A couple of days ago I wrote a not-so-positive post regarding two new tracks by Panda Bear. I mentioned how I didn’t “get it” when it came to the songs “Tomboy” and “Slow Motion,” and then remarked how I believe that music can grow on you, no matter if your first impression was to get as far away from that music as humanly possible.
This phenomenon has happened to me a few times in my life. The one that stands out the most is when I finally “got” Led Zeppelin‘s “Misty Mountain Hop.” My oldest brother, John, used to blast that song from his room. Since my room shared a wall with his, I was subjected to this onslaught of what I had considered as noise as often as he would play it. It wasn’t until college when I realized that Zeppelin is one of the coolest bands ever and I sucked for telling my mom to go make John turn the music off.
That took about 5 or so years.
Well, this Panda Bear music brought on an interesting comment from mrkwst22… he wrote: “You’ll like it or you won’t. There’s too much music out there to spend too much time on this.”
I read that comment and realized that he had hit upon an interesting point… IS there too much music out there to spend too much time on “getting” the music from an artist? IS there such a thing as “too much” music?
To start this discussion, here’s the all-too-familiar scenario nowadays – you hear about an artist, you’re interested in hearing some music from that artist… you have a few options on getting some music:
1. Ask your friends if they have it. If they do, then ask for a copy (come on, admit it… you still do this!)
2. Look around online to see if some songs are offered for free somewhere.
3. If all else fails, purchase songs for either 99 cents or cheaper from one of the various online music outlets
Notice that I put “purchase the song” as the third and final option. Unless you’re crapping out money, I think it’s safe to say that there’s still a large percentage of people that choose to actually purchase music as a last resort. I hope I’m wrong about this… I’d be glad to be wrong!
Anyhow, my point is that since the days of driving down to your local music store are gone, and since it’s getting a lot easier to find the songs you like online for free, the end result is that music is now disposable. If you pick up a song blindly and don’t like it, that’s ok because you either didn’t spend any money on it, or you spent about a dollar or less… which is not going to be missed in your bank account. The music is as quickly forgotten as it is heard, and it sits in your computer forever, buried somewhere in a sea of mp3s.
The idea of getting to like the song disappears because it takes just a few more minutes and mouse clicks to find another artist to try out in the same manner.
When I read the comment by mrkwst22, my initial reaction was that I agreed with him. Why should I spend so much time on a song that I can’t stand when I can move onto something that I totally dig? I can just throw that song away because it took just a few clicks of the mouse to get it… no real effort on my part… thus no obligation or attachment to it.
I think most people have felt this way at least once in their lives.
My second reaction to the comment is that maybe I’m spending way too much time on this… but is this where we are today with music? Is there SO much music out there at our disposal that we can afford to be interested in only those that grab our attention immediately? I’ll admit that it’s been a LONG time since I’ve spent 5 years (like I did with Zeppelin’s song) on a song in hopes that I “get” it. It’s only been about a year and a half, but I haven’t fully given up on Springsteen‘s album, Working On A Dream… I’ve literally spent HOURS on that record and to this day I still can’t stand about 99% of it. Should I give up on it or keep playing it in hopes that someday I’ll like it?
Gone are the days of midnight releases… albums are leaked on the Internet and it’s not really that big of a deal anymore… gone are the trips to multiple record shops to find that special album… and for the most part, gone are hours upon hours spent in that record shop, perusing up and down the aisles in search of something to wet your fancy.
This leads to a decreased personal attachment to the music. In my experience, the search and discovery of a song made me spend more time with it… there was no way I wouldn’t like the song because I just went through all of THAT to get it!
But like you, I love music. Like you, I’m always on the search for something new… something that will speak to me. I’m grateful that my brother disgusted me with “Misty Mountain Hop,” because it made my true discovery of the song that much sweeter. I once thought that the more music I collected, the better. I once thought that the more music I listened to, the more I would appreciate it. Now I’m worried that I throw away music like I throw away junk mail. I’m worried that I don’t give the song the respect and the attention it deserves because it didn’t immediately give me what I needed.
Ultimately, I’m worried that I’ll miss something great.
I’ve probably accumulated more music than I could ever listen to in my lifetime. There’s simply no way that I can listen to what I already have but also check out new material… but you know what? After reading what I just wrote, I’m going to try because it’s out there. I’m going to try because even though I won’t like everything, the music meant something to somebody, and I don’t want to miss it. I’m going to try because in the end, I love music.
