i am increasingly only able to listen to melodramatic synth-pop, late 90s to now mainstream hiphop/r&b, and 60s 'oldies'; and from each of these genres only the major radio singles

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i miss being excited by (or even sitting still for more than a minute of) jazz and idm and actual rap ALBUMS that aren't the source hiphop hits 2001 :-(

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh yeah a question so um recommend records that will cure this! please!!

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What, you gave up on prog?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Why cure it? That's the way to go.

― Ally, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

why does everyone think me liking prog is so funny!?! anyway yeah i never even got into it, i still want the yes greatest hits cd but i have no money to buy it. ally i suspect you may be right but i added the request because i am still genuinely distressed by this and also partly because i didn't want to make this look like one of those awful pop snob threads.

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

How about trying a music fast? Of course, that's easy to suggest, but it's not advice I could actually apply very easily, though I think it might be beneficial once in a while. (Why would you listen to me? but I thought I would throw this out anyway.)

― DeRayMi, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I could only recommend jazz albums from the 60's and 70's and I'm not sure if that's what you're after. I've not been keeping in touch with hip hop as much as I used to, but some semi-recent albums I thought were good: Blackalicious - NIA
Jurassic 5 - Quality Control
Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought LP and Fortified Live 12"
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides
Solesides Records - Greatest Bumps
Slum Village - Fantastic vol.2
Common - Like Water for Chocolate - this one could maybe ease you out of hits mode, you could listen to 'the light' over and over, then suddenly bust out into the rest of the album.

― Ron, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Get into metal. It's saving my love of music--it's like a whole other world that initially seems really dumb (and some of it is) but is generally full of nice, unpretentious people and really good music. Miles more fun than indie rock or IDM.

― adam, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I long ago gave up on forcing to like something. Music is about enjoying yourself. Why fret over the fact your taste changes?

― nathalie, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What are ya all distressed about, big baby. Welcome to the club! Anyway, I'm hardly the person to suggest any jazz or idm or actual rap. But I'm not a pop snob, honest! Anyway, I say start listening to early 70s 'oldies'. And Queen.

― Not Very Helpful, Am I?, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Get into metal.

Ah, but what *kind* of metal? We must save him from Slaughter fandom, for instance.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for what it's worth i am entirely not asking for jazz/idm/rap recommendations in this thread!

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ah, but what *kind* of metal?

Well, thanks to John Darnielle's series of (excellent) Eyehategod pieces and seeing them live for the first time last week, I'd say EYEHATEGOD. They are fucking GREAT. I like Confederacy of Ruined Lives the best, but everything I've heard has been awesome. Like Swans playing Sabbath in a meth lab. Truly scary but not without a (deranged) sense of humor.

I have other beloved metal acts but right now I am stuck on EHG pretty hardcore. There are other people on ILM that know a whole lot more about metal than I and are better equipped to recommend stuff.

― adam, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i agree with the metal comment. Black/Death/Doom/Stoner metal is what I'm getting into at the moment and yes, although it may be a little cheesy/intrusive at points, it's a pretty cool. I reccomend Bal-Sagoth, Sigh, Electric Wizard, Emperor, Kyuss, Nile, Enslaved - all excellent and a refreshing change from all these Brat-Rock wannabes

― dog latin, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm sympathetic to your plight Ethan. I've completely lost touch with any music that you can't buy in HMV or Borders. OK, music that you can't buy in HMV or Borders takes up maybe 5% of my listening time but I'd like some new ideas myself. I downloaded some ear-loosening drone albums I lucked onto online but those have only kept me going for so long.

― Tom, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yeah the thing is i put things on that i used to love like curtis mayfield or aphex or gravediggaz or something and i'm just squirming waiting for the songs to end but then the same ja rule track i've heard eight thousand times before comes on the radio before plays and then i'm smiling and bouncing up and down, god this all sounds so lamely like those 'i like destiny's child, is there something wrong with me!' threads that get posted every month but i am actually really saddened by this development.

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Methinks an ILM outing to the Berlin performance of Metal Machine Music is required. Don't forget to pack a lunch, posters!

