Or do you just let it stand on its own?

I probably would have said "nah, as long as it's dope" a week ago,
but I was listening to Sly's discog again after a post on here, I this
post came to mind, because knowing how and why those albums came together
the way they did kinda make the listening like watching a movie.
Or listening to Marvin Gaye... and then reading the story his ex wife
told about how he was as a person... I, personally, can see how his lyrics
lend themselves to that kind of personality with the over-the-top confessions
of love like it was life or death that we fuck right now on some "oh father in heaven
lemme get this ass tonight" type of shit, lol.

Videos make ppl like music more... but what about knowing the exact
motivation behind certain lyrics? That's like reading the book I guess.

TMZ seems to be where this generation replaces album inserts. That's
where we used to get the extras from, mainly. Now u download and hit
up youtube and blog sites for the rest.

But what say you? Does it matter? How much?

Share some stories behind the music that makes you get into it more, if
you have any.

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Days like this I miss Sha Mecca

I care if a song has a story behind it as it makes the verses and/or choruses for a particular song have a sense of depth, not that I feel everything has to have meaning as every artist is, has been and can be guilty of songs and/or albums literally about nothing. I'm a Hip Hop head so it does matter to me as I get older if songs within the genre have a story to them or not.

"If one forces the process, it comes out fake. And to me there's nothing worse than being fake." - Heavy D

musicians is a nice bonus to offset boredom mainly.

Background info (like an autobiography) could be extremely helpful to an aspiring artist, but background is usually there to fight boredom (like music magazines and music websites mainly fight boredom).


There's some artists and albums and songs I'll probably never get any background about and I probably won't feel any sort of "loss" about that but....in the name of mainly fighting boredom, I'm very glad that books and magazines and websites exist to give me background info on artists and albums and songs.

Yes sometimes the benefits are more than just fighting boredom

Even for albums/artists I don't like. I find the process absolutely fascinating.

Knowing the story/process won't necessarily enhance my enjoyment of an album or song or artist, but it's fucking cool to know.

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www.albumism.com

Checkin' Our Style, Return To Zero:

https://www.mixcloud.com/returntozero/

and just hear music and be done

instead I picture the dman label, the producer, the stopry behind the album and certain songs

the recording process

it doesnt really take away form the enjoyment but enhances it ..however, I wonder what it would be like to be like the majority of the population who doesnt consider any of those things and can just iron they clothes as ______ is playing.

>it doesnt really take away form the enjoyment but enhances it

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I try to learn everything about it, read various reviews for hope of the author describing something I didn't know about the artists or the album, read/watch interviews etc etc. I recently did this with TPAB.

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https://93millionmilesabove.blogspot.com/
https://rateyourmusic.com/~Kosa12

I'm a "DVD Commentary" kind of guy.

www.twitter.com/seandammit

Most of them only tell you the basics. Could you imagine a wiki for a Beatles album that only listed the tracklist? ... I wanna know what Slave was going through when they made Showtime...or the backstory to Gregory Issac's Night Nurse LP..

It seems that unless you know somebody who was there, you'll never know what happened in the studio during alot of recordings.

I like alot of the myths (most often untrue) about songs, like I Want You by the Beatles cuts off abruptly because Paul unplugged the mixing board..

>Most of them only tell you the basics. Could you imagine a
>wiki for a Beatles album that only listed the tracklist? ... I
>wanna know what Slave was going through when they made
>Showtime...or the backstory to Gregory Issac's Night Nurse
>LP..
>
>It seems that unless you know somebody who was there, you'll
>never know what happened in the studio during alot of
>recordings.

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but now, I just want the music and pretty much only the music. The more I listen to the background information the balloon busts and I realize how many musicians are just tragic misfits who have a particular talent rather than people with a great insight into being human.

Like Radiohead posted a song on their website about four or five years ago. And the song was this amazing simple acoustic piano number. The lyrics had a depth and richness that mystified me. I was just floored. I was thinking, 'Wow. How did he find such an insight?'

Then I read the backstory and the song basically was about Thom Yorke dropping a package of eggs at the store with his girlfriend.

Just killed my enjoyment of the song.

Or when I heard that D'Angelo basically held Virgin Records hostage for however number of years he was recording Voodoo. It kind of killed my enjoyment that the record was basically him indulging any kind of creative impulse and going on a walkabout until he heard something he liked. He's supposed to be a genius, not out of his mind.

I know these people have personal lives and real life issues, many of them deeper and more complicated than mine, but I need the mystery, otherwise the songs alone just aren't interesting.

