"People who will only listen to full albums: Wtf is with you" Mon Jan-27-14 06:47 PM by Jon
I got a buddy i'm doing some music with, and he asks me about some sounds on a track he heard. So i'm like, oh let me send you a little mixtape (aka collection of sequenced mp3s in a zip file) i made a while back of exactly that sound.
"oh i can't do mixtapes. i like the full story that an album offers."
yo, i have multiple music friends who are hardcore with this foolishness
can you ever listen to a single song?
how about 3 individual songs?
what about 10?
when does it go from "oh i'm hearing a cool song" or "oh just heard a few cool songs" to "oh no! i have blasphemed the all holy album format with my wretched trivial ears! please don't throw me to the Beiber wolves!"
is it the fact that it comes in a single package? is it the number? what's the threshholld? 7? 9? 4? is it the mindful sequencing? is it cool as long as no effort was made to make them fit together nicely?
do yall realize that ENORMOUS swaths of great recorded music throughout the history of it has NOT been a part of some grand album vision? Even if it was released in LP format with other songs?
what's the view like from above that ominous nose on that high brow? is there vertigo?
1. "it's cool if I'm shuffling or someone else is playing it." In response to Reply # 0
but in my own time, unless it's UTTER randomness, I like the comfort of being in a single state of mind for 35-80 minutes. Picking and choosing songs from albums just feels a little self-important to me, like I'm saying I could have done a better job and I don't like to think that way.
When it comes to the loosies, it mostly just comes down to I'm really big into mixtapes, last year I downloaded over 40GBs of legally free mixtapes. With that much free music - in full project format - to sift through, I've got to apologize if I can't find the energy for some random remix none of the artists have enough passion behind to leave lying in some DJ's Southern Smoke playlist.
But back to your scenario in the OP, I wouldn't ever say I didn't want to hear a song because we weren't going to listen to the album. I hate listening to albums in public, to be honest. It takes too long and inevitably the initial excitement of the first 15-20 minutes of even the BEST LP starts to fade away when you realize you're not talking to the person you're in the same room with and don't enjoy listening to this thing nearly as much with someone else's opinion lingering in the room. Individual songs are best between friends, always.
4. "your last paragraph is exactly where i'm coming from" In response to Reply # 1
>I like the >comfort of being in a single state of mind for 35-80 minutes. : me too. its one of many wonderful experiences in life
>Picking and choosing songs from albums just feels a little >self-important to me, like I'm saying I could have done a >better job and I don't like to think that way. : i disagree here. this is your experience. its not self-important to feed yourself in a manner you find most rewarding.
>When it comes to the loosies, it mostly just comes down to I'm >really big into mixtapes, last year I downloaded over 40GBs of >legally free mixtapes. With that much free music - in full >project format - to sift through, I've got to apologize if I >can't find the energy for some random remix none of the >artists have enough passion behind to leave lying in some DJ's >Southern Smoke playlist. : lol i hear you. this is a case where he asked me about some shit (thus having a real interest) and i'm trying to show him some examples
>But back to your scenario in the OP, I wouldn't ever say I >didn't want to hear a song because we weren't going to listen >to the album. I hate listening to albums in public, to be >honest. It takes too long and inevitably the initial >excitement of the first 15-20 minutes of even the BEST LP >starts to fade away when you realize you're not talking to the >person you're in the same room with and don't enjoy listening >to this thing nearly as much with someone else's opinion >lingering in the room. Individual songs are best between >friends, always. : bingo
2. "I think you're being a bit too dramatic about the shit" In response to Reply # 0
he just prefers to hear albums as an artistic statement over individual songs, in fact it's hardly strange really if you have people that only listen to singles, it should stand to reason that there are people that only listen to full albums
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
5. "not hearing a song in context can be a bother sometimes" In response to Reply # 3
I don't have a problem with it but sometimes a song doesn't catch me right unless I hear it in its proper setting but then again I don't have a hard line rule about it myself, so there's that
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
20. "right-not eveybody knows how to make albums" In response to Reply # 13
that has no bearing on listening habits in my opinion
__________________________________________ CHOP-THESE-BITCHES!!!! ------------------------------------ Garhart Ivanhoe Poppwell Un-OK'd moderator for The Lesson and Make The Music (yes, I do's work up in here, and in your asscrease if you run foul of this
7. "Well, that's me kind of..." In response to Reply # 0
If I hear something I really like, I want *more* of that, could be a voice, aesthetic, style whatever. SOME mixtapes and comps can achieve this even better than albums if the compiler has a consistent aesthetic in terms of style, era, production-values etc.