― Mitch Lastnamewithheld, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ethANP2 3 (2:19 PM): i am afraid people are misunderstanding my thread
TomFT26 (2:20 PM): im not sure i understand it myself
ethANP2 3 (2:20 PM): everything sounds slow and leaden
ethANP2 3 (2:21 PM): nothing is direct enough
ethANP2 3 (2:21 PM): i hate how this sounds
ethANP2 3 (2:21 PM): i mean it's such a done-to-death freaky trigger issue
ethANP2 3 (2:22 PM): but it's not like going from pavement to timbaland here, i mean i'm talking about liking fabolous more than biggie
TomFT26 (2:22 PM): what, you want directness but in different directions from where you're getting it?
ethANP2 3 (2:23 PM): i can't really describe it
ethANP2 3 (2:23 PM): a lot of stuff i used to like and listen to a lot sounds like it's coming through a paper bag or something
ethANP2 3 (2:23 PM): everything just washes together
TomFT26 (2:23 PM): yes i know that feeling well
ethANP2 3 (2:24 PM): like there used to be a time when i liked mainstream hiphop but more indier dance and rock and whatever
ethANP2 3 (2:24 PM): but now i just want to listen to like no doubt and moby
ethANP2 3 (2:25 PM): i was going to say chemical brothers and i have listened to come with us a lot but i always liked them anyway
ethANP2 3 (2:25 PM): it's like my entire music world is now just what mtv covers
TomFT26 (2:26 PM): yeah, i think it's a phase and will pass. i get it sometimes.

― ethan, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The thing to remember is that there are some genres where the radio did pick the best songs to be hits - I think most 60s pop styles worked like this, and 80s synthpop too, and you could certainly make a case for current hip-hop, though mainstream and underground are almost separate things completely now. The evolution-via-populism thing sometimes does work, you know!

― Tom, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the radio did pick the best songs to be hits

A distinctly troublesome formula. It's not *always* the case, surely?

My solution -- turn off the radio and MTV. Worked these last few years for me, at least.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

More clearly -- not every song selected was the best even during the 'golden age,' etc.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well obviously your listening mileage may vary Ned but in general I've found that there are some genres where radio play has a high strike rate, quality-wise. So if you're touring that genre you can listen to all the stuff that was a hit in fair knowledge that you're hearing most of the best stuff, though clearly not all. 80s synthpop and most 60s pop genres work like that for me. Post-punk and even punk don't, and nor does Reggae. Rock does for me but obviously doesn't for most rock fans.

― Tom, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm not saying ALL the best stuff was hits of course. I'm saying that your chances of a random non-hit song being as good as a random hit- song seem much lower in some genres. i.e. "Let's Build A Car" is as good as Joy Division's highest-charting single. Whereas something by Dalek I Love You is not as good as the Human League or Soft Cell's highest-charting singles. In, of course, my opinion.

― Tom, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the potential problem with comparing then to now in terms of 'radio on the best stuff' is how it got there in the first place. In today's ClearChannel days, things are a lot different in even in comparison to the Golden Days of Payola, thanks to the disappearance of regional radio hits, overall media centralization etc. It might be more accurate to say certain folks, aka the savviest of current hip- hop/r'n'b producers, know how to work radio to their own best advantage while acknowledging that it's pretty much out of their hands.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't honestly think it matters that much, at least in theory. In fact it makes me more likely to be right - there are some things the 12 Foot Lizard People of Clear Channel will 'understand' more than others because it's such a centralised force, and it will be better able to filter the best stuff from those things. Notice at no point am I saying the genres radio 'gets' are better than the genres radio doesn't 'get'.

(I listened to Capital Radio today for the first time in ages, for about an hour. I heard only one bad song - the Ali G thing - but I also heard no new ones. The slow playlist rotation is a bigger problem, I unscientifically surmise, than the quality.)

― Tom, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ethan in the more than 20 years since i was your age i have been through about TEN of these whatchummacallits, some extremely violently (eg WHY I STOPPED WRITING ABOUT WORLD MUSIC BY MARK S, and JAZZ: SUDDENLY I ADORE IT NO MORE CUZ IT TOTALLY LIKE BUGS ME): i also went through a long long ultra-rockist phase (c.1983-92) of not being able to listen to or BEAR punk and post-punk

it's normal, at least it is if *i'm* normal [noises off: ribald muttering]: it's like you grow out of some friends and have to give yourself space from others; when you get back together again, some you find you haven't a CLUE what you ever had in common, others you become double deeper friends

blimey why is it always me that gives you the hippy advice

― mark s, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mark S gives hippie advice = he is a hippie. Simple!

there are some things the 12 Foot Lizard People of Clear Channel will 'understand' more than others because it's such a centralised force

Actually, I like the idea that ClearChannel's crack listening squad are essentially the same as the pop-friendly folks here, except they don't post their analyses of the songs. :-)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ethan, I'm going out on a limb here, but you might want to try Talk Talk's 'Laughing Stock.' I don't really know why, exactly. It's a very redemptive album, very "pure" somehow - not "purist" by any means (it borrows from a lot of different stuff), more like liquid glass. It sounds to me like an album that could bring one back from the edge - I don't mean like from suicide, though that could be, but (god this sounds lame) it could make someone remember how moving and good music can be. You might hate it, but it's worth a listen.

