Drowing in a sea of pop

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

This discussion got kind of lost in the last chart poll comments - I think it deserves its own thread.

Do you feel overwhelmed by the vast swathes of music out there? How do you keep up? Or do you just listen to the same old stuff 90% of the time?

Where do you usually hear new music? Radio, telly, blogs, random interwebs... or poptimists? If we don't know about something, is it the record label's fault for not promoting the artist?

Also - have you ever experienced music 'fatigue' (as mcarralata mentions in that other thread)?

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

I hear some new music at work, if it's a bit independent. I have a number of artists that I will buy the latest thing regardless. I go to gigs, and occasionally will see a good support act that will have a Myspace page, and links to other good unknown acts. Which is how I heard of Age of Rockets and Ingrid Michaelson after Jenny Owen Youngs supported Aimee Mann last summer.

I rarely hear what's in the top 10 and hardly ever listen to radio. So the other thing is friends forcing music on me, which currently tends to be either minimal techno (Kompact etc) or alt.country (Wilco, Blanche, Raconteurs).

Very occasionally I might pick something up via YouTube, or by reading about the artist in a magazine.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i've been off the internets, but had i seen that thread, i would have added that my solution to this was a regular podcast. specifically the ft poptimism podcast

but i'm losing the enthusiasm for doing it. TBH. and the most recent one i've just been putting off.

perhaps a different format - longer extracts, risking what mp3 blogs risk in having full songs.

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

isn't tom thinking about something like this anyways? not sure if it's on ft or here...

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

i guess so. actually i might have a word with him about it. if it is to be a regular thing, then an RSS feed is what we need...

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's here, and it starts on Monday. But I'm sure there are ways to link it to FT too.

The thing about it is that it's not necessarily going to be a "keeping up" sort of thing, it's more exploring pop in its wider sense.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I don't think blaming the record company can really be an excuse for anyone on poptimists; fair enough for the public at large but isn't the point of the community that we love pop? and can therefore be expected to actually make some effort to keep up with what's going on in it?

I do feel overwhelmed by the amount of music out there sometimes, but that's because I try to keep up with loads of niche genres as well as pop - keeping up with mainstream stuff like Mary J Blige is really, really not hard. And I don't listen to the radio OR watch TV ever. Wikipedia is actually a really good source of information re: impending albums!

[justfanoe.livejournal.com]

Pop is one of my major interests, but when free time gets limited sometimes it can fall through the cracks. I haven't heard a single new song released in 2008.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

It can - cf my failure to hear 'See You Again' until the other week! - but the point is that it's not only super-easy to catch up, it's also fun, because it's an interest of mine. If I didn't find keeping up with music enjoyable, if it became a chore, I probably would stop calling myself a music fan.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

we love pop? and can therefore be expected to actually make some effort to keep up with what's going on in it?

I don't think the "therefore" holds up Lex! One of the things about pop, a reason to love it some would say, is that you can opt out of keeping up and a certain amount of stuff will reach you anyway, driftwood-style.

[jauntyalan.livejournal.com]

agreed, but i also think blaming the biz is no excuse.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

How can you rely just on that though? We've had countless threads on poptimists over the past year about the institutionalised conservatism of eg radio, the music press - and about how it's getting worse and worse, especially at promoting pop music. You're basically resigning yourself to missing - sometimes never hearing - a massive amount of awesome music. And instead having your life soundtracked by Mika and the Pigeon Detectives.

It'd be like, I dunno, being into current affairs but only relying on BBC News for your information. Sorry, I think that's a terrible attitude for anyone who identifies as a music fan to take.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Remember that "stuff reaching you anyway" will also include recommendations from friends, chats on LJs, shoutouts on facebook - we live in an era where "the media" already includes a load of highly personalised stuff. The binary you're proposing - either make an effort or get spoonfed by Radio 1 - simply doesn't exist! You can be a complete idler and still end up encountering an awful lot of stuff, with weird huge semi-random gaps the only betrayer of your slack nature.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Also there are many many more radio stations than Radio 1!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But why would you be comfortable with being an idler? If I took that approach the knowledge that the random huge gaps existed would EAT AWAY at me! Also it'd all be received taste, even if a particular person always makes reliably good recommendations I'd never feel comfortable just receiving them without striking out to find out what I like, as opposed to what they like.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Because there's lots of other stuff to do! I have been interested in music for years and years, so there are other areas of interest where the gaps are even VASTER and hence eat at me even more when I think about them - cookery or politics or history or child psychology or comics or whatever. Any fandom is a trade-off against other dilettantisms: the great thing about pop is how easy it is to slip out of and come back to fandom.

