Too Much Music

How much is too much music?

Do you ever get frustrated by the fact you have a billion tracks but can only ever listen to one at a time?

Do you also get frustrated by the fact you have a billion tracks but can't find one you really want to listen to, so go buy new musics?

Should I just STFU?

Cheers

Make your own mixes?

I love that I know about and listen to so much music because, when I want to listen to an album or some songs, I can pick the ones that are perfect for whatever mood I'm in. Getting into newer stuff is hard though, I likes my classics.

There is a lot of music, yes. I'm in the habit of mostly making music, listening to friends' music, and focusing on a few albums for a bit then changing it up. Right now for 'listening music' I'm obsessed with Georg Telemann and The Kinks.

No complaints, it’s better than not knowing where to find that good shit.

  On 8/12/2017 at 1:54 AM, doublename said:

No complaints, it’s better than not knowing where to find that good shit.

This... I mean I haven't had this problem for 20 years but I certainly take it for granted.

  On 8/12/2017 at 12:00 AM, Ifeelspace said:

How much is too much music?

 

Do you ever get frustrated by the fact you have a billion tracks but can only ever listen to one at a time?

 

Do you also get frustrated by the fact you have a billion tracks but can't find one you really want to listen to, so go buy new musics?

 

Should I just STFU?

 

Cheers

Yes

Yes

No

yes, I basically stopped caring about aphex after he did the soundcloud dump, less is more.. call me whatever but that's how I feel.

edit: just to clarify, is not like I don't want to listen to every last second of work and be the biggest fanboy with all the trax on wax etc etc.. I just don't have the time or money because of the sheer amount of content!

  On 8/12/2017 at 2:48 PM, MIXL2 said:

yes, I basically stopped caring about aphex after he did the soundcloud dump, less is more.. call me whatever but that's how I feel.

 

 

whatever

  On 8/12/2017 at 4:10 PM, Blank said:

 

  On 8/12/2017 at 2:48 PM, MIXL2 said:

yes, I basically stopped caring about aphex after he did the soundcloud dump, less is more.. call me whatever but that's how I feel.

http://i.imgur.com/5flKP3a.png

 

He stopped caring about having great days, too.

I tend to focus on 6-10 albums at a time for a month or so

  On 8/12/2017 at 12:23 AM, Auditor said:

Make your own mixes?

 

+1

I've been there for a few years now. Finding it gradually harder to get into / excited by new music, regularly frustrated because a quick sweep of my shelves tends to provide me with about twenty albums I want to listen to at once. Even though I've downsized my collection by about half over the last few years, there are still plenty of albums that will get an outing maybe once every 18 months, even though I really like them, and that's sad.

I'm definitely making a conscious attempt to buy fewer new releases but there are always loads of interesting things being released - often limited edition so I tend to snap them up, while I should probably be giving a bit more time to those excellent albums I've already spend £££ on but only listened to four times. 

In all honesty, and this is definitely a first world problem, I kind of miss the pre-internet days where it was a case of having a limited knowledge and picking things up as and when you discover them or find them in a shop. I never had a shortage of great music, and I didn't have a wishlist of 400 albums weighing down on top of my 1200+ collection.

Barely listen to music anymore probably for this reason

Not even my own tunes

Just make it

In general don't have a problem with that. Recently finding out the Hague sound emptied my wallet as well as buried me under massive amount of great gems and AFX dumps have been huge piles to dig into, but other than that having too much tunes isn't a problem. I'm too picky. Actually, I keep feeling almost guilty for not being able to get into something that people seem to cherish as the best piece of written music in history and all I can do is yawn. My problem is the other way around since there has been some times when I've tried desperately to find new tunes but have been able to come up with nothing. But I can see why having a massive amount of tunes can be a problem. There is now more interesting stuff around than some years again. Can't complain.

  On 8/12/2017 at 6:32 PM, purlieu said:

In all honesty, and this is definitely a first world problem, I kind of miss the pre-internet days where it was a case of having a limited knowledge and picking things up as and when you discover them or find them in a shop. I never had a shortage of great music, and I didn't have a wishlist of 400 albums weighing down on top of my 1200+ collection.

Nononononono, I don't have any nostalgic feelings towards those days. I remember having a giant pile of releases that were nothing but horrible. shrudders It was always a stroke of luck of getting anything good. It could have been a different situation in UK but look where I'm living. Didn't even have a chance to see MTV since didn't have a cable. God bless for Internet. My shit purchases have dropped close to nil.

