so recently I have been conducting a little experiment with music and I would like to get everyone's personal feelings on the matter too. I'll give a little background to the situation: I stopped listening to music in Dec 2006 and didn't start again until about Aug 2008. When I came back to take a fresh look at my music I began by putting about 25 of my tried and true favorite albums (old and new) on an mp3 player and listening to the 300+ songs through headphones while cleaning windows.
I listened in just about every possible combination (e.g. album by album, each album repeatedly, all songs in random, all songs in alphabetical order)
By listening closely, I found some interesting things about music which I could prolly sum up with: Music is usually best when listened to in "album form" and from start to finish. Of course, this only applies to albums that you actually like most of the songs on as opposed to albums that only have 2 or 3 really good songs surrounded by blah songs. (I could argue that being able to repeatedly listen to an album closely might make you appreciate some of your less favorite songs, but that is a discussion for another day)
To me, it seemed that even songs that I liked pretty well within an album really lost their luster when played randomly mixed with other various songs and styles that i liked. A little more investigation revealed to me that where a song is placed on an album mattered quite a bit too since an album can be like a performance with ebbs and tides and it's mood is dependent on the type and order of songs. (try playing some of your favorite albums with the songs randomized to see if it is as good as the original order album)
All of this adds evidence to my fledgling theory on the state of music today (see early posts and comments on this blog). Sometimes it seems like there is very little new music out there that is good, yet at the same time the overwhelming evidence is that Myspace and Pandora allow us to find endless little-known-artists and tons of good music very easily. But I wonder if the abundance and ease of finding new music make us jaded and spoiled because there is just too much to listen to and when we do listen to it, we tend to just sample the smorgasbord buffet and never really get to enjoy a carefully crafted fine meal with carefully chosen courses of food that complement each other.
So I have to ask myself a few things... If all we ever do is download single-songs we like, and sample single-songs through streaming services, are we missing the whole point of music as a performance? In the future will artists just need to release one 'mega-hit' at a time to be downloaded by the masses instead of coming out with 8 or more good songs on an album of 12? If we only listen to lower-fidelity songs on our PC through a mediocre sound system in the background while checking our email will our appreciation for great albums eventually disappear? If our car stereos contain CD's full of 650MB of random artists played at low volume while our passenger talks about 'their day', will we actually be able to taste music fully or will it become just like the bland drive-thru food we eat because of lack of time?
All things considered, I am led to conclude that if I strive to listen to new music in it's full album form I will be best able to enjoy it's intended mood and hopefully be better able to find great new albums to add to my collection.
What do you think?
Monday, October 12, 2009
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5 comments:
I tend to listen to the entire album. That said, it's difficult for me to find an entire album worth purchasing. One of the benefits of this blog is that we can say "hey, checkout out (insert artist name), they rock!"
I do think that the Ipod/mp3 player has ruined albums. It's too easy to shuffle from song to song. Before it took some effort if you wanted to change albums (CD's/cassette/LP/8-track). I think the playlist has replaced the album which stinks because I am an album guy too.
I like putting in an album and being taken back in time. However, I think the general public is beginning to place less importance on album quality. We are actually going back in time where artists only released albums to be a collection of singles. Imo, we need a Beatles-like Sgt. Peppers ground-breaking concept album that works with the current technology which will hold the "drive-thru culture". I am not exactly sure what would bring music listeners back to album-centered rock but I guess that is why it would be ground-breaking.
I love this topic. I am very much an album fan. For most people the ipod has destroyed the concept of an album, but I love it because I can carry thousands of albums in my pocket (shuffle can be fun sometimes though). I really enjoy listening to music in context of how it was created. I hate how so many people today have a playlist of songs they like, but have no idea who wrote them or where they came from. Kids especially. When I was in middle school, I would get a new album and devour it. Now, kids only listen to isolated songs, and know nothing about what they are listening to.
There are still bands making album oriented music. I think the new Umphrey's McGee album "Mantis" has a very nice flow.
Switching to "shuffle" mode does weird things to your brain. It's fun to be surprised by the next song but at the same time your brain is anticipating track 4 to follow track 3 and it messes up the whole experience of the album.
BTW, thanks for the music tips. I now like Kings of Leon, Umphrey's McGee and Greg Koch. Last album i bought was KT Tunstall's Drastic Fantastic (very original guitar work and great lyrics). Only music I've downloaded this year...Sing to Jehovah, Disc 1 =)
don't get me wrong, I do enjoy being surprised by the randomness of multi-gigabyte music collections as much as the next guy, and many times I also find little gems I had forgotten about and that stand out when not mired in a full album.
But I am most impressed by an artist that can create an entire album that is quite good from start to finish.
Perhaps the state of music today will encourage artists to put MORE good songs on an album and the result will end up being that us album-lovers will reap the benefits?
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