Other Ears

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Does anyone else get that thing where they play a record they like to someone, actually physically with someone there in the room, and there's a silence while it plays, maybe a look of mild scepticism on the other person's face, and during the silence you find yourself listening with their ears and suddenly everything that MIGHT be lame or weak or crappy about the music is REALLY OBVIOUS to you?

Comments

[umlauts.livejournal.com]

Yes, and I find that horrible silence to be the worst thing evah, and I almost can't help but want to break it by justifying that, wait, if you listen to it properly, it's really amazing and not shit at all, really now.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Yes. All the time. But there is no silence as usually I am either singing over the top or going "this bit! just listen! SHE JUST SAID 'HUNGRY DOGS WILL CHASE YOU!'"

I have listened to the Bextor album on repeat for the whole of today. First thoughts: peaks and troughs.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

YES I also do the "no hang on SHHH don't SPEAK there's a really good bit coming up" thing - the ensuing pause is even more awkward.

This is one good thing about FILE SHARING: if you want someone to hear a song now you can just SEND IT TO THEM.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

league of pop = NUMBER ONE WORLDWIDE CAUSE OF THIS EFFECT, not so much "in the room with actual live real person" but "in dubdobdee's head with imagined idea of actual live real person"

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Seconded.

Although is much worse if is someone you are in the room with cus with LoP just felt a bit like had let whoever was receiving songz that week down but when they are there with you you can feel them reevaluating yourself in a similar manner to that in which you are reevaluating the song.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes. Which is why I do the 'listen to this, it's ace' thing much less than I used to.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think this effect is an elephant in the "what does liking mean"/"visceral response" room that koganbot has been building (tho not on Poptimists, but I think the posts on his LJ are public). It's quite a small and well-behaved elephant, because the other-ears effect doesn't generally mean you STOP liking the track you're playing, but I think it illuminates something about the status of "liking" and the social aspects of it and the way you can feel through a visceral anti-response to music you've had a visceral response about.

Maybe an answer to the question "who are opinion leaders?" is "people who feel the bad-ears effect less".

[koganbot]

Opinion leaders may feel the bad-ears effect more and feel compelled to justify their opinions in print, to proselytize and thereby compensate for those bad pair of ears they'd endured.

[fathands.livejournal.com]

Variant on the above is playing music to ones parents.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

YES this always happened to me in the car tape player. I particularly remember with burning agony Carter USM's "After The Watershed" coming on and my Mum taking umbrage at the "silly cow" chorus - "I'm disappointed you listen to such sexist music" etc. SQUIRM ARGH.

[cis.livejournal.com]

ALWAYS.

it is generally not helped by my habit of hyping in really peculiar ways, viz.
"it totally sounds like a bavarian weatherhouse!"
"a what?"
"you shall see!"
::plays record::
"..."

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

Yes, and it's even worse when it's music you've made. I generally try and be drinking or playing video games at that point.

[dickmalone.livejournal.com]

That second sentence wasn't grammatical at all, wow.

[friedslice.livejournal.com]

Oh absolutely yes. This is why these things are best done in 'back to mine' type situations after many drinks.

BACK TO MINE FOR A NIGHT OF UNDILUTED SUKRAT

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

where many = not many enough

[koganbot]

As with dickmalone, effect is greater if the track features one's own vocals or own guitar playing or own bass playing.

[koganbot]

Actually, you are misinterpreting the silence - other person is speechless with joy - and the look on the face (not skepticism but, "If I buy this album for Uncle Jethro's birthday, will I have enough money left in my account to keep my rent check from bouncing?"). So it is your own mind at working, discovering flaws that no one else has yet to perceive!

[koganbot]

at working = at work

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Generally being the other person in a bad-ears isn't that bad of course, you're really just thinking "Oh it's OK, yeah" or you're thinking of what YOU'RE going to play.

The big exception to this in my experience is when you fancy the person who's playing the record.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.

listening to music at our age is all about recapturing what it ws like to be 14 isn't it?

[lockedintheatti.livejournal.com]

Of course sometimes the equilibrium is restored (or at least the misery shared) when they then play something straight back to you that they love and you don't. Musical karma.

[nicolars.livejournal.com]

This used to happen to me all of the time, especially back in my teenage years when I would insist on playing my favorite songs to people in a misguided attempt to convert them.

It hasn't happened in a while now though, which I put down to listening to music almost exclusively on my ipod.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

I get similar things with mixtapes and CDs I've made for friends. I'll stick 20 of my favourite songs ever on there or something, make a copy for myself, and then on listening to it suddenly everything on there turns to crap.

[koganbot]

You who are listening to my League Of Pop track actually love it! You just won't admit it to yourself.

[blue-russian.livejournal.com]

Ack missed another good discussion. Thinking back on LoP, for the most part I think my reaction was disappointment when other people didn't hear the wonderfulness that I did, but I still feel that most of the stuff is pretty ace. i.e., the failure is YRS. (this also reminds me of a few occasions with my ex:
- sister and husband visiting town and we all go to see Big Star reunion show. but LEAVE AFTER OPENING ACT because other people are bored. (wtf wtf wtf)
- her refusing to come to small club about ten minutes from our apartment to see buffalo tom for like $5 at the "height" of their "popularity" - dismissing them out of hand as some "frat boy rock" despite not actually knowing any of their music, despite my earnest entreaties of Personal Meaning (in retrospect, i think this was a signal)
- joy a few years later upon surprising her with charlatans tickets (NB also "frat boy rock") and her quite liking them

my parents are quite a bit older than me and never really understood any pop music as far as i can tell, so the only reall comments i ever got from them were about volume.

i think i have so much of my identity tied up in music that it's quite difficult (for me) to be swayed by peer ears

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Yes. Especially with My Life Story, where I would realise that I was usually hearing the vision more than the finished record.