Are you listening to new music at the expense of old favorites?

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In this modern age of p2p, MP3 blogs, radio streams from around the world, Amazon and GEMM, I find that my new music acquisition is so overwhelming that things hit my radar, get played a few times, then get relegated to the shelf/CDR/MP3 player while I move on the latest new item. And I'm not even talking about massive downloading like Sick Mouthy has written about, just keeping up with new releases & reissues, following up on bands from compilations, mentioned on ILX, blogs and heard on local college radio and the occasional slsk'ing produces a steady stream of new music to digest.

When I look at all the CDs on my shelves, part of me is sad/guilty that I haven't listened to some of them more. There are CDs that I absolutely adore that I haven't heard in years - partly because I'm very familiar with them and partly because I'm driven to find new sounds. And don't even start me on the issue of "I'd love even more artists if I listened to them more than a couple of times".

I keep waiting for a lull in activity, and while my actual purchasing is down about 50% from 5 years ago this year seems like it's bouncing back. It feels a bit like an addiction at times - instead of digging into something in my own collection, I need to look elsewhere for that 'new music' fix even though I might not have listened to something in years (and wasn't that familiar with it at the time).

A friend of mine suggested creating a self-imposed new stuff/old stuff air-time requirement. Seems like a silly thought but it has some merit.

Can anyone else relate to this?

― Mr. Odd, Sunday, 29 April 2007 02:32 (eighteen years ago)

I relate but at the same time I don't obsess over the worry so much as I consider new, emergent takes on how to deal with the flood. As it stands, nothing is 'required' to be listened to -- any creator, now, needs to think of it this way: they are competing in an era where increasingly (but NOT universally -- assuming everyone out there is as plugged-in and overwhelmingly interested in everything like oneself is an understandable but clear fallacy) just about anything is to hand. Books, movies, music, art, etc. etc. -- and this is on top of the business of life itself, people, friendships, the personal as defined in so many ways.

Nobody has a right to attention. Brutal, but true. No work of art has a right to it, never has. The canon was an attempt to codify what does have such a right and will still exist as such for a while yet to come but increasingly is understood as the construct it is.

As a result, it's down to what you decide to do with your time. I don't believe in this old/new split as a regulated committal of time. The other week old and totally familiar Depeche Mode was soundtracking a tough week at work. The week before then I was skipping through a slew of new (to me) recordings old and new. I could have just as been easily listening to book readings or watching movies or the like.

There's no one answer. There just can't be.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 29 April 2007 02:38 (eighteen years ago)

There's a radio station up in Vermont that I used to work in which contains the largest music collection in Vermont (in both vinyl and CD format, in the tens of thousands is the current CD library). The collection tends to be a lot of independent label stuff, and I go up there now occasionally (I live in Boston now). I upload probably about thirty CDs. I don't necessarily fully digest all the CDs either...

I feel the same way. I feel like it takes a couple listen throughs to fully appreciate the sound of something. Beck to me wasn't anything special upon first listen, but after a couple times I came to enjoy his sound.

We are inundated with music from every genre. I think I have upwards of 30,000 songs on an external hard-drive and my laptop. That's like over two months worth of straight listening, hence quite ridiculous.

And now I've discovered lala.com, and get more cheap music... Jesus. How does one truly appreciate music?

Tis the question of the iPod generation.

― MaGoGo, Sunday, 29 April 2007 03:47 (eighteen years ago)

damn saturday drunken posts.

― MaGoGo, Sunday, 29 April 2007 03:47 (eighteen years ago)

― Scik Mouthy, Sunday, 29 April 2007 07:02 (eighteen years ago)

How oh how I do relate to this. I'm generally pretty slow paced on music too, like I never download full albums and the like, so I guess I'm just really used to taing it slow. I also used to buy a cd a week, and before often 2, but I dunno, sometimes I do find it stressful to keep up and appreciate things at the same time.

― mehlt, Sunday, 29 April 2007 19:42 (eighteen years ago)

Yes I am listening to new music at the expense of....wait. actually I'm not. I'm listening to old favourites at the expense of new music.

― Bimble, Sunday, 29 April 2007 19:53 (eighteen years ago)

But I know how it feels to do the reverse, I promise.

― Bimble, Sunday, 29 April 2007 19:53 (eighteen years ago)

Bimble - that's a good point. I've gone through periods like that as well where I ONLY wanted to hear The Fall or Wire but it doesn't last long. I know there are folks who have many, many items in their collections that they've never listened to but that's an anathema to me - I mean, if I bought it I want to hear it (soon!). But a steady stream of new acquisitions + limited listening time = 90% only listening to new stuff. That's just where I'm at, and it feels great to be finding new stuff to love, but reading ILM keeps inspiring me to pull out old favorites (gotta rip all my Throwing Muses now!).

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 April 2007 02:18 (eighteen years ago)

I have a friend who buys so many records all the time that she just started imposing exile on the records-- she went through all of them that she hadn't listened to repeatedly, listened, and if she didn't like them, she put em on eBay. And when I say that this girl buys a lot of records, I mean she buys A LOT of records.

