Musicians who "don't listen to music": C or D?

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It was mentioned in the Neil Young bio I just read that he tends not to pay attention to music or listen to it anymore. I recall several years ago when someone asked the Sisters of Mercy guy what he liked to listen to and his response was that he only listened to his own records... setting aside these specific examples as irrelevant tho, I'm curious as to whether this is a healthy/unhealthy way to approach creating music in general. Does the aural isolation result in stunning originality or in pedestrian repetition...? Is a musician made better by exposure to new/different music? Pro/con examples?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Liars, one and all.

Music is more or less inescapable, and anyone saying they don't listen to it conciously is full of shit. If Neil Young didn't listen to music, how would he know who to ask to play his Bridge Benefits?

― Ian Johnson, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:46 (twenty-two years ago)

enya will not listen to anything but herself and clannad.that's just fucking crazy.carla bozulich used to be chatty about music,but now she says she doesn't seek out music.and if she does,she certainly doesn't like to talk about it.i recently had all of my cds. stolen.i was all just yap yap yap about music and now i have absolutely nothing to say....it has affected my piano playing negatively.but it's improved my singing and my guitar playing......psychologically,however..it hurts.anyways....a young musician needs a wider listening pallete than an older musician,who knows themselves better does.....but i can't see how total isolation would lead to anything but stagnation and insanity,long term......regardless of age or experience.does neil young LOOK happy?

― i do not know., Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

aren't some classical composers even more vehemently emphasizing that they deliberately avoid other people's music?

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"Music is more or less inescapable, and anyone saying they don't listen to it conciously is full of shit. If Neil Young didn't listen to music, how would he know who to ask to play his Bridge Benefits? "

Uhm, Neil lives on a very isolated ranch and doesn't hear/see anything he doesn't want to - judging from the book, he alternates between touring and being a reclusive nut. The Bridge Benefits are largely populated by acts already familiar to Neil, but besides he has a manager who books acts (and gets horrible ideas like pairing him with Pearl Jam), Neil's not involved in that shit. But focusing on this particular example isn't really helpful... doesn't get at the question (eg, is Neil's music *better* because he willfully ignores other music?)

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 00:54 (twenty-two years ago)

arrrgghhh... how could you listen to nothing but your own music? I'd go fucking mad. I *can't* listen to my own music.

I can understand loving music so much you don't want to listen to bad examples of it, but *NO* music? That seems wrong.

Now I feel justified for hating Neil Young. What a pretentious fuck.

― kate, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"those who ignore history are condemned to repeat it."

george michael told michael parkinson he only listens to his own (solo) records at home. he might've been joking tho.

i have never encountered an artist who doesn't listen to music, who has made anything i've ever got excited about.

― Charlie (Charlie), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 01:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't find it hard to believe that a high-profile professional musician just wouldn't have the time or energy to seek out or pay attention to music. I don't necessarily *agree* with it (and it certainly isn't my approach) but I do find it plausible... in Neil's case you've got a fabulously rich, old, cranky, pretty self-absorbed guy who lives out on a big estate buying old cars and playing with model trains. It doesn't seem unlikely to me that his life is so busy and weird that he doesn't really have the time or inclination to seek out music. After all, he's busy designing train controllers for his non-oral spastic paraplegic son (or whatever). I don't think it's narcissism so much as it's just laziness...? Could be wrong. Stuff *does* puncture Neil's sound-cocoon occasionally. He heard "In Utero". He watched Spiritualized on tour. But my impression was that he just doesn't care or follow music in general. I have no idea if he still listens to *old* music (which would be just as valid as listening to new music I think, in terms of exploring his interests and influences).

But again, I didn't want this to just be about Neil. What, no one cares about the Sisters of Mercy guy?

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 01:27 (twenty-two years ago)

and on the other side of the coin, it's well-documented that Elton John listens to practially *everything* he can get his pudgy hands on (buys 2 copies of everything as well, one for each house) and yet he's not made a good record since, oooh, 1990 at the most charitable stretch.

― Charlie (Charlie), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

This Train Don't Stop Here Anymore was a brilliant single!

Elton listens to Ryan Adams and also to steps: his taste would be fascinating to uh triangulate, I think..

― thom west (thom w), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 03:54 (twenty-two years ago)

mmmmmmmmm....triangulate

― naked as sin (naked as sin), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 03:55 (twenty-two years ago)

dud and horseshit. they should be taken outside and have the shit beaten out of them

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 09:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, there's probably *some* benefit from isolating yourself from the media-music-stream... I'm not sure how big a benefit though.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I can believe that Neil Young doesn't actively seek out music - that doesn't annoy me. It's exponentially more annoying when a younger band is CLEARLY influenced by another band, but vehemently denies ever having heard that obvious influence. Right, the Strokes have never heard Television.