However, random-ass mixtapes with people putting their favorite songs on there is to me primarily about discovering new stuff that I can dig deeper into afterwards.
And I was never a fan of overtly diverse albums either with some exceptions (no, "White album" is NOT one; it's a fucking mess); the problems with artists who do "samey" albums have more to do with their ideas being so limited that they generally run out of them after a while than the albums as a means in themselves.
Anyway, I'm not by any means purist on the matter and some genres are better served by comps but nothing* is as fulfilling to me as a consistent, strong album simply because I want to get in to *that* groove and a good album generally deliver 30-45 minutes of that...
*obvious exceptions would be some comps, rarely mixtapes though; I used to order Hip-Hop mixtapes on the internet because I wanted to discover new shit but while SOME songs obviously worked better in the context of mixtapes/entities by themselves, practically all my faorite Hip-Hop from that era was associated with strong albums...
16. "sometimes it's because of the engineering." In response to Reply # 7
When they got a good sound in terms of the room, the mics, the amps, the instruments. So when an act establishes a good base-floor sound preset before they start tracking...you just want a whole bunch of songs in that particular aural environment. I guess you could also see it as a set of limitations. For example, if I feel like listening to Dj Magic Mike I wanna listen to that 'sound' for awhile. I want the textures....bass rumble, snappy snares....no particular track. Listening to his sound...not his songs, if that makes any sense.
That type of aesthetic appreciation can sometimes lend itself to extended listening. It's like variations on a theme and sometimes you need to spend time in that aural environment. After you recognize the inherited limitations and characteristics of the 'sound' of a particular album....then you can appreciate how the artist uses that base-floor preset sound in different ways.
I think that's much more of a real motivation in album listening than any lyrical or story-like conceptual reason. A story only works the way it's supposed to one time. The way that the story 'sounds' is the reason we want to hear it again.
11. "Honestly I have a hard time explaining it." In response to Reply # 0
I really don't mess with single songs.
I might check an EP every once in a while, if there are at least 5-6 songs depending on the quality I'll listen to it. Now mind you, this doesn't mean I just won't listen to a single song that is dope or listen to an EP with only 4 songs. It's just that that isn't how I listen to music so I know I will likely never listen to that song again unless it comes up randomly when my music is on shuffle.
I really don't even download single songs or EPs. It's probably because I don't like making playlists. If feel like "hey Mr musician, that's your job!" It's a crazy quirk I know but I just know that If I have a single song I'm never going to randomly be like "oh snap I absolutely have to here that one song right now"
I need 9 songs dawg. Or possibly, if I really love the artist 7 songs, otherwise I might listen once or twice then it's forgotten.
14. "I listen to full albums almost exclusively" In response to Reply # 0
But of course I'll listen to a mixtape or the radio from time to time. But as others have said- I like to be immersed in a full album as a single artistic statement. That's how I grew up listening to music.
