What's the minimum amount of listening one has to do to have "heard" an album?

[meserach.livejournal.com]

Pop philosophy problem, peeps!

How much of an album do you have to listen to in order to have "heard" it? All of it? Some of it (which parts)? How many times?

"Heard" here means that would answer in the affirmative to the question "Have you heard PRETENTIOUS_ALBUM_NAME by NEWLY_HYPED_BAND?".

[Poll #1433624]

People who want to go into more detail about their album listening process, please do so in the comments! Especially if it is really kooky or baroque ("I wear special album-listening pants, I sit in a special sound-conditioned room, I disappear with the album up a mountain for two days surviving purely on its audio for sustenance")

Comments

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

I still can't make it all the way through the last track on the Prodigy album because it is SO BAD and (key point here, I think) so unlike the rest of the album that it DOESN'T COUNT. Cf the Timbaland track on the end of the last MIA album. Does anyone actually not stop the CD before Tim starts up his rubbish verse?

I think my ticks above reflect my opinion that being able to say 'I have heard this album' and actually being able to give a value judgement on it are two different things. If I hadn't listened to at least a bit of every track I would be hesitant to give a thumbs up or down.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

Does anyone actually not stop the CD before Tim starts up his rubbish verse?

How can I get someone to do this? I'll pay real actual money.

I think there are times it's fair to grit one's teeth just to make absolutely damn sure that the track is as appalling as it sounds. There are albums I've heard a few tracks of and turned off, and I would generally say, eg "I've heard the first half of x/a couple of tracks off it, and it/they were terrible", but I wouldn't feel qualified to say, "I've heard that album and it sucked". There are a few albums out there with only one or two good songs and a heap of shit ones. This is especially true of collections/compilations, obv.

I don't think it's right to skip tracks entirely and still say "I've heard that album". That's a LIE.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

I like that track! ...But I enjoy having mental arguments with the voices coming over my headphones, and that was one of those instances.

[hoshuteki.livejournal.com]

Oh the things I've struggled through in the name of listening to all the music I own (now that I've done that, I'll sensibly just pick and choose, and it's a blessed thing to use the iTunes option to tell it where you want to start/end a track). I'm just glad I don't own the cd version of Ash's 1977 anymore, because of it's hidden track at the end... I only ever listened to that bit once.

[credoimprobus]

See, technically just sampling* all the tunes should be enough to count -- but I am far too aware of how deceptive samples can be! Sometimes (oftentimes, even) the effect of the whole is too crucial for a partial listen to be enough for fair appraisal. And similarly, if an album has any kind of proper flow/build-up (which can after all have a huge impact on perceived quality!), that effect is obv completely lost with skipping.

*) I pretty much count it as necessary to hear a minimum of 1st verse + chorus for any kind of fair impression (or if it's something non-traditionally structured/instrumental electronic bobbins or whatnot, a minimum of a minute). Which is why eg Amazon's 30 sec samples are kind of useless, heh.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

It just grates on me so much because the rest of the album is so awesome, and MIA's bits on that track are awesome, and the backing is alright - it's just the way Timbaland says 'tipi' that makes me go ARAGRHAGHRGAGRGHGRHRHGH and drop everything I'm doing and run over to the CD player with a mallet.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

But you had to listen to it all the way through once to know how rubbish it is!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

(NB I don't think you need to have "heard" an album to pass judgment on it - if you've heard and hated the singles, say, and consensus from the artist's fans is that they're the best tracks and there aren't any huge switch-ups in the rest of the album, I'd be pretty comfortable dismissing it. Though I'd phrase that as "this artist sucks" rather than "this album sucks".

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

When I am in the unlikely situation of reviewing an album, I try to listen to it about enough to have at least a vague grasp of what it sounds like most of the way through. It is wholly dependent on whether I give a sh1t about the album in question as to how vague this grasp is.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

To have heard an album, you have to play it right through, without necessarily giving each track your full attention. But it is quite acceptable to dismiss the band on less than a whole album listen, so long as you do not mislead when so doing.

[richaod.livejournal.com]

Having heard it is one thing... comprehending it is another.

I am basically an album person though - in a way I consider listening to a work in full more important than whatever usually minor gripes I have (especially important to hear the songs in context - no skipping!).

There are very few occasions I've been put in enough physical pain to actually stop an album halfway through a first listen - Emilie Autumn and Stadium Arcadium come to mind. Otherwise, if I'm just apathetic I figure I might as well get a full impression of the album and THEN delete it.

[richaod.livejournal.com]

Fair enough - but I wouldn't want to pretend I have any sort of authoritative opinion in that case.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I can't name any good album where at least one of the first three songs isn't good.

But that's "judging" an album not "hearing" it. And it might be a crap album with a couple of good tracks later on, so probably worth playing the thing to check.

[petronia.livejournal.com]

Pretty much this, except my reaction is more like "Aaahahahahah did he just say 'tipi' EPIC FAIL."

[petronia.livejournal.com]

If one tried but couldn't get through the entire album the appropriate answer to that question is "I tried but couldn't get through the entire album." Which of course is its own conclusion. XD