Too much music

[Faust]

There's too much music in the world, yet it never feels like enough. Like most audiophiles I've been inclined to catalog all I possibly can seemingly worth my while, but this is impossible. You can't give each artist credence you think they deserve, nor find every hidden gem. At some unknown interval, a new batch of artists fade into obscurity, and it won't matter. Makes me wonder if there should be more personal stock in unrepeatable, improvised experiences than stored experiences for repeated use.

I don't fuss about it much now, but the bloat of the stuff of music out there is a bit mindboggling. I'm probably out of the loop with the scenes these days though take the time once in a blue moon to rabidly collect something new.

What's your attitude to collecting music?

This is what pops into my head when I glance at my guitar and feel like there's no point in playing.

[msg_v2]

If I like someone, I tend to continue liking them. A thing that annoys me about music (and films are the same way, actually) is that it seems like people shift their tastes based on what's popular to like and dislike.

One thing I like to do is look at the influences of people I like, and check that out. Maybe it's old hat, but I found out about Robert Johnson that way. In some ways, I think I enjoy looking into the past and digging up stuff more than what's current. It's not that I don't think good music is being made today, I just think too much of what taste is today is more of a social game than what someone might actually think is good (not that tastes can't vary, and I sort of think "good taste" was always that). If a band I like gets more mainstream success, I think it's dumb to hate on that. It's hard to make a career in music pay off financially full-time, so when someone actually reaches that plateau, more power to them. Granted, sometimes the music gets watered down a little when that happens (and I'll bet record labels are to blame for that), but just because the latest record kind of sucked isn't a reason to invalidate their entire catalogue.

[Madrigal]

Just as with everything else I suck at doing for myself, I prefer to ask someone knowledgeable about what I should listen to (after I've determined they have good taste).

It's the same with books, technology, movies, restaurants, etc. I ask someone that knows better and then follow their advice. It kind of makes me wonder what people see me as knowledgeable about, unfortunately it's probably just politics and translation, which is kinda depressing.

[MoneyJungle]

I don't listen to nearly as much music as I used to. I'm more into spoken word audio. I must be getting old. Everything sounds like something I've already heard and like more. Or it's just too avant garde for my tastes, I get a kick out of live music but I'm not willing to pay much to see it. I just feel like my search for new tunes that really speak to me became fruitless after a couple of decades. I know what I like and don't spend enough time listening to it to feel hungry for new stuff.

/istj dad

[jigglypuff]

What's your attitude to collecting music?

when i was a teenager i had this idea that i'd be happy if i could just make enough to be able to explore and collect as much music as i wanted. it definitely wasn't a shallow interest. it was an obsession. i think i had to rebuild my music library twice and both times were pretty devastating (i remember being glued to my computer for days). music was/is a gateway into history and the human soul for me.

it's harder to maintain now since i don't have as much free time anymore, and it's only gonna get worse (lol). i love music.

i think most people would consider my tastes pretty narrow, but i just think they don't see the depth i see/hear. that doesn't bother me. love what you love, you know?

[Starjots]

Music was a hormone enhancer when young. Nowadays I prefer silence most of the time but I still look for new music from time to time.

My druthers for collecting music:
Buy complete albums
Only buy music I really like and might listen to more than once a year
Only buy the best of whatever genre
At any given point in time the best musicians made good music - look in the past as well the present

[Light Leak]

I've never been the music collecting type. I just never got into it and at this point I'm afraid to even start. I'm clueless and I wouldn't even know where to start. My husband it really into it though so I just listen to whatever he listens to usually. He seems to have have good taste. I'll probably never get into collecting myself since I can just listen to whatever he finds.

[Limes]

I seem to be perpetually 2 years behind on music. Every time lately, that I hear something I think is new, it seems to be 2012 or older. Most recently with Grimes and Wild nothing.

I don't think this is a bad thing. I have little patience for listening through swathes of new crap for the [increasingly] few[er] things that I will like.

I've taken to finding other people's playlists where they have a similar taste on youtube and skipping through.

[Senseye]

Old fart perspective. Back in the day, about the only way you could access the music you wanted to hear was to buy the physical media. So most people would have a music collection of one sort or another (some vast in scope, some not so much).

But these days, where you can pretty much access any song you want on the internet "on demand" there seems to be little point in collecting any of it up. Personally, I don't anymore. I guess I build a small collection (to download into an mp3 player for when exercising or whatever), but it's not a collection per say. I just build 2 hours or so of a mix, and listen to it until I grow weary of it, then build another 2 hour mix. I may tend to leave the old tunes on my hard drive, but it's hit or miss whether I ever bother with them again.

PS> According to the RIAA, free access to music via the internet will kill the music business. No one will produce content if they aren't paid for it. So Faust, you are wrong, after over a decade of downloading there is less music out there than ever! The corporate class never lies.

[stigmatica]

This is what pops into my head when I glance at my guitar and feel like there's no point in playing.

Lol - I've had the same thought. At some point I decided that making music was for me, not the world. So there doesn't have to be a point, which makes it enjoyable.

As for listening, I'm well out of the loop these days. Like you, I'll occasionally go on a music discovery spree, but for the most part I don't bother anymore.