even when it comes down to a new artist, i try to go slow, like one album at a time. Some of my favorite artists have material that i haven't heard but it's nice to know there's unexplored territory for the future

 

If anything, i sometimes wonder about playing music too much of the time..not like having too much to choose from, but hearing it constantly. Silence is important as well ofc

[Zephyr_Nova]

Since I stopped buying CDs, I've gone from listening to albums to systematically listening through discographies.  It takes so much longer and there's no way I'm going to get around to everything I want to listen to.  A huge portion of my music listening is devoted to catching up on artists from past eras that I missed.  The excitement over new releases from artists I love has been greatly diminished because I'm so used to there being this endless reservoir of music I can tap into at any time (instantly and for free!!).  That said, great music still has the power to move and excite me just as much as it did before.  I'm just no longer ever feeling starved of it, so that satisfaction of eating the big meal after a period of being famished is no longer there.  It's all gluttony at this point.

[Lada Laika]

I think a lot of it for me in the last year goal wise has been the following:

 

1. listen to music by friends, aquantiences, locals - I did this awhile back with tape labels and it was liberating to do that instead of keep up with hype outlets like pfork

 

2. embrace stuff you love - dive into deep cuts, re-listen to old albums, seek out more that sounds like what you know you like

 

3. forget whether something is new or hyped - listen to the radio, ask friends for recs, use WATMM, etc. and you won't feel left out from truly worthy good music - I have to remind myself that the fear of missing out is pretty much a delusion.

 

4. trends/fads are so flash-in-the-pan they aren't worth even trying to pay attention to: internet has essentially destroyed this, which is good and bad. bad = "scenes" to participate in for years are kind of dead. good = scenes in the local and DIY sense still exist and are healthier than ever

 

5. be a snob - you can spend too much time giving "something a chance" or seeing if "something clicks." Instead jump on stuff that actually gives you goosebumps, gets stuck in your head, excites you, etc. even though Spotify gives me good recs there are occasional hipster BS bands and artists it recommends me that I have no qualms about skipping

 

this is all excellent advice IMO, and something i discovered on my own a few years ago when i was feeling drained by keeping up with music media (which is toxic tbh) and the "scene" or whatever. now i mostly use watmm, a couple trusted blogs, and friends' recs as my primary sources, and it's been fucking liberating. i went from being exhausted by music to listening more than ever before.

[Uros]

I think a lot of it for me in the last year goal wise has been the following:

 

1. listen to music by friends, aquantiences, locals - I did this awhile back with tape labels and it was liberating to do that instead of keep up with hype outlets like pfork

 

2. embrace stuff you love - dive into deep cuts, re-listen to old albums, seek out more that sounds like what you know you like

 

3. forget whether something is new or hyped - listen to the radio, ask friends for recs, use WATMM, etc. and you won't feel left out from truly worthy good music - I have to remind myself that the fear of missing out is pretty much a delusion. 

 

4. trends/fads are so flash-in-the-pan they aren't worth even trying to pay attention to: internet has essentially destroyed this, which is good and bad. bad = "scenes" to participate in for years are kind of dead. good = scenes in the local and DIY sense still exist and are healthier than ever

 

5. be a snob - you can spend too much time giving "something a chance" or seeing if "something clicks." Instead jump on stuff that actually gives you goosebumps, gets stuck in your head, excites you, etc. even though Spotify gives me good recs there are occasional hipster BS bands and artists it recommends me that I have no qualms about skipping

Good post. #3 and the note of missing worthy music is way too familiar. I've spent way too many hours on discogs browsing its database filtered to genres and styles and scrolled through thousands of releases just because the possibility of some hidden gem to blow my socks off must be just around the corner. The haul has been anything but worth the effort. Actually when thinking about it quite smug of me to assume I'd really find something so special which no-one else hasn't found before and tooted it to death. But yet the possibility of unfound "new Drukqs" or "new steinvord" hidden somewhere there is sometimes too teasing.

[YangYing]

 

 

The excitement over new releases from artists I love has been greatly diminished because I'm so used to there being this endless reservoir of music I can tap into at any time (instantly and for free!!). That said, great music still has the power to move and excite me just as much as it did before. I'm just no longer ever feeling starved of it, so that satisfaction of eating the big meal after a period of being famished is no longer there. It's all gluttony at this point.

this is what I have been trying to say! you're so eloquent with words... cheers.

[purlieu]

The excitement over new releases from artists I love has been greatly diminished because I'm so used to there being this endless reservoir of music I can tap into at any time (instantly and for free!!).

