Heard It All...

There is probably some type of psychological notion to the human need that some have of wanting to experience it "all", whatever that might be. I'd think in general that people that are really into listening to music often have that trait.

That said, I think there is a difference in wanting to hear or experience the music and just wanting to have the hard copy of the thing. I'm sure most completest of vinyl record compilers often have swaths they might not heard (of yet) in there collection.

I often wonder in about those that have literally heard it all of some subset of music. I'm sure there are some absolute encyclopedic Dead fans.

Stuff I am curious about, how many people out there have say heard every Blue Note record? Had to be quite a few back in it's hey day perhaps.

There was a point where I thought I'd "heard all" of vintage reggae. Not every track of course, but a feeling that I was hearing variations on the same riddims and ideas with different DJs and producers doing their things on top of them. I was wrong, of course, and realised this when I listened to these great comps about ten years ago https://www.discogs.com/label/630681-Bass-Culture Reggae will probably never not be an infinite mine

I'm not really a completist in music, but the only time I've really thought about this is with New Orleans brass band music. Because it's a small regional scene, and I'm specifically into the, let's say, post-'94 style (after Rebirth BB released Rollin'), for a while it was definitely possible to hear every single record.

About a decade ago some L.A. label paid for every young band to record and made a glut of records with dumb titles, a couple of which were great, most of which were not. I at least listened to these at Louisiana Music Factory (ie an old-school record store listening station, because New Orleans blessedly seems to operate a decade behind everywhere else). Which, btw, most of the records still aren't streaming, and some of which were only sold on the street. But this is the only genre in which I can imagine having heard it all.