As for me, I tend to keep a lot of records I don't listen to around, and don't worry much about what I'm listening to at the moment, old or new.

In terms of mp3s and whatnot, I keep abreast by putting favorite artists/albums along with newer things on the iPod shuffle, and get introduced to things that way. It's been working pretty well since I started doing it.

― the table is the table, Monday, 30 April 2007 02:31 (eighteen years ago)

pretty much 90% of my record purchases are of old second hand vinyl, for purely financial reasons mainly. i've tried this year to buy alot more new vinyl but at 6/7 pound for like 2 tracks it seems pretty pointless especially as i'm only djing out twice a month currently. sometimes i'll hold back on downloading something for ages because i'll really want the vinyl, which will then get played about twice. it's like, did i really need to pay 8 pounds for a second tier m_nus artist or whatever

― creme1, Monday, 30 April 2007 02:40 (eighteen years ago)

any tips on blagging promo lists?

― creme1, Monday, 30 April 2007 02:40 (eighteen years ago)

i've started getting major paranoia about the longevity of cdrs/mp3s

― creme1, Monday, 30 April 2007 02:42 (eighteen years ago)

she went through all of them that she hadn't listened to repeatedly, listened, and if she didn't like them, she put em on eBay

I tried doing this, but listening to one disappointing album after another put me in a FOUL mood. So I just started listening to a few tracks to confirm my feelings, then just one track, now when I weed things out, if I just have a negative feeling about it - bye-bye. I only do that once a year or so, though. As for eBay, I'll only put up a few things I know I'll get decent coin for, otherwise I'll take what I get at a used store. It's just not worth the hassle for me otherwise.

Having access to so much music, though, definitely has me thinking about another issue I think you touched on, Nick, about consuming music vs. appreciating music. I do a lot of the former but prefer to do the latter.

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 April 2007 03:20 (eighteen years ago)

For me it seems sort of weird how I have so many old favorites that I know so well while a lot of newer music just gets listened to once or twice and set aside until some future date when I throw it on my iPod again and listen to it a couple more times.

Fifteen years ago I didn't have tons of music (compared to now) and would carry the same 12 CDs in my travel case for days. Now I've got a hundred records with me all the time and anything new has a lot of competition for my attention.

I grew up in a town with one Musicland and no other record stores for 100 miles - and no decent ones for 200. When I'd travel and visit a record store, I'd stock up on tons of stuff while I have the chance. Now with Amazon, YSI, blogs, torrents, CD burners, portable hard drives full of music and friends with the same, it's hard to get over the STOCK UP NOW mentality.

― joygoat, Monday, 30 April 2007 05:48 (eighteen years ago)

I definitely see myself as waiting for a time when I can take full appreciation of my "cultural stockpile", be that CDs, books, DVDs, whatever; like Im waiting for a cultural retirement when I can enjoy the fruits of my labour.

Yes, this is the feeling I always have, that it's all about projecting into the future...that this new thing I'm burning is something I'm going to play and treasure eternally, when in fact, it's just the latest thing to have caught my attention and will probably sit on the shelf after a few plays. It's like I never really notice the transitory nature of it all.

― Bimble, Monday, 30 April 2007 06:22 (eighteen years ago)

One word: NO!

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 30 April 2007 07:57 (eighteen years ago)

It's like I never really notice the transitory nature of it all.

Just by saying that you're acknowledging it. Plus the other thing I have to keep in mind is that having loads of music is not about listening to ALL of it, it's about listening to ANY of it.

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 April 2007 17:51 (eighteen years ago)

I grew up in a town with one Musicland and no other record stores for 100 miles - and no decent ones for 200. When I'd travel and visit a record store, I'd stock up on tons of stuff while I have the chance. Now with Amazon, YSI, blogs, torrents, CD burners, portable hard drives full of music and friends with the same, it's hard to get over the STOCK UP NOW mentality.

This rings very true with me; I feel a definite urge to buy records while I can, in case they go out of print or something.

Plus the other thing I have to keep in mind is that having loads of music is not about listening to ALL of it, it's about listening to ANY of it.

This is very true, too. Just finding time to listen, any time really but especially "quality time". Sunday morning with The Sea & Cake or Long Fin Killie, Saturday afternoons with Stars Of The Lid, a car journey with Patrick Wolf or TV On The Radio even, is enough. Just... use it. Listen to it. Love it.

― Scik Mouthy, Monday, 30 April 2007 18:13 (eighteen years ago)

I definitely relate to this, but I try not to worry about it too much. For one, I find it pretty much impossible to "force" myself to get into something (whether or not I've had the album for years) when I'm not totally feeling it, so that I have difficulty picking a random old album off the shelf and just throwing it on.

Like most people, I suspect, I tend to go through intense exploratory phases of artists or genres, during which it can be hard to get into stuff that doesn't fall into whatever I'm exploring. My old cds and records can sit unplayed for months. But it always levels off at some point, and that's when I often go back to older stuff.

Sometimes, too, these phases start and then suddenly stop without my really getting into an artist/genre, etc. I then have just one or two albums that I'm not really feeling. But I find it always pays to hang onto them, because I've gone back plenty of times, years later, to those initial albums as a starting point for picking up where I left off.