And the same trade-off gets made WITHIN "music fandom". Yesterday I was seized with gap-fear but it was nothing to do with keeping up with current pop, it was a lack of knowledge of African pop - both the basic structures (soukous comes from here, juju comes from there) and current developments. If I'm making time to explore that branch of music fandom then I need to switch into driftwood mode for right-now Western pop.

re. liking - I am more interested in whether I like what other people like than whether I like something they've not heard: this is why my contribution to music criticism has involved community building rather than running a groundbreaking MP3 blog! But this is a matter of individual preference, totally.

Other hobbies do exist

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Knitting, in my case.

My job has changed sufficiently in the last year or so that I don't often get the chance to sit down and listen to an entire album or mix before something/someone interrupts me (like the IT dudes just now, with their pesky qns about my computer randomly switching off). Also, this change-in-job means I do less actual music research on the interwebs (as it happens I'm doing that today, but am too busy to stop and listen to any of the bands I come across).

Also there is the aspect that when I'm stressed out & listening to tunes (i.e. when commuting), I can't be dealing with new stuff that might piss me off immensely - I have to go for safe familiar choices that are guaranteed to soothe. This leaves minimal time for new music absorbing but it will go something like this:

- late evening Hits!TV (they only seem to show 80s countdowns or chart stuff at the weekends/early evening) --> this is where I first saw that Janet Jackson vid
- youtube whilst filling out weekly chart polls
- R1 chartblog/Popjustice (both on lj feed)
- stuff the Lex & other dudes post up on here.

Re: Other hobbies do exist

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I can recommend a whole load of other blogs to put on feeds if you want! I mean, Peter R is great and all, and I read PJ regularly, but if anything it's like reverse recommendations.

I almost always choose to listen to new albums on my commute! I pay most attention to stuff then.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

One can be a Poptimist and like pop from years gone by rather than what currently passes for pop.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

You say "what currently passes for pop" as though modern pop is so inferior to old pop, which...just isn't the case at all!

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

Hah this sounds fascinating but I have no time to discuss :(

Where I hear new (or new to me) things

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Currently:

1. Radio (75%)
2. On spec CD purchases (10%)
3. Youtubing and internet surfing (10%)
4. Links in livejournal posts / e-mails (5%)

I do occasionally get 'new music fatigue' but all that means is I listen to new-to-me music from the past instead. I never tire of hearing new things. If anything, my "problem" is I don't listen to records I own enough. I probably own several hundred CDs that I've only played once ever.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if I am keeping up but here's a list of ways in which I find out about NEW pop:

1) new videos on Tiscal Homechoice VMX
2) look at itunes portal and charts to see what's there
3) as 3 but on Bleep for more indie and altronic (yes i did just write that)
4) ILM, still, somehow
5) bookmarked mp3 blogs - usually only have the energy to browse a few a week tho - just downloading whatever reads appealing
6) occasional listen to 1Xtra or 6Music while cooking dinner
7) random myspace+last.fm rambling

I try and keep a 50/50 balance between listening to current stuff and listening to anything more than a year old. I think I may be OK on this but due to the quantity a lot of stuff probably doesn't get the time it "deserves".

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

some of the rolling ilm threads are still great for recommendations and heads-ups. it is possible to use the place without actually having to engage with the awful people.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

January almost over so I will be able to start actively seeking new music again from Friday, not that this 'month off' was really intentional.

[pony-meat.livejournal.com]

i mainly listen to 20s blues and country, so there's never a lack of artists to explore.

take band i like -> allmusic -> influences = yeah

and livejournal

[pony-meat.livejournal.com]

.

[poptasticuk.livejournal.com]

I put quite a lot of effort into finding new pop music, partly cos I feel a responsibility to be on top of things and write about them on my blogs. Even if I only have time to mention them in my montly top singles list (rather than a proper review), someone who identifies with my music taste can look them up from there. My method is basically to follow up any lead from my trusted sources - there are some people I will look up everything they mention even if it doesn't sound appealing, while others I will look it up only if it sounds like something I'd like. I get to know their hit/miss rate. I also keep an eye on certain things such as the playlists of Radio 1 and 2 and when I get chance flick through Music Week.

Even though the product of this is that I can pass on the recommendation to people through my blogs, the main reason I do it is because I love pop music and I never tire of the thrill of falling in love with a new act or song.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I don't really think of myself as actively looking for new music, but in practice I spend hours at a time surfing Youtube or Beatport or the Hype Machine, several days a week. YTube is one of two ways I keep up with pop (the other being dancing at clubs), because I don't listen to the radio and no one on my flist ever ups R&B. ^^;

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's probably fairly obvious (http://instanthits.wordpress.com/) what my current efforts in this direction involve...

Other than that, I occasionally get knotted up in a musical obsession and lose track of everything else. But this annoys me, so I usually take steps to remedy it, i.e. listening to more radio, mp3 blogs, hassling friends for mix cds, etc.

I'm currently enjoying trying to listen to All The Singles though, and it's leading me off on someinteresting tangents as well. Excellent.