Yeah, I suppose that sums up my point about pre-internet listening, every new album was an event. I kind of miss that. 

 

 

Some of my favorite artists have material that i haven't heard but it's nice to know there's unexplored territory for the future

I'm guilty of charging through discographies when I'm excited about an artist, but thankfully so many have music away from their standard albums that even with those, there are gaps. Half my Discogs wishlist is formed of EPs, deluxe editions etc. of artists I'm a huge fan of. There are still a handful of Aphex releases that have passed me by which I'm gradually snapping up over time. Same with tons of my favourite artists. I recently picked up the 'Theory of Evolution' compilation which, despite absolutely loving 76 14 & A Collection of Short Stories, I'd somehow never even stumbled across. 

[Zephyr_Nova]

 

The excitement over new releases from artists I love has been greatly diminished because I'm so used to there being this endless reservoir of music I can tap into at any time (instantly and for free!!). That said, great music still has the power to move and excite me just as much as it did before. I'm just no longer ever feeling starved of it, so that satisfaction of eating the big meal after a period of being famished is no longer there. It's all gluttony at this point.

this is what I have been trying to say! you're so eloquent with words... cheers.

 

 

 

[joshuatxuk]

 

 

The excitement over new releases from artists I love has been greatly diminished because I'm so used to there being this endless reservoir of music I can tap into at any time (instantly and for free!!). That said, great music still has the power to move and excite me just as much as it did before. I'm just no longer ever feeling starved of it, so that satisfaction of eating the big meal after a period of being famished is no longer there. It's all gluttony at this point.

this is what I have been trying to say! you're so eloquent with words... cheers.

Yes this was such an apt comparison, really fleshed out how too much choice can be debilitating.

 

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

[o00o]

DJ Sets used to be my resource of new music. I am getting back to this as it's much more fruitful than recommendations from algorithms

[beerwolf]

I'm well aware that the best music reveals itself after repeated listens. We probably all know that. That's maybe the reason why so many of us are burnt out and don't feel the rush of discovery anymore.

 

So there's the crucial crux of this day and age I guess, when everything is at your fingertips.

 

In the last year or so I've almost told myself to go to how I used to be when I was in my most tribal phase, when there was a clear line drawn between what was fucking brilliant and what was a total waste of my fucking time. No matter if some cunt at Pitchfork or RA is telling me that I've got to hold hands with their opinion and nod along to their endless music recommendations.

[zaphod]

I'm well aware that the best music reveals itself after repeated listens. We probably all know that. That's maybe the reason why so many of us are burnt out and don't feel the rush of discovery anymore.

 

So there's the crucial crux of this day and age I guess, when everything is at your fingertips.

 

In the last year or so I've almost told myself to go to how I used to be when I was in my most tribal phase, when there was a clear line drawn between what was fucking brilliant and what was a total waste of my fucking time. No matter if some cunt at Pitchfork or RA is telling me that I've got to hold hands with their opinion and nod along to their endless music recommendations.

 

i'm kind of there. most music just feels like a waste of time. either derivative of something i already know and love or just blatant shit. i don't have time to discover new stuff. that phase ended with my 20s. i've also taken to "living with" albums, the way i used to when i was an adolescent and still had a discman and would walk around listening to the same album for weeks on end. that's how i fell in love with most of the stuff i still appreciate. i've also found that my overall taste hasn't changed much and basically solidified when i was fifteen. new things got added and some stuff phased out but for the most part i'm still listening to the same fifty or so artists that i had on when i was an awkward teen idm boy.

[taphead]

I turned 32 recently and have never been more psyched about and plugged into stuff happening in music these past couple years and new discoveries from prior years. I just lucked out and found the right sort of curation systems that lead me to the stuff I'm into. I've heard 139 things from this year so far and 126 new things I hadn't heard before from previous years, and sure a lot of them I listened to once and was like "oh I don't care about this" but still there were a lot of them that have left a solid impression on me, and there's still so many things to hear, I'm loving it. but yeah I get how it could be overwhelming and it's always entirely possible that nobody is delivering the music you developed a taste for, but that all can always change on both sides of the fence so I wouldn't worry about it and even if it never changes you'll have your music, so I guess my point is it's all good either way.

[sweepstakes]

DJ Sets used to be my resource of new music. I am getting back to this as it's much more fruitful than recommendations from algorithms

This has always been the most productive way for me to find new music. Even better than recommendations from people who like some of the same stuff as me.