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Weekend Update Listening
Oct. 15th, 2017 09:56 amI was thinking the other day about how I've been listening to music over the last few years. As far as expensive habits go, at least I'm not collecting cars that I won't drive, or picking up housewares that I'll never use. And I've always been pretty frugal about it, very rarely spending an absurd amount on something. The more tunage I can get for my money, the happier I am. But at the same time, I think I've made some purchases where I'd probably be better off keeping them as streams. There have been some albums that I liked but don't listen to all that often. I think the first clue when this happens is when I''ll listen to an album I like the sound of, but the songs don't stick with me in some way. [I'm a listener who picks up on the melodies before the lyrics first, so sometimes the sound fascinates me, but the song as a whole doesn't make an impression.]
I was also thinking about some of the radio stations I'll listen to online. There are some that have an interesting mix that keeps my interest, and there are others that adhere to a set rotation to the point where I get bored easily. [One particular station I'm thinking of was a favorite of mine, but now I rarely listen to them because they've been playing the same songs for the past 2-3 years that I'm not really a fan of. I get the idea of set rotation, but it needs to be recycled after a few months otherwise you'll lose a portion of your audience who really doesn't want to hear that same damn Lumineers song for the 374,539,453rd time.]
I also feel like I'm not quite immersed in the sounds when my listening habits are stretched too thin. Don't get me wrong, there are some years where a ton of great albums come out and I love them all, but there's only so many hours in the day where I can listen to the albums. Not to mention that I'm not listening to current albums all the time...sometimes I want to listen to something from a few decades ago, or a different genre altogether. For instance, I've been listening to the Beatles channel on SiriusXM lately because a) c'mon, it's the Beatles, and b) it was a refreshing change from all the noise I've been trying to escape.
Perhaps my collecting gene is getting the best of me. There are moments where I'll be a little too focused on trying to find a band's entire discography and not enough on their music. The idea that I'd listen to their full work is there, but it doesn't always work out...it really does depend on how connected I am to the music. I never really wanted to be a music collector for the sake of owning something -- I find that a bit wasteful and pointless. This is precisely why I'll pass on collectibles if I already own the songs.
Is this partly due to wanting to recapture the excitement of turning to a station and hearing favorite songs? Who knows. It might be part of it. But I think it's also partly my collecting habits getting the best of me sometimes. I need to rein it in again.
I was also thinking about some of the radio stations I'll listen to online. There are some that have an interesting mix that keeps my interest, and there are others that adhere to a set rotation to the point where I get bored easily. [One particular station I'm thinking of was a favorite of mine, but now I rarely listen to them because they've been playing the same songs for the past 2-3 years that I'm not really a fan of. I get the idea of set rotation, but it needs to be recycled after a few months otherwise you'll lose a portion of your audience who really doesn't want to hear that same damn Lumineers song for the 374,539,453rd time.]
I also feel like I'm not quite immersed in the sounds when my listening habits are stretched too thin. Don't get me wrong, there are some years where a ton of great albums come out and I love them all, but there's only so many hours in the day where I can listen to the albums. Not to mention that I'm not listening to current albums all the time...sometimes I want to listen to something from a few decades ago, or a different genre altogether. For instance, I've been listening to the Beatles channel on SiriusXM lately because a) c'mon, it's the Beatles, and b) it was a refreshing change from all the noise I've been trying to escape.
Perhaps my collecting gene is getting the best of me. There are moments where I'll be a little too focused on trying to find a band's entire discography and not enough on their music. The idea that I'd listen to their full work is there, but it doesn't always work out...it really does depend on how connected I am to the music. I never really wanted to be a music collector for the sake of owning something -- I find that a bit wasteful and pointless. This is precisely why I'll pass on collectibles if I already own the songs.
Is this partly due to wanting to recapture the excitement of turning to a station and hearing favorite songs? Who knows. It might be part of it. But I think it's also partly my collecting habits getting the best of me sometimes. I need to rein it in again.
