how often should your "favourite record" change?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

the lex has a (pro forma) go at peelie over on FT for having the same favourite single for 20-odd years -- viz "teenage kicks" (peel was 41 i think whe he heard this record)

anyway, it raises a question or three

i: how often does YOUR favourite record change?
ii: how often SHOULD your favourite record change?
iii: once you get past age [x] it is odd nay weird if your favourite record carries on changing every day/week/year <--- what for you is value [x], in ref.day/week/year respectively

Comments

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ps ignore stupid cute-quotes in title -- i have no idea what misprision i felt i wz protecting the reader from there, dearie-me

[braisedbywolves.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't have said that mine changed (it was "Going Underground" for basically the 90s), so much it became impossible to pick one over another - I get different joy from that record as I do from "Take On Me" or "We Want Fun" or "Dinu Lapatti's Bones" or Alan Moore's "Heaven". This is not because music suddenly became diverse, of course, or that I hated "Take On Me" before, just that I lost the need to say "but first and foremost I am a punk".

I am not entirely certain whether the Lex intends the implication that John Peel's taste solidified in 1978!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I intend the implication that J Peel is BORING :D

I don't have a favourite record any more because I have heard too many, my favourite record du jour changes as soon as I hear something new.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

right now it is 'OOC' by Mariah! (at lunch it was 'I'm That Chick')

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Like Peel (I suspect) did, I tend to have a stock answer for this (and 'favourite band/artist' too), which shifts about every five years or so.

I don't see any reason why it shouldn't change quite often. I'd be surprised if there were 'new entries' at the top on a regular basis just because the competitive set is so much greater, but all the good records I've heard are jockeying for position all the time. My stock favourite album answer now would probably be Actually, by the Pet Shop Boys, but for a long time it was It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: both those are from the same year so it's not like I suddenly discovered one of them.

I guess I think of my stock answer as a kind of abstract "averaging out" - i.e. "One More Time" by Daft Punk is my favourite single ever enough that it beats the claims of all the other ones.

re iii. - I wouldn't find it odd, because I'd assume they had an aesthetic of responding to whims in taste rather than big underlying shifts. The song I love most on any given day is often not my "favourite record" answer (this is also why I think your cute-quotes were fine!)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Obviously Peel's DIDN'T shift - I meant his was a stock answer.

(I can also imagine him asking of everything he ever heard, "Is this better than Teenage Kicks? No." and still being quite happy with hearing new things. I suspect his relationship to TK was closer to his relationship with Liverpool FC than it was to 'liking a record'.)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Mark I know I'm always jumping off your springboards for P4K stuff but I might well use this for this month's column if that's OK! I think it's a very interesting area.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

go ahead! i am total god-emperor of "do me homework 4 me plz interwebs"

[koganbot]

I'll bet that there's a gender difference here: more males than females making lists of records, more males than females ranking them, more males than females assigning letter grades or the equivalent, more males than females worrying about what's best of all time, more males than females worrying about whether one's favorite should change, more males than females making a big deal about what one's favorite is. (I'm not as sure that there'll be more males than females having a favorite or changing one's favorite, though I wouldn't be surprised here, either.)

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

i) Not very often
ii) As often as you like
iii) Not sure

[jel-bugle.livejournal.com]

I have described my life.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

This question really is about allegiances, isn't it? I.e. for a stock answer you pick a record that most represents your taste, as manifesto for your music fandom values, etc. Hence I usually say New Order is my favorite band not necessarily because the ranking is easy (I hate making ranked lists of anything) but because they encapsulate my relationship with indie and with dance and also sonic priorities (I prefer this type of rhythm section, the mood conveyed, and so on). Other then that I find it impossible to develop any sort of criteria because there are countless individual songs I'd be happy to listen to over and over at any moment in time. About half of the Pet Shop Boys' entire discography, say.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

well yes this is certainly one thing very many people do -- but i think koganbot's doing something else, a bit, and so was peelie actually

i guess we could say that peel was stating an allegiance to how-that-record-made-me-feel, and kogan is stating an allegiance to how-that-record-made-me-respond (since FK's response has a lot of not-just-feel content): but the word allegiance seems to require more of an idea of a publicly recognised TYPE of sound (whereas forkogan or peel it's more a type only accessible in their heads; which they only know after they've encountered it, not where to go looking for it)?

[koganbot]

But saying "Stooges" or "New York Dolls" or "Rolling Stones" signifies a vastly different allegiance now to what it did in 1966 through 1974; also signifies a different allegiance to different people. I'm likely to tell Lex that my favorite band is the Rolling Stones, but most people these days I'll say that my favorites are Ashlee Simpson and Eminem.

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

I am reminded of Derek Malcolm getting sick of the same question re: favourite film and giving the stock answer every time of Ozu's Tokyo Story, because i) he did like the film, but more importantly ii) hardly anyone's ever seen it so didn't argue with him or ask him any further questions.

I liked Peel for not falling into this and choosing a song everybody knows (but do they mostly know it because of Peel? I don't know its history) when he could have just chosen Turtles Have Short Legs to shut people up given the number of times he must have been asked the question.