Ok, Panda Bear… let’s try this one more time…
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
**** Thanks to mrkwst22 and everyone who leave comments here… comments lead to discussion… discussion leads to understanding… understanding leads to appreciation.
(still don’t get Panda Bear, but that’s life)
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I don't think there is too much music. Is there so much music that I can't possibly get to everything I like? Sure. Will I miss something fabulous because there is so much music? Very likely? Does this mean there is too much music? Absolutely not. As long as musicians have the need to create and as long as they find an audience the balance is exactly as it should be.
I love that artists no longer have to rely on big record companies to manufacture their talent and present it to the masses because you can bet your ass we would miss a whole lot more talent if that were still the case than what we miss because we have easy access to it. There are many artist that you have introduced me to that I still support today that probably wouldn't even have a career in music if they had to wait to be signed. If an artist is passionate they have an outlet waiting for them to share their talent with the world and someone will find it. Someone will stumble upon it, possibly share it with their friends, and the chain continues. Just because you or I might miss something doesn't mean there is too much music, because for every great song we miss there are hundreds that have found it and welcomed it into their music collection and those are people that might not have been reached at all if we didn't have the easy access to music that we have now.
I don't feel compelled to keep listening to a song just because it meant something to the artist. If I don't like it, I don't like it. I don't think I need to make excuses for that. Not everyone is going to like everything a musician puts out and I think as a musician you know this and probably accepted it long before you started sharing your music with others. This is not to say I won't give a song or album a second chance but I don't feel obligated to like anything and it is true, if I know I don't like something and probably won't ever like it then YES my time is better spent searching for that one song I might miss that actually will mean something to me.
I guess I feel compelled to keep listening to a song because of many of your points… there is So much music I am undoubtedly going to miss, I want to make the best of what I DON'T miss. It is true that for every song I don't hear, there are countless others that I will hear… but my point is that BECAUSE there are countless others that I will hear, should I discard the ones I don't like so quickly?
My music collection probably consists of more music I don't listen to than I do. Something's wrong with that, but is it inevitable? What's your music collection like? I feel like I should spend the time to get to know this music…
I love getting turned around on a song I initially hated. I wish it happened more often.
there can never be “too much music”!! no, we will never be able to hear it all, but the fact that it is there proves there are many that are letting their creative sides loose! and that in itself should be applauded, nurtured, and supported. i'd rather go see a band i've never heard of “live” and let them turn me onto their tunes than search the internet for them. yes, that does limit my scope of the music, but as you well know, “live music matters!!” so in that context, for me at least, i do limit myself. but i must say i have heard recorded things i hated but when i saw it “live”, IT ROCKED!! hope that makes some sort of sense.
I think that there could well be too much music out there, but I don't know if it's a bad thing. It's great that any band or artist has a chance to find an audience if they want to. As a result, for every person like you who didn't really dig Panda Bear or (insert artist here), there could well be someone who just had their life changed with a single listen.
I think it also depends on how much you want to give the artist a chance. There are plenty of albums or songs that I hear once, don't wholly love, but know that I'm going to want to hear again in the hopes that it grows on me. Usually I get to them, sometimes I don't. If I really think that the artist has something to offer that a first listen didn't give me, I'll grant it that second chance, otherwise it goes to the recycle bin or just gathers digital dust in my library.
In short, there may be too much music, but if someone really wants to “get” an artist or song, there's nothing stopping him/her. If you want to try to see what you're missing in Panda Bear, go for it. But you won't be a bad person if you don't.
(Also, my “Misty Mountain Hop” was most of Radiohead's catalog. A friend made gave me her CDs and told me not to come back until I listened to them all. I was sold.)
I'm not going to use that old saw, “Quoted out of context…”, but I think it applies. So I shall drill down a bit deeper.
I've been listening to music consciously since I was 4 or 5 and unconsciously since the womb because my Mother was a music lover. She had me in '49 <Yeah, yeah I'm a dinosaur….> and listened to 78's, 45's, and 33 1/3's. Buddy Holly, Elvis, Ernest Tubb, anything and everything. It gave me a great appreciation of the scope of music but it also taught me to be critical in my listening. And that ability has served me well. I emphasize the “me” in that statement.