  On 8/12/2017 at 6:32 PM, purlieu said:

I've been there for a few years now. Finding it gradually harder to get into / excited by new music, regularly frustrated because a quick sweep of my shelves tends to provide me with about twenty albums I want to listen to at once. Even though I've downsized my collection by about half over the last few years, there are still plenty of albums that will get an outing maybe once every 18 months, even though I really like them, and that's sad.

 

 

I'm definitely making a conscious attempt to buy fewer new releases but there are always loads of interesting things being released - often limited edition so I tend to snap them up, while I should probably be giving a bit more time to those excellent albums I've already spend £££ on but only listened to four times. 

 

In all honesty, and this is definitely a first world problem, I kind of miss the pre-internet days where it was a case of having a limited knowledge and picking things up as and when you discover them or find them in a shop. I never had a shortage of great music, and I didn't have a wishlist of 400 albums weighing down on top of my 1200+ collection.

This is how i feel too.  I have a list of links to albums i want to buy that grows bigger with every pasing month, as does my music collection.

It's defintely a frist world problem and in many ways a nice one to have, but it does make me stop and think sometimes

  On 8/13/2017 at 12:04 PM, Grumpy Old Daddy said:

Nononononono, I don't have any nostalgic feelings towards those days. I remember having a giant pile of releases that were nothing but horrible. shrudders It was always a stroke of luck of getting anything good. It could have been a different situation in UK but look where I'm living. Didn't even have a chance to see MTV since didn't have a cable. God bless for Internet. My shit purchases have dropped close to nil.

I never had MTV. I suppose there was the plus that bands like FSOL and Orbital ended up on Top of the Pops in the mid-'90s when I was growing up. Otherwise I'd just pick up cheap things here and there, listen to late-night and 'dance' radio, the top 40 etc. I found a 4CD box of 'synthesiser hits' in a supermarket for a few £ when I was a kid - all nasty cover versions, but I noted down my favourites and got into Mike Oldfield, Jarre, Kraftwerk etc. through that. Underworld were charting high, Aphex was in the top 40, a ton of indie stuff I love was at its commercial peak; so much of my favourite music is heavily linked to stuff I got into before I had the internet. I get you though, if you didn't have such easy access to stuff it might have been harder going.

To be fair, pre-social media it wasn't all so bad, I discovered Global Communication and Autechre and a few interesting independent artists, but in these days of broadband and hundreds of thousands of music recommendations at your beck and call, the excitement of hunting down music and each purchase being a special moment is kind of gone. There's no way I could keep up with everything mentioned in the New Releases subforum here, let alone all the labels, artists, other forums, music blogs etc. on my radar. 

I keep telling myself one day I'll stop looking for new music all together and just focus on artists I'm already following. I've tried it before though and I last about a month. It's that feeling of missing out.

Seek out less music then.

Hmmm I think about this a fair bit. 

I decided to not be so obsessed with discovering new music, which I was doing a lot. Just lost in a whirlpool of new stuff feels like a malaise at the end of the day. I just listen to maybe 2 hours a week of BBC6 Recommends, and Spotify a couple of unheard albums per week and that's me done. I then try to concentrate my efforts on what I know is really good and respect the music and the music makers.

I don't know if the "old" days were better exactly, but I damn sure miss going to my local Vinyl Fever and spending hours looking through used/underground section, listening to records in their listening booth, and talkin shit with the workers. There was also something that seemed more special about records/cd's when we weren't as spoiled for choices. Even if I blind bought an album that sucked, I paid hard money for it so I would still listen until it was worn out, looking for hidden gems buried under the what-have-you.

  On 8/13/2017 at 2:14 PM, purlieu said:

 

  On 8/13/2017 at 12:04 PM, Grumpy Old Daddy said:

Nononononono, I don't have any nostalgic feelings towards those days. I remember having a giant pile of releases that were nothing but horrible. shrudders It was always a stroke of luck of getting anything good. It could have been a different situation in UK but look where I'm living. Didn't even have a chance to see MTV since didn't have a cable. God bless for Internet. My shit purchases have dropped close to nil.

I never had MTV. I suppose there was the plus that bands like FSOL and Orbital ended up on Top of the Pops in the mid-'90s when I was growing up. Otherwise I'd just pick up cheap things here and there, listen to late-night and 'dance' radio, the top 40 etc. I found a 4CD box of 'synthesiser hits' in a supermarket for a few £ when I was a kid - all nasty cover versions, but I noted down my favourites and got into Mike Oldfield, Jarre, Kraftwerk etc. through that. Underworld were charting high, Aphex was in the top 40, a ton of indie stuff I love was at its commercial peak; so much of my favourite music is heavily linked to stuff I got into before I had the internet. I get you though, if you didn't have such easy access to stuff it might have been harder going.