[koganbot]

I hardly see movies anymore but I'VE SEEN TOKYO STORY.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

i: it did not change much at all when i was growing up. i initially decided it was 'Blue Monday' a year or two after the 1988 remix but around that time (of the decision) 'Pacific State' came out and that quickly became #1 - possibly I was looking to be distinct in such a choice but I really believed it to be the most sublime and relevant music for me but also kinda 'safe' from a personl pov - not something I'd get sick of by hearing everywhere, no lyrics or vocals to find cliched or spent once I reached a certain age. Not that I was as prescient or perceptive at 12 as that suggests! Anyway just in time for electroclash it had swung back to 'Blue Monday' again - probably because I started wanting to 'fit in' more again I dunno.

ii: i guess there is no 'should' is there? isn't that a key popism rule?

iii: not odd, just seems kinda pointless. if your desire to elevate one song above all others still remains after all those years it seems like a contradiction to be constantly changing what that song is.

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

I just don't think that I have a favourite record. I always have a current Thing I Am Listening To All The Time but that can change every day, or sometimes every week. Sometimes it's a new record, sometimes it's something old that I've only just discovered, sometimes it's an old thing that I've dug up from the bottom of the CD box or something that just popped into my head and I FORGOT HOW GREAT IT WAS (current favourite record is "All Over The World" from Bossanova by the Pixies because it IS THE SOUND OF SUMMER and my brain randomly reminded me of this as soon as the temp hit 29.5 in our office). A few weeks ago I had to listen to "Who's That Girl" by Eve at least 5 times a day. After that I put "Circulate" by Rex the Dog on CONSTANTLY and annoyed my boyfriend. OH and "Feed The Tree" by Belly after I heard it randomly in a pub.

I do have a theory that once something becomes my Favourite Record of the moment it never leaves the Pantheon Of Favourite Records - once I love something that much, I rarely go off it even if I don't revisit it all that often; if I hear it again unexpectedly I'll always say "OMG THIS IS MY FAVOURITE RECORD EVER" and start bouncing about and embarrassing whoever I happen to be with at the time. There is NO WAY that I won't love Rex The Dog in 10 years' time, no way at all. I can say that because I said that about The Pixies and Pavement and Throwing Muses 10 years ago and they are all still my favourite records.

I guess what I'm saying is, I'm no bloody help whatsoever.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

yes I definitely agree about the Pantheon of Favourite Records - I think because for something to get in there in the first place, it's got to hit you really really hard, like either physically or so emotionally that it may as well be physically, so...it's kind of like muscle memory, when you hear it again you automatically react in the same way.

(I relistened to 'Lost Ones' by Lauryn Hill for the first time in ages on the bus home from today and THIS HAPPENED)

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Over the last 18 months or so I've been compiling a List, of the songs I truly love (and will always love), partly to see if I *can* put them in order for a top 100, partly to keep a reminder for myself that Hey These Songs Are So Amazing You Should Listen To Them More.

As I replied above, Elastica are my favourite band but none of their songs are in The List at the moment for three reasons: 1) I'm scared to narrow them down to my favourites (a condition of the list - max 2 per artist) 2) I don't want my love of the *band* to overshadow some other deserving *song* that might otherwise get pushed aside 3) I have a nagging feeling that I love the concept of Elastica WAY MORE than I love listening to their songs.

But back to the matter in hand - I think a good way to deal with the 'favourite song' conundrum is to pick the song you've consistently loved for the longest time. For me that would be one of the tracks off Rave '92 (which I'm not going to spoiler here!) which was one of the first additions to The List.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

'I think a good way to deal with the 'favourite song' conundrum is to pick the song you've consistently loved for the longest time.'

This is a good idea actually. The song I have loved the longest or at least can't remember disliking at any point even when I was a sullen 'we need a wevolution' teenager...

It's either 'Stand Or Deliver' or 'Prince Charming' HA (it seems wrong to remember that I DEFINITELY loved seeing Adam Ant on telly when I was only 3 but I'm pretty sure I did not insert this memory later on)

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

A stray pebble I'll throw in this pond and then run away (= go home) is that touchstone records and favourite records can be (and generally are in my experience) two very different things. Singles like "Heard It Through The Grapevine" and "Good Vibrations" I will generally point to as examples of things to which all pop should aspire, but they don't really have much personal resonance for me.

I don't think my personal canon has ever completely ossified, but I agree with Katie's theory above, aka the "if you truly loved something once you can never really disown it" principle (even if you never need to hear it more than once in a blue moon).

Final thort

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

When you get past 40*, comparing and ranking records no longer seems as important as it used to.

*This number may vary subject to status. The value of your investments may go down as well as up, etc etc.

[weasel-seeker.livejournal.com]

i) The concept of favourite record as a statement of intent and a declaration of allegiance seems to hit the nail on the head here, while simultaneously problematizing the question, for me at least.