Lastly, keeping up with new music is exhausting. I've never had a single sustained period of actively keeping up with new stuff that lasts longer than, say, 12 months. There is usually a point where I throw my hands up and say, "arhhh, it's too much!" and I sink back into my older collection.

All this happens without much self-discipline. But it always works out. Even if it takes a few years, I always get back to the older, neglected stuff.

Then, during these phases, I find myself neglecting new stuff, and it comes to this:

[quote]Yes I am listening to new music at the expense of....wait. actually I'm not. I'm listening to old favourites at the expense of new music[quote]

― Mark Clemente, Monday, 30 April 2007 18:15 (eighteen years ago)

I can relate to this for sure, but I've pretty much accepted that this is the way things are now. It's part of the reason I don't bother backing up my MP3s. If my drive crashes and I lose 80 GBs of MP3s, big deal -- I'll have another 20 GB of stuff I'm trying to make time for soon enough.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Monday, 30 April 2007 19:21 (eighteen years ago)

I go through stages where I feel almost guilty when listening to something old and familiar, since I've acquired a horrible back log of stuff that I havetolistento.

Then it cycles back to "too-much-new-music, it's-all-starting-to-blur-together!"

Lately, i've been listening to new music in the morning (I'm a wide awake in the morning person) and listening to music i've already heard a couple times in the afternoon, where my attention isn't where it should be.

― Viz, Monday, 30 April 2007 19:35 (eighteen years ago)

If my drive crashes and I lose 80 GBs of MP3s, big deal -- I'll have another 20 GB of stuff I'm trying to make time for soon enough.

That how I feel about CDRs full of MP3s - if they die, *shrug*, they weren't important enough to make it into my full library. But the rips of my physical CDs - those reside in three separate places.

Then it cycles back to "too-much-new-music, it's-all-starting-to-blur-together!"

Oh yeah, that new-music-blur, that's terrible because it means I'm not really giving the new stuff a proper listening and often dismiss it at first. But as life has changed, so has my definition of a proper listening (kids yelling while new record is playing? ah well, still a proper listening) so I try to keep that in mind too.

Honestly, I spend way too much time thinking about my music-listening habits. Of course, that's why I'm on this board.

― Mr. Odd, Monday, 30 April 2007 19:42 (eighteen years ago)

When I was 21 I got rid of my entire record collection except the stuff I'd bought in the last 6 months. I say "got rid of", but it wasn't permanent - though I didn't really miss the old stuff. If my MP3s vanished it would be a similar thing, I guess: I'd cope.

Anyway in answer to the question, personally I'm half doing this. I'm listening to new favourites at the expense of old favourites, but the new favourites aren't always new music: lots of stuff still to hear after all!

I'm not a greedy downloader though. I don't buy albums and rarely d/l them, I probably get hold of 20-40 new tracks a week, like about half of them and integrate them into my playlists. I make one or two compilation CDs a month of the ones I'm not bored of.

― Groke, Monday, 30 April 2007 20:33 (eighteen years ago)

a cop out answer, but i seem to find certain new music will then make me go off to the archives (real or virtual) and dig out old stuff in the same vein.
but like Bimble, at the moment, i'm finding myself listening to old music as opposed to the New Music pile thats getting larger by the day.
do i feel bad/guilty?
too bloody right i do. all these bands wanting exposure on a crappy blog, and instead i just want to listen to faceless ambient-techno from 1994, but as i have been waiting for a lull in activity i have decided to shirk all responsibility and listen to whatever the hell i like.

― mark e, Monday, 30 April 2007 20:43 (eighteen years ago)

Lately, and worryingly, I am listening to old stuff at the expense of the new.

― blueski, Monday, 30 April 2007 20:44 (eighteen years ago)

but as i have been waiting for a lull in activity ..

doh - please add '.. for years now,'

― mark e, Monday, 30 April 2007 20:49 (eighteen years ago)

Guilty as charged. I try to cope by eliminating as much as possible from the "archives" in the first place. In fact, I feel like I'm more obsessed at this point with weeding out my collection than getting new stuff. Sometimes I think I'm just going to be left with the Sabbath and the Zeppelin.

Personally I find most of the records/tunes that I love the most didn't really hit me that hard when I first got them. So unless something really blows me away at first (happens only a few times a year), I'll shelve it pretty quick. The real good stuff has an uncanny way of muscling its way back into my listening routine--and all the rest of it will wind up on ebay.

PS I find the whole thing of "testing" something before you sell it madness--don't play it, just get rid of the f'ing thing!

― Johnny Hotcox, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 01:16 (eighteen years ago)

I find the whole thing of "testing" something before you sell it madness--don't play it, just get rid of the f'ing thing!

For the most part, I've reached this point but with some things the music memory just isn't there. If I pick something up and have a negative impression of it right away, sure, let it go, but if I have NO impression? I'm going to have to put it on to remind myself just what this piece of music sounds like!

― Mr. Odd, Wednesday, 2 May 2007 01:07 (eighteen years ago)

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