Why we listen to new music • Hacker News Board

Re: Why we listen to new music

#121

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

Over 50 here.

I was just discussing this with my sister, my lack of nostalgia for old favorites.

What I feel is more like the opposite, it's repulsion to overplayed music. As in - I sometimes leave a store when I can't handle Clear Channel music playing overhead. The 5 bazillionth hearing of "Tears in Heaven" or of any artist beginning with 'Sir' triggers a fight or flight response.

I'm not overstating my case when I claim that (for me), listening to overplayed music is indistinguishable from abuse. Even the artists that I adored in my teens/20 are becoming unlistenable. David Bowie was the most recent to go. Pink Floyd is close behind.

If music is medicine, it's all Fentanyl by the time Clear Channel gets done with it.

It makes me continually grateful for all the access we have to new artists.

- - - - -

PS: The Beatles catalog is just a preschool songbook now. Fight me.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#122

Post by gnulinux » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:27 PM UTC

gnulinux wrote: post #86

mattkevan wrote: post #25

Listening to new music is one of my favourite activities. Don't understand how people are happy to listen to the same old stuff - it must get so dull. There's so much good stuff out there, and it's so exciting to find an artist, genre or new combinations of sounds I've not heard before. Bandcamp is great for this – better than Spotify or Apple Music. You can explore by artist, genre tag, label, and by people who have…

It's the opposite for me! I hate listening old music. E.g. The Strokes (one of my favorite bands) released a new album last week. It was a pain to listen to it a few times, but I forced myself to do it since I knew after listening to >3 times I'll get hooked. Then, I listened to it every day this week!

> I hate listening old music.

I meant "new" music.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#123

Post by roro5179 » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

Listening to new music is tough. You won't know if you will like it and odds are you won't like it as much as whatever your favorite music is at that current moment in time. So I understand why people don't do it. I listen to new music (largely through Spotify's Discover Weekly) but often have to force myself. The thrill of finding an entire world of music by an artist sometimes even a new genre is what keeps me going. My best friend and I share new music with each other and it really has added a lot to our relationship. As a rule of thumb for life, breaking out of the comfort zone generally seems to be the right thing do do. Anyways hope all of you are listening to new music and enjoying it ..... eventually :)

Re: Why we listen to new music

#124

Post by blakes » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

paganel wrote: post #57

rotoradiator wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, you are fully missing out on the advances of music production. The sounds producers can create nowdays were not available in 18th century, not even in the 80s. If you consider as music only what you can write down as sheet music you are missing out on so much. Thats why finding new artists, who can make unique sounds, not just melodies, is so rewarding.

> not even in the 80s Not the OP but personally some of most innovative music can be found in the mainstream Italian scene of the late '60s - early '70s (including music film), you've got former "musique concrète" composers (or people interested in that type of music) like Piero Umiliani, Piero Piccioni, Armando Trovajoli or Ennio Morricone himself now composing music for the masses, I don't think anything similar ha…

The Italians were also doing some amazing things in the 60's and 70's with electronic synthesizers and keyboards that made/make sounds that still can't be recreated.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#125

Post by blakes » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:45 PM UTC

bmelton wrote: post #92

founderling wrote: post #7

I use the Music-Map for my "music journey". Every other day, I start from an artist I already like and travel through the names until I stumble into an area I have not been to before: https://www.music-map.com

This is really great. Every now and again I'm fortunate enough to stumble onto a new / unknown artist to me. Weirdly, Grooveshark was really good for this (as it gave me some of my very top favorites through a Grooveshark Premium thing -- Quiet Company and Justin Townes Earle) but I've found generally limited utility in going from those new bands into either Google or Spotify's "More Like This" functions. Looking at…

I miss Grooveshark, it's radio feature brought me so much amazing music.

Surprisingly, Youtube Music has pretty decent music discovery in the form of it's radio feature, sort of like Grooveshark.

I wish they would combine Google Music's functionality and organization with Youtube Music's discover-ability and expanded library.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#126

Post by WarOnPrivacy » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:48 PM UTC

mattkevan wrote: post #25

Listening to new music is one of my favourite activities. Don't understand how people are happy to listen to the same old stuff - it must get so dull. There's so much good stuff out there, and it's so exciting to find an artist, genre or new combinations of sounds I've not heard before. Bandcamp is great for this – better than Spotify or Apple Music. You can explore by artist, genre tag, label, and by people who have…

> Don't understand how people are happy to listen to the same old stuff - it must get so dull.

This is my perspective. For me it's like watching people enjoy chewing glass. I am genuinely baffled that the experience isn't horribly painful for them.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#127

Post by spunker540 » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:48 PM UTC

I still like exploring “new” music, but new music that I’ve fallen in love with over the past year is Elvis, Judy Collins, James Taylor, and Curtis Mayfield/The Impressions. It’s hard for me to justify giving modern music a chance when I haven’t even given the established greats a chance. The modern music will still be around in 10 years. Hopefully by then it will be more clear what’s standing the test of time, at which point I’ll give it a listen.

Same thing happened with Kanye by the way. In the 00s I (mostly) wouldn’t touch it, but it’s now clear it was highly influential, important music and I’ve begun to revisit it.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#128

Post by freehunter » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:51 PM UTC

WarOnPrivacy wrote: post #121

Over 50 here. I was just discussing this with my sister, my lack of nostalgia for old favorites. What I feel is more like the opposite, it's repulsion to overplayed music. As in - I sometimes leave a store when I can't handle Clear Channel music playing overhead. The 5 bazillionth hearing of "Tears in Heaven" or of any artist beginning with 'Sir' triggers a fight or flight response. I'm not overstating my case when I…

When I was in elementary school (in the 90s) we all sang Beatles songs with the teacher in our “music” class. My parents didn’t listen to The Beatles so I had no idea who they were, I just though the songs we sang were silly nursery rhymes. Even later Beatles songs like “Bungalow Bill” or “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”.

Obviously not all Beatles songs are like that and the musical difference between McCartney and Lennon was one of the biggest contributors to their breakup, but yeah... a lot of their music today is treated as inoffensive background noise for grocery stores and elevators.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#129

Post by Hamuko » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

Finding new music is tough. At one point I discovered acid jazz and wanted to listen to more acid jazz, but I didn't really know where to find new stuff. As far as I know, there isn't really any good way of finding recommendations tailored to you.

Re: Why we listen to new music

#130

Post by asdfkajsdhf » Wed, Apr 22, 2020, 5:55 PM UTC

spunker540 wrote: post #127

I still like exploring “new” music, but new music that I’ve fallen in love with over the past year is Elvis, Judy Collins, James Taylor, and Curtis Mayfield/The Impressions. It’s hard for me to justify giving modern music a chance when I haven’t even given the established greats a chance. The modern music will still be around in 10 years. Hopefully by then it will be more clear what’s standing the test of time, at wh…

So you like being told what to listen to? Seems like you should work on forming your own opinions...