Favourite record stayed constant for the past three years through college as 7/4 (Shoreline). And while I maintain that it really is a killer pop tune, it retrospectively appears to be, in part, an ideological claim about music. While I'd still probably answer the "favourite band" question with BSS, because how I listen/ed to them informs how I listen to most other music, that no longer accurately represents my listening habits, which embrace far more pop, rap, country, etc. than previously.

Thus, at the moment the concept of "favourite" seems a little hollow for me. Different music does different things and is used in different ways and thus multiple, unrankable, shifting favourites. This kind of taste anarchy is kind of suspect, however, so it's possible that I'm just in the midst of a shift, and by the end of the summer, new 'permanent' favourites will have emerged. But I doubt it.

ii) Should is a gross word for these purposes. Your favourite record SHOULD change as often as it does change.

iii) Fuck if I know. I'm sure that objectively tastes often solidify to some extent, but being 20 and not having reached such a point, speculation on my part would seem specious.

[koganbot]

One thing I like about this answer is that I have never, as far as I know, heard Shoreline or BSS (by which I assume you mean Broken Social Scene).

[mippy.livejournal.com]

"I am sure you can get a Peel sanctioned comp with Kicks and some Beefheart on it"

Yes you can.

I know a lot of my favourite albums at fifteen remain so - This Year's Model, Back Again in the DHSS, Meat is Murder. And there's nothing wrong with that - a lot of my favourite records are far, far from current, but to me are the very sound of the year that I discovered them, even if what was in the charts wasn't the Go-Betweens or Prefab Sprout or FSK. And you know, it gave me a bit of a kick a few years ago when listening to the new music coming out to realise other people had been stuck in their bedrooms listening to XTC and Orange Juice over homework. BUT I dislike general 'it's all nonsense nowadays' attitudes. Sure, you can keep your favourite record of all time, but you should at least have a favourite record of the moment. Otherwise you're not listening hard enough.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

I'm no longer sure that I have a favourite record, exactly. Yes, I am infatuated with different records pretty often, and I listen to them lots and lots and love them deeply, but it doesn't always last. There are old favourites that I have always loved, but I never listen to them five times in a row as I often do with new favourites. For the last two years my favourite tracks have been from Marit Larsen's album, but I'm not sure how two years of passion counts against, say, 35 years of deep love. The last record I considered my favourite single for a good length of time (it still might be, I don't know) was Common People, and that wasn't at all a statement of allegiance to its kind of music, as I hated 95% of Britpop. There are dozens of records covering many decades that I can and often do react to as if they are the greatest thing ever recorded.

I don't see anything wrong with changing your mind every week, or with finding the one for you and sticking with it. The former is more common when young, the other when old. Maybe Lex will still be changing his mind frequently when he is my age, maybe he will at some point find the one and it will stay his favourite forever. Neither is better than the other, as far as I can see. It strikes me as pointless to use either consistency or inconsistency as a stick to beat someone with. It seems particularly misjudged when it's Peel - there are plenty of ways of attacking him meaningfully, but being overly attached to one kind of thing is a crime he is less guilty of than any other DJ ever, as far as I am aware.

My favorite song

[koganbot]

Best song I heard for the first time this year is "When The Lights Are Low" by the Paragons, which was in, like, Round 3 of the Pop Open Cup and which I don't think Tom ever got around to identifying. I remember having to look it up on the Web. The song is from 1967 or earlier. (Strangely enough I've never warmed to the group's most famous song, "The Tide Is High." Don't like it any version.)

[skyecaptain.livejournal.com]

Too many songs to pick! Much easier to do with albums, but even then it's a little tricky...like most things I'm content to do it historically and generically -- i.e. my favorite teenpop song ever is "Better Off" by Ashlee Simpson (just beating out Skye Sweetnam's "Hypocrite"). I plan to do the keyboard solo to "Harder Better Faster Stronger" at my wedding, making it Best Song to Confuse People with in the Middle of Your Wedding. And the best song I've listened to in the past 24 hours is.......RAMP! THE LOGICAL SONG (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiOQlMqCU4w).

[koganbot]

My favorite teenpop song ever is probably "Be My Baby" by the Ronettes. Or might be "Remember (Walking In The Sand)" by the Shangri-Las. Or "Tonight's The Night" by the Shirelles. Or "She Loves You" by the Beatles. Or...

Best thing I've listened to in the last 24 hours that isn't by the Paragons or Ashlee Simpson is "Is Anybody Listening?" by Danity Kane.

[cis.livejournal.com]

My favourite track/song/wvs is Autechre's rsdio: I decided this about eight or nine years ago, back when I had a top five bands and everything (autechre weren't on it), and haven't seen fit to change it since. It's a personal constant. I have a lot of temporary best-songs-of-the-moment, an approximate list of 'albums i consider consistently good and also really love' (it's not that long a list), and semi-permanent sets of 'records i am aligning myself with', or 'favourite songs by x well-beloved artist'. And then I have My Favourite Record, which stands outside all of that, my relationship with which is entirely unique, my reaction to which is very specific and not really echoed in any other reactions to other records (even to other autechre records). It could never become my second favourite, it's either my favourite record or it doesn't exist.