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

[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!