One of the greatest thrills in life for me is to “discover” new talent: talent that is brand new or had passed me by due to non-exposure. I can give you a good example: Fall Out Boy. I only “discovered” them about 3 months ago and it has been a blast catching up. Another example: The New Radicals. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the first chords from an almost perfect CD, for “me”.
And now to my point, he wrote rather long-windedly. When the record labels controlled the product, the choosing of who was recorded, its production, its distribution, etc., they controlled us the listeners. Vinyl albums had 10 to 12 cuts. Sometimes at best there were 3 or 4 songs you wanted to listen to again. But you listened to the filler because it was easier than picking the needle up and down to hear only what you wanted. Then those lovable Japanese perfected the cassette and all the rules changed. The cassette begat the CD; the CD begat the recordable CD. The recordable CD mated with the personal computer and we are now at a point in history when virtually we have access to just about everything musically. But (and there's always a but…..) it is impossible, both physically and mentally, for us to listen to everything out there in the ozone.
I stand by my statement quoted by Mr. Meat.
Why would I, or why would you want to listen to music all your self-developed filters tells you, you either don't like, understand, or have any kind of connection with? I'd rather listen to The New Radicals for my 40th time. I am not going to listen to some Gangsta Rap/Hip-Hop crap to try to understand it, to find out why I don't like it. But if I hear a Rap/Hip-Hop that has an interesting melody sample, a good beat, and lyrics truly trying to mean something, then I will listen.
I have over 20,000 tracks in my iTunes Library. All are rated 4 to 5 stars. And I have a vested, musical and emotional attachment to them all. I tossed all the ones I thought were of lesser value based on my 55 year old filters. This blog is now a part of my filtering system and apparently yours to. When I told Mr. Swapmeat not to waste his time, I was being selfish. Selfish for all of us readers.
Is there too much mediocre music out there? You bet there is! So don't worry over the Panda Bear's of the musical world, Swap. Go fine us some great, new stuff!
But this is just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I do agree that live music tends to put a different perspective on a song. I've often seen (and heard of) bands that kill it live, but it doesn't transfer to recordings. Perhaps it's because they need the energy of the crowd, perhaps it's because part of the show is how they feed off each other. Whatever the case, the recordings pale in comparison to the live show.
Unfortunately, I'm not in the position to go out and hear live music often. I'm getting back into it, but it'll be a slow process. I'm sure that I'll find music I like and don't like out there… and I hope that if I come across a band I DON'T like, I won't dismiss them quickly. Some of my favorite songs are those that I had to “work for” to love… I have no idea why, but that's how it is with me.
Yes, creativity should be applauded, nurtured, and supported!!!
Radiohead was a slow fire for me as well. I didn't get into them until I heard some friends of mine perform “Lucky.” I thought to myself “HOLY CRAP WHAT AM I MISSING?” and went back to listen to their cds. Yes, I bought them all and they just sat there because I was lame.
I don't want to give the impression that too much music is a BAD thing, because it can't be a bad thing. I know we can't all listen to everything, nor should we try to… I just don't want to miss out on something great just because I gave up too soon on it.
I'm not sure why Panda Bear isn't my cup o' tea… maybe it doesn't fit into my “box” of what a song should have… but we always encourage people to “think outside the box.” Well, Panda did alright and although he should be applauded for it, the results of “thinking outside the box” aren't a guaranteed smash. I took music classes at UCSD and they encouraged this out-of-box thinking… annoyed the hell out of me when a girl got an “A” for her composition:
She handed each musician a color card and told them to “play that color.” What came out was a mess… dissonance everywhere… nobody playing in time… no melody, no sense of unity… just a MESS. She got the “A” because she thought outside of the box. I was pissed and the next time we had to compose pieces, I kicked each musician in the moneymaker before the performance and told them to play in pain.
I got an “F” because my professor was one of the musicians. Go figure.
First off, I apologize for quoting you out of context. I had a feeling I might have, but it was that one sentence of yours that struck me the hardest and got me thinking. I meant no disrespect!
I understand what you are saying… yes, you're right – why should I listen to music that I have absolutely no connection with? I think I do that at times because I want the big picture of what's going on out there. The thing that excites me the most about music nowadays is the cross-genre-writing. There's hip-hop in rock, rock in hip-hop, jazz in folk, gospel in electronica…it's thrilling to hear what someone will come up with next.