15. "I'm all about moments and I listen to music like a DJ" In response to Reply # 0 Wed Jan-29-14 03:27 AM by 3d1gg4
therefore I can choose to manipulate a song or a bunch of to my liking or leave them as is. what about people who only like a fraction of a song and not the whole thing ? there *shouldn't* be any hard-coded rules when it comes to music only thing that matters *should be* what you feel
>"oh i can't do mixtapes. i like the full story that an album >offers."
i can appreciate mixtapes tho--IF the selection and sequencing is well though out, with a "full story." i can't do some kind of random selection of songs with no rhyme or reason. pet peeves are: sequencing songs alphabetically, having to turn my volume up/down cuz the curator didn't take mastering into account, cramming all you can onto one cd, etc.
>can you ever listen to a single song?
yes, absolutely. but most of the time, i'm thinking "how does this fit in the grander scheme??"
>how about 3 individual songs?
yeah, but do they go together somehow?
>what about 10?
that's album territory.
>when does it go from "oh i'm hearing a cool song" or "oh just >heard a few cool songs" to "oh no! i have blasphemed the all >holy album format with my wretched trivial ears! please don't >throw me to the Beiber wolves!"
when it's presented to me as a full project.
>is it the fact that it comes in a single package? is it the >number? what's the threshholld? 7? 9? 4? is it the mindful >sequencing? is it cool as long as no effort was made to make >them fit together nicely?
this got me realizing that i have NEVER put my ipod on shuffle. i have this great fear that i'm gonna hear some shit like ariana grande's "daydreamin" after gza's "killa hills 10304". that would throw my whole day off.
>do yall realize that ENORMOUS swaths of great recorded music >throughout the history of it has NOT been a part of some grand >album vision? Even if it was released in LP format with other >songs?
i can stomach "part of a compilation." but even "caroline no" eventually made it to "pet sounds" so i think i've been okay.
>what's the view like from above that ominous nose on that high >brow? is there vertigo?
the only discomfort i feel is on the palm of my hand when i slap my homeboy in the back of the head for putting his ipod on shuffle when i'm in his car.
23. "yeah see i put crazy time and thought into my mixtapes, but also" In response to Reply # 17
if someone just wants to share a few songs with you, perhaps because they think you'd like them, or perhaps because they are examples of a sound or time signature or other element yall were discussing
You guys are working on a project, and he's asking about sounds, so he's incapable of listening to..iono...7 random songs that have the SOUND he's referring to?
He has to listen to the seven albums that have the seven songs that have the SOUND he's referring to? It must be hell working with that dude.
That's dumb.
"I really want to hear the last song on this triple album, but I cant just listen to that one song, so I have to listen to all three albums to hear this one song"
28. "I get what he's saying. And it makes sense." In response to Reply # 0 Thu Feb-06-14 12:22 PM by Airbreed
I's almost like having someone piecemeal a movie that you want to see from beginning to end. But you rather wait to see it yourself so that you can have your own perspective and experience with it.
Everyone has their preferences with how they listen to music, including you. So just because his preference doesn't fall in line with yours doesn't mean they're being pretentious.
29. "RE: I get what he's saying. And it makes sense." In response to Reply # 28
absolutely - to each his own. i have songs and tracks i dig and put on to listen as stand alone pieces of music, but often i dig the story of the album. a great album is put together as a journey and a story by the artist, taking the listener through the artist's experience using different dynamics.
maybe it's like reading a good book. the reader could jump to their favorite chapter where all the action or drama is, but then it's lacking context in the greater picture which gives it less value when it's consumed.
the a.d.d. society has taken this kind of thing to extremes... like i said, i enjoy listening to one-off tracks, but the waning interest in experiencing the Album is sad to me. the onus is on the artists as well tho - deliver albums of experience more than compilations of pre-empted singles. the listener is less likely to learn anything new or grow and evolve in their own audio-cultural experience if they're only going to listen to the things they already know....
31. "It's one way of listening, you don't have to like it if it's not your me..." In response to Reply # 0
There is no absolute way of listening to music. Be happy any of us are still listening and still talking about it as if it we were a part of some long lost craft fair.
Printer-friendly copy 
Email this topic to a friend
The Lesson
