it wasn’t a case of the buzz driving me away; as I said, I liked everything I heard. I guess it just didn’t make a big enough impression to motivate me to seek out more of their stuff. I think this second time just happened to catch me when I was more open to their music. stars in alignment, n’ all that.

what I meant by discovering it organically was that hearing it “in the wild” and independent of any friend's or tastemaker’s recommendation or via a forum post provided a nice, clean slate to fully form my own opinion. thinking about it now, I think that’s becoming more of a rarity because of the internet; it didn’t pop up in my Soundcloud feed or in someone’s Spotify playlist, I didn’t hear it in a show or movie I was watching and no one told me “you need to listen to this.” the staff in the store could’ve played literally anything and I just happened to be there when they played this. it’s like serendipity.

to be clear, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with those other methods of discovery, but something about this just seemed really *pure,* for lack of a better term.

to your point, I definitely think I’ve avoided some records/artists because of hype in the past, maybe subconciously, maybe not. I can't tell you exactly why; I don't really care what others think about what I like. in this particular case, after already hearing and liking the music, finding out it was by a band I’d heard so many great things about in the past made it that much easier to break out my wallet.

for music nerds, maybe there really is a sweet spot for buzz — just enough people talking about something so that you still feel like one of the cool kids who catches on early. it's silly, of course, but that doesn't mean it doesn't play a factor for some.