― Clarke B., Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

luckily clarke b is a bigger hippy

― wanna destroy passerz by again (phew), Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

OMPOS (oh my poor old sides)

― Andrew L, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

luckily clarke b is a bigger hippy

We must measure relative consumption of patchouli oil.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i'm listening to the first Renegade Soundwave album right now. it's very good and manages to kind of clean a thick layer of scum off the top of your brain. no line between rave/industrial/hiphop. okay, well it's not hip hop at all, but the song about The Krays would actually go over really well in a set right after "jump around" or something. happy st patrick's day!

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dude, Ned, don't use the "C"-word about me - I blend my own oils from nature's recipe.

― Clarke B., Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

luckily clarke b is a bigger hippy

Ethan's the one who lives in Athens, GA for Buddha's sake!

― Clarke B., Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dude, Ned, don't use the "C"-word about me

? 'Consumption'? What, are you afraid of dying a 19th-century death?

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Certainly reggae is the answer. The older the better--really old ska and rocksteady.

― Keiko, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

err tom what were these drone albums??

― toby, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The hippie advice is probably good.

― DeRayMi, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Zen answer: the sound of the sleet as it hits my air-conditioner.

― DeRayMi, Sunday, 17 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think you should just listen exclusively to Gang of Four til you get tired of it.

― Ally, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ally I thought the only Gang of Four you liked was that one that goes "I love a man in a uniform" (entitled: "I Love A Man In A Uniform")! We definitely had this argument like a month ago.

― Ian, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Who the hell can get tired of Gang of Four? That's impossible!

― Daver, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cool thread, I wanna hear more from the smelly hippie

― kiwi, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm listening to too much dance music. I'm scared of becoming more ignorant of everything else very quickly and being a total anorak about dance. However having said all that I can't remember ever wanting to write so often. I practically run to the computer after seeing DJs, good or bad. So I guess if it's making me enthusiastic I should stick with it.

― Ronan, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I practically run to the computer after seeing DJs
Is that straight after you see'em? Do you carry a laptop with ya to clubs? ;-)

― nathalie, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah I'm down the back with my glowstick and my laptop emailing everyone and telling them how much I love them.

― Ronan, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The last two times I went to a club I took my laptop.

― Tom, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You should be on Mego, Tom!

― Andrew L, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am increasingly only able to listen to Sir Lord Baltimore, Hawkwind, the Groundhogs, stuff like that. I've stopped worrying & I love the bomb.

― duane, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I had a similar phase lately of only listening to RnB & synth pop, and got out of it by obsessively listening to MBV at full volume for three days. Previously id attempted listening to Wu Tang solo LPs from 95-6 to stop the rot, but that didn't work half as well

― owen hatherley, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

While I'd love to give you actual albums to cure this funk (and make no mistake, melodramatic synth pop can come to NO GOOD), unfortunately I can only recommend my own stuff. It has synths, beats, and sort of sounds like prog too. I apologize.

― dleone, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Goddamnit, Ian, I didn't say I should be listening to Gang of Four. I don't recall this as being an argument, though, I recall this as me singing a bit of the song and telling you that story about the boys driving around in their Russian military coats and that song came on and Ramon goes, "This isn't funny anymore," and Otis goes, "No. No it isn't" and they turned it off. And then we (read: you) put on the entire Gina G album.

― Ally, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am increasingly able to only listen to classic modernism and 70s AOR. I'm sure it will pass.

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm listening to the Ja Rule album right now. My listening habits have gotten weird lately -- some radio (WILD 94.9) which is MORE varied with the house/hi-nrg/hip-hop mix than my typical albums in rotation which are supah-commercial. This is at work. At home I put on blues or angry punk or drone.

Ethan: get The Mekons "Journey To The End of The Night" &... oh! You are bored with your albums and cannot buy new ones because have no money and therefore are listening only to the radio to get the thrill of the new. I see. Answer: get money, buy albums.

Also, Gotti's production on Ja Rule's "The Inc" is very exciting.

― Sterling Clover, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Except I just listened to Sister Sledge.

― sundar subramanian, Monday, 18 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Music is moods. Listen to wherever you happen to be. Leave it alone and it will come home, wagging it's tail behind it - eventually. Or else play nothing but Metal Machine Music for several weeks, immerse yourself in musique concrete, indulge in an extended Harry Partch phase. If nothing else it will give you instant obscurist cred. -jeff

― mxyzptlk, Thursday, 21 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two years pass...

you know, except for the 60s oldies bit (replace with "ambient shit"), this is pretty much where MY tastes are right now.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 05:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i've even caught ethan trife's love for yes OMGWTF!?!?!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Tuesday, 16 November 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

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