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:10 (twenty-two years ago)

You sometimes hear of bands isolating themselves during the recording of an album to make sure they don't subconsciously knock off any contemporary trends that are doing the rounds at the time, but I guess that's just like trying to make sure the original idea you went in with stays intact, and not as extreme as listening to nothing, which seems insane and impossible.

If I ever sort of idly play guitar without having thought about or listened to any music for some time I find myself churning out unbearably turgid sub-Oasis wank, but maybe that's just me not having enough 'proper' playing ability to toss off classy riffs like the other pale sinister boys/bearded men in the guitar shops.

― Ferg (Ferg), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

neil young looks pretty happy to me.

in the azerrad book, mike watt talks about how the minutemen were asked to open up for up rem, a band they had never heard before (because the minutemen were "ostriches"). i believe him. the minutemen are an example of aural isolation (outside of seventies rock, some punk, and the la bands they'd go see) resulting in something that didn't sound like anything that had come before.

― dan (dan), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I've read about this for a while now, and it usually seems to happen more for older musicians. Heck, even my dad says he wants to sell all his CDs because he doesn't really feel like he'll ever listen to most of them again.

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:32 (twenty-two years ago)

it would make sense that this is tied to age - audio burnout...

― Shakey Mo Collier, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

in the azerrad book...

Yeah, but things were different in the 1980s and not all music was available to everybody, blah blah blah.

The Minutemen may have not known R.E.M., but they sure knew their 70s rock (BOC, Steely Dan, Urinals, etc.).

― hstencil, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

yup...a great cover of dr.Wu.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I do get this to some small extent - if you listen to something really good, you wish you'd thought ov it, but if you listen to something a bit rough, you wish you'd done it (better) instead of the folks who actually made it. that said, whenever i go up for a guitar/synthi playing session, i always listen to a bunch ov rekkids first. It gets me in the mood.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's just fine. I care more about what music they make than whether they listen to music. Presumably most will have listened to other music intensively at some point in their lives.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

thurston moore (a noted neil young devotee)does quite the opposite.... won't listen to his own stuff.....for proof of this,walk up to him,and hum one of his own tunes to him.he won't recognise it.he'll have to lean down and ask his mom.she'll whisper it in his ear,and tell him....""remember,it was the one you did when bla bla bla""....and then she'll go back to bopping around,giggling, head-banging...handing out killer bridge playing tips,crochet secrets,etc...he'll take a puff on his salem,and then sort of stare down at you.it's a strange feeling...he's very fucking tall,but his face is so completely non-threatening.it is a shame to hear that neil young has lost his humor,and his youth.what are we going to call him now?(please don't answer that with a pun)....i hope neil young will remember...oh fuck it...neil rocks no matter what kind of lovecraftian monster he turns into....it's hard to be taken that seriously....so if you want to do him a favor...keep picking on him....this is what self-righteousness and isolation can do----one year.....you go on a screaming rampage railing against corporate evil.("this note's for you")the next year,you run out of money and,and you have to play it in front of a fifty foot budweiser banner...(this quote is for you)"que ?"......che guevra,brazil..nineteen fifty something

― another parallel-appelate-o-lypto-graph-o-gram, Thursday, 9 January 2003 02:09 (twenty-two years ago)

It's exponentially more annoying when a younger band is CLEARLY influenced by another band, but vehemently denies ever having heard that obvious influence. Right, the Strokes have never heard Television.

No, but this can be. Younger band rips off slightly older band who ripped off a slightly older band who dug Television or whoever. Youngest band's claim to have never heard Television or whoever is true.

'Rips off' is a cynical term. I don't mean it like that.

Also, I can understand musicians not listening to other music when they're working. When I'm in a period when I'm recording, I cannot put on a CD. After half a track, I'll have to stop the CD because I need to put some new ideas on dictaphone or whatever. Ideas not directly ripped off from the CD, but caused by my listening to CD which I may or may not like much.

When I give myself time off, music is good, though.

But I can understand the likes of Neil Young or, especially, Bob Dylan, not listening to new music. Why should they? They have very fixed limits of musical forms they will see out their life exploring. This is fine.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Thursday, 9 January 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I recall several years ago when someone asked the Sisters of Mercy guy what he liked to listen to and his response was that he only listened to his own records

To clarify -- when asked to mention his favorite records for a Q feature, Mr. Eldritch noted that he hadn't really listened to them in years, having heard them quite a few times already and all. As he put it -- and I fully understand where he's coming from -- for him it's just the looking at the record's spine, seeing the art and all which brings all the music and all the associated feelings with that music back to him in a flash, when something is that deeply ingrained in his listening consciousness.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 9 January 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I think that bands who don't listen to their own music have the right idea. I hate listening to my own recordings once they're "out there in the world", especially since they don't sound nearly as good as they do in my head..

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 9 January 2003 02:48 (twenty-two years ago)

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