So in keeping up with these styles, I tend to listen to stuff that I don't normally listen to. I guess Panda Bear falls directly into that category.
I also feel I have a responsibility to this site… so I try to give a broader scope of music. What I probably SHOULD do is “write what I know,” which is the 1st rule in writing (or so I hear), but like I said before, unless I understand where all this music is coming from, how can I write intelligently? This is, of course, assuming that I DO write intelligently.
There are some excellent music blogs out there and I thank you wholeheartedly for making this part of your daily internet activity. Your quote is now embedded in the back of my mind when I play new music. Sure, it's only been a couple of days, but the impact is there. This is NOT a bad thing, mind you. It gives me new perspective, and gives me a new approach to listening and writing… two things that I welcome anytime.
If I limited my likes to just what caught me on first listen, I would have never heard the genius within Elvis, Hendrix, Emmylou or Patty Griffin, just to name a few. I didn't hate any of them, but they didn't catch me. It took a distance of months or years to come back and realize what I hadn't heard earlier.
Keep listening.
No. The answer is no. There is no such thing as too much music.
Here is a killer issue: just because you have access to the buffet doesn't mean you have to sample every food on it. Oh, you can (and you have), but all you get is nasty stomach ache. Buffets are misleading. Everything looks good and every bowl and platter is always full. Not only is food a plenty, its cheap, too….all you can eat for $X.99. Fill up your plate with lots of this and lots of that…you don't have to eat it all…take a bite and leave the rest.
There are too many buffets being gorged and not enough meals being eaten and enjoyed.
Music is so disposable now that people don't have to get invested in the listening experience. The barriers are gone, there is no more scarcity and, unless you are a serious music fan…why should you bother? I am a serious music fan….but I like what I like. I don't deviate all that much from the core sound that I dig on. That is my first filter. All of my sounds have a common thread: filter number one.
I am an album-guy, too. I have another filter…the 10 Play Rule. When ever I get a new album, I listen to it front to back at least 10 times in a row…not consecutively, but the first ten times I listent to it, I make the time to listen to it straight through for that session. If I am stil down with it after that, then it's a keeper. If I am not, well…not every entry is a winner.
So what the hell does all that mean? It means that I am not going to listen to the new Arcade Fire album…but I am most certainly going to buy the new Leon Russel/Elton John album (and I'll listen to it 10 times…at least).
Love the buffet comparison. “There are too many buffets being gorged and not enough meals being eaten and enjoyed” is a great way to explain what's happening to music. It makes me wonder if I'm gorging or eating & enjoying… perhaps a little of both because I need to stay updated with what's going on.
My filter is probably not as specific as yours, but I know I have one (or a few). The thing about working on this site is that it's helped me develop more filters… either that or get rid of some filters. It used to be that if I didn't hear a certain guitar tone, then I'd toss it. I didn't listen to much electronic music, either. Now I'm enjoying from a larger pool of styles… it's easy to get lost, but I always know where home is. Following your blog has been a pleasure of mine. I dig your taste in music and feel that we may very well come from the same place. That's where I consider “home.”
I have a number-of-play rule for individual songs… if I can't make it through 5x in a row, then I leave it. For albums, I generally stick with them for a week or longer in order to absorb it. If I can't make it through the entire album in one sitting after a week, then something's not jiving with me. That doesn't mean it's a bad album, it just means that something's not jiving with ME. No, not every entry is a winner, but we gotta give them a chance to be one. I like your 10-Play rule. I wonder if everyone has a guideline like that.
Yeah, if I had the choice between the Leon Russell/Elton John album or the Arcade Fire, I'd pick Russell/John any day of the week and twice on Sundays. The absolute deal sealer is that T-Bone Burnett produced it. I mean, come ON.. how can that NOT be good?
Isn't it more rewarding when you come back to them? I'm not saying that falling in love with artists upon first listen isn't great, though. I guess it doesn't matter how you come to like an artist, as long as you do!
Good article… I am in the same position myself. I have a ton of music through websites like emusic (which gives you 75 free songs for rejoining so I routinely join then quit only to join again once this offer is extended) and I don’t have nearly the time I want to spend with each album. At least half I can’t say I’ve ever even listened to. On one side, the more music, the greater the chance I’ll find something I like. But the other side is that since I am spending less time with each album there is a reduced chance of me “getting” the album and therefore enjoying it.