 

To be fair, pre-social media it wasn't all so bad, I discovered Global Communication and Autechre and a few interesting independent artists, but in these days of broadband and hundreds of thousands of music recommendations at your beck and call, the excitement of hunting down music and each purchase being a special moment is kind of gone. There's no way I could keep up with everything mentioned in the New Releases subforum here, let alone all the labels, artists, other forums, music blogs etc. on my radar. 

 

I keep telling myself one day I'll stop looking for new music all together and just focus on artists I'm already following. I've tried it before though and I last about a month. It's that feeling of missing out.

 

Oh forgot the radio. Thinking especially the Peel sessions etc. I envy your radio culture. I heard mainly metal and rock related sessions in Finnish radio. Had some electronic stuff here and there but they were mostly some euro dance and Captain Jack cheese. Prodigy was maybe the most interesting thing I came up with. I didn't search that actively though so I guess other Finns got better sources. I've been thinking many times if electronic music scene had any kind of tape trading scene similar to Death & Thrash Metal but I was too young for that anyway. Having now sources like Bandcamp and Soundcloud brings a big smile to my face. Sorry for derailing....

has anyone else just stopped listening to music as they get older? i rarely ever listen to anything now, no effort to find new releases unless it's artists i'm already familiar with. i don't feel the need to curate some gigantic mp3 or record collection either. when the mood is right i'll still listen to things but they generally need to be personal classics. i just find music less and less interesting the older i get and i'm not sure i'm happy about this.

  On 8/13/2017 at 9:07 PM, zaphod said:

has anyone else just stopped listening to music as they get older? i rarely ever listen to anything now, no effort to find new releases unless it's artists i'm already familiar with. i don't feel the need to curate some gigantic mp3 or record collection either. when the mood is right i'll still listen to things but they generally need to be personal classics. i just find music less and less interesting the older i get and i'm not sure i'm happy about this.

I've gotten to that point a few times, but it freaked me out so I remedied the situation by scheduling listening times. Now I walk a few times a week just to listen to music (and get some exercise). I try to listen to new stuff/ or artists that I'm unfamiliar with, but a lot of times I end up changing to an album that I know and love. Still, I am constantly finding new (or old) music that inspires me. Yesterday I found out about Susumu Yokota and now I'm down that rabbit hole and seeking out similar artists. It's a lot of fun and after every walk I want to speed home and make music

  On 8/13/2017 at 9:07 PM, zaphod said:

has anyone else just stopped listening to music as they get older? i rarely ever listen to anything now, no effort to find new releases unless it's artists i'm already familiar with. i don't feel the need to curate some gigantic mp3 or record collection either. when the mood is right i'll still listen to things but they generally need to be personal classics. i just find music less and less interesting the older i get and i'm not sure i'm happy about this.

In the 00s I would listen to music 24/7 practically and now I listen under an hour per day. I do think it is partly about 'training'. Like in 2015 I had a huge dubstep/bass kick with artists like dedekind cut, rabit, and some techno stuff like Blawan, and it made me listen to a lto of music again, but then in 2016 and continuing now I'm not hearing anything particularly interesting from just browsing bleep/boomkat/others and I have no clue where to go to find stuff I might like anymore. I don't think I'll ever listen to shit all day and night like I used to, but I also know it's partly 'brain training', but in general the trend is "downwards" over time. Also digging up old shit can ignite the spark but not to the same degree I guess

I think a lot of it for me in the last year goal wise has been the following:

1. listen to music by friends, aquantiences, locals - I did this awhile back with tape labels and it was liberating to do that instead of keep up with hype outlets like pfork

2. embrace stuff you love - dive into deep cuts, re-listen to old albums, seek out more that sounds like what you know you like

3. forget whether something is new or hyped - listen to the radio, ask friends for recs, use WATMM, etc. and you won't feel left out from truly worthy good music - I have to remind myself that the fear of missing out is pretty much a delusion. 

4. trends/fads are so flash-in-the-pan they aren't worth even trying to pay attention to: internet has essentially destroyed this, which is good and bad. bad = "scenes" to participate in for years are kind of dead. good = scenes in the local and DIY sense still exist and are healthier than ever

5. be a snob - you can spend too much time giving "something a chance" or seeing if "something clicks." Instead jump on stuff that actually gives you goosebumps, gets stuck in your head, excites you, etc. even though Spotify gives me good recs there are occasional hipster BS bands and artists it recommends me that I have no qualms about skipping