>but now, I just want the music and pretty much only the
>music. The more I listen to the background information the
>balloon busts and I realize how many musicians are just tragic
>misfits who have a particular talent rather than people with a
>great insight into being human.


Lol, yeah I've learned that myself... which I guess makes it cooler when I
find out an artist really does contain some depth as a person.


>Like Radiohead posted a song on their website about four or
>five years ago. And the song was this amazing simple acoustic
>piano number. The lyrics had a depth and richness that
>mystified me. I was just floored. I was thinking, 'Wow. How
>did he find such an insight?'
>
>Then I read the backstory and the song basically was about
>Thom Yorke dropping a package of eggs at the store with his
>girlfriend.
>Just killed my enjoyment of the song.
>

Lmao. That's an interesting thing about art and poetry though...
it's funny how dropping a package of eggs can spark the same emotions
as something more serious... depending on who you are or what you've
previously been through. It could mean he hasn't seen alotta hardship,
or it could mean he knows how to pull brilliance out of the most mundane
experiences.. sign of a great writer.



>Or when I heard that D'Angelo basically held Virgin Records
>hostage for however number of years he was recording Voodoo.
>It kind of killed my enjoyment that the record was basically
>him indulging any kind of creative impulse and going on a
>walkabout until he heard something he liked. He's supposed to
>be a genius, not out of his mind.



Don't most artists do that though? Create a bunch of music and then
just choose what they think is best?


>I know these people have personal lives and real life issues,
>many of them deeper and more complicated than mine, but I need
>the mystery, otherwise the songs alone just aren't
>interesting.


Interesting

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i dont like when people judge music by how they feel about the artist as a person in general... although with rap it seems unavoidable given how important the persona is in most peoples enjoyment of it.

still... when the story enhances your enjoyment why not embrace it?

I am able to listen to a song as is and walk away but if I want to know and learn more, I want the access to the stories to be available. It's why I became a writer in the first place.


THE HOME OF BOOK-NESS:
http://www.thisisbooksmusic.com/
http://twitter.com/thisisjohnbook
http://www.facebook.com/book1


http://i32.tinypic.com/kbewp4.gif
http://i60.tinypic.com/a59mp3.jpg

so it's cool to learn the story behind some of my favorite songs/albums. It's not always necessary though.

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Falcons, Braves, Bulldogs and Hawks

Geto Boys, Poison Clan, UGK, Eightball & MJG, OutKast, Goodie Mob

Like, when XXL was doing "making of" articles for album anniversaries. Cool, "you had to be there" retellings of stories. If anyone could put together some shit like this for all of the OutKast and other DF albums (excluding the one for Aquemini that's out there), I'd be all over it.

I'm sure this is how I get stuck watching hours of beat making vids on YouTube.

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Twitter & IG: @rulerofmyself
SC: rulerofmyself17

Yes! She's on the drugs. (c) BoHagon

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take Rick James's street songs, he was called hollywood,gone soft and the brother went around buffalo with a cap covering his head and face went into the hood and got inspiration.

or it can be MJ and thriller. so pissed at how off the wall got ignored and he was gonna prove folks wrong.


Marvin Gaye with a whats going on or a Stevie Wonder with songs in the key of life commanding all the music and hitting

R.kelly with Chocolate factory after all that went down

Whitney Houston with the bodyguard because she did a inro acapella and it hit.

or Dr Dre putting out the chronic and making that all come together with a unknown Snoop Dogg.

RUN DMC teaming up with Aerosmith and bringing them back and hitting big their ownselves.


so many stories that are incredible and how it hit

mistermaxxx R.Kelly, Michael Jackson,Stevie wonder,Rick James,Marvin Gaye,El Debarge, Barry WHite Lionel RIchie,Isleys EWF,Lady T.,Kid creole and coconuts,the crusaders,kc sunshine band,bee gees,jW,sd,NE,JB

Miami Heat, New York Yankees,buffalo bills

It all depends on the group and the song, some artists make rap songs that are pretty much plain enough to where you can understand the story in the rhymes but sometimes some rappers got a whole background to the songs and themselves.

Like with Blackthought, he's one kat I like understanding as much as I can to his songs cause he's an emcee who writes with deeper meaning so I except the song to have levels of understanding other than face value.

Do I need a story behind the songs I hear on he radio about smoking, drinkin, and how they turnt it up, naw, I'm good; don't need to hear you wrote the song cause you were mad with your baby's mama or one of your homies backstabbed you on some shady shit.

https://tinyurl.com/y4ba6hog

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"We in here talking about later career Prince records
& your fool ass is cruising around in a time machine
trying to collect props for a couple of sociopathic degenerates" - s.blak