hypothetical audience tastemakers

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I was at the rekkid store today and as I was going through the VU rack imagining what person(s) A, B, & C (all real people who figure significantly in my life, not hypothetical induviduals, to be clear) would think of "pale blue eyes" or "Heroin." (Obv. VU = safe choice in the ILM canon, but not necc. acceptable for non-insufferable music snobs) How many of you occasionally/often listen to records from the POV of someone else, friend, partner, parent etc? To what extent to you allow these projected viewpoints to affect your record buying habits?

Bonus points for the last record you bought with conscious intent = "oh boy, will this shit ever piss off (person X)!!"

― turner, Sunday, 2 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmm.. well I definitely wouldn't have bought the new Breeders album if my g/f wasn't a fan. I'm also quite sure I've bought more than one record to impress one friend or another. Hence the Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks albums that I will never listen to again.

― electric sound of jim, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is an interesting question. (Or, I find it interesting. I don't necessarily want to claim that objectively interestingness is a property of this question, though it does interest me.)

I wouldn't say that imagining listening from someone else's point of view affects what I buy, but it often does affect how I hear a particular recording. A lot of times, when I am thinking of loaning someone a CD, I will try to listen to it the way I think they might listen to it. Often I don't like it as much when I do that, I guess because I am usually loaning things out to people who aren't necessarily big fans of the music I am loaning out. But anyway, I find it peculiar that imagining myself as a different listener would have that much impact on how I hear something.

― DeRayMi, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Turner your question describes different facets or modes of the motivation behind every trip to the record store I've ever made I think. Though sometimes the friends I'm impressing are imaginary (and sometimes they're you guys) (I think this is how the artists recorded the albums as well)

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Sometimes the friends I'm trying to impress are dead.

― Curt, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't this how you make a compilation for someone?

― Keiko, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This is what DJs do for a living, right?

― Spencer Chow, Monday, 3 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Always, but subconsciously = empathy?

― B-Rad, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

This question makes me nostalgic for those zany ol' "Mahatma Ghandi whats on your walkman" threads.

― turner, Tuesday, 4 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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hypothetical audience tastemakers - C/D?