A kung fu fighter in a disco

OK am I the only person in the world who, when faced with an open Spotify application, never has any idea what to listen to?

Back catalogues being theoretically ultra-available on the universal jukebox of the internet is great and all but it doesn't mean I'm actively going to seek out any music from the vast unfamiliar tundra of the 1970s.

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Does it not have radio yet? And yes, it is well odd staring at it thinking 'I COULD LISTEN TO ANYTHING, LITERALLY ANYTHING; BUT WHAT?!' (future ideas for things: the internet as terrible gaping maw of epistemological panic)

I once used it to listen to the Trina back catalogue. I dunno, I may be coming at this from a sideways angle because a lot of my formative music friends were metallers and for some reason completism is VERY IMPORTANT to Iron Maiden fans, so I sort of assume The Kidz are doing that? Only with Mp3s not, like, tapes or whatever.

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It might have a radio? these radios tend to be based on those genre defs that aren't v useful for navigating actual personal taste, it's all "oh you listen to [shonky indie band] so you'll like [shonky indie band]" but it turns out that despite both being shonky and indie I only like one of them. The mysteries of palate!

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freakytigger.livejournal.com

I do what I used to do on slsk in the same situation - shove in any old word and see what you get.

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I rarely use Spotify at all (bloody adverts do my head in) but checking out the back catalogues of artists I've been meaning to get into strikes me as the most likely thing that I'd do - esp those where I don't trust any sort of critical consensus (Whitney, Mariah).

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koganbot

Yeah, don't trust the crits, but trust this (1992):

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I love 'Can't Let Go'. W/Mariah I'm in the weird position of knowing pretty much all her singles, except the ones no one remembers, but no albums pre-Mimi. (I've now acquired all of them though! And will no doubt make my way through soon.)

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koganbot

This isn't the single version, though. It's better than the single version!

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It's pretty amazing. How the hell did she EVER get a negative critical rep.

Re: there was a dog! he had two bones!

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koganbot - Date: 2009-08-14 10:05 am (UTC) - Expand

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Yeah about the only thing I consistently use it for is r'n'b and hiphop back catalogues.

Surely, surely the kidz are mp3-completists! We used to copy and pass round infinite c90s copied off shonky camden town bootleg cds of bands' b-sides or sometimes even live sets: I refuse to believe this practice does not continue. Just now it costs even less.

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The reason I need to go and listen to whole albums by artists I want to get into isn't necessarily that I'm a completist, it's that I don't trust anyone to do the filtering for me! I need to listen to it all to figure out what I want to discard/keep.

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I think they are- there are a lot of B-Sides etc. on the various upload comms I ~~get my young persons's emo from~~ monitor for research purposes. I mean, if they're not then they're clearly failing. I think when I stopped caring if I knew a band's back catalogue in order to like them (or rather, not ALL of it, obviously having heard their music would be a bonus...) was probably a significant moment in feeling vaguely self-assured about my tastes.

Tapes were GREBT. They will be the sticking point re: "back in my day" shurely; "you had to listen to it whilst you recorded it and it took NINETY MINUTES and WE WERE GRATEFUL."

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tape-to-date dubbing at dubspeed = 45 minutes!

ah, making compilation tapes, finding tracks that were thirty seconds long to go on the end, isn't it, wasn't it.

I think for me it was when I stopped caring if I liked a band's back catalogue? There's a very definite point in my life where I suddenly realised that I could say not "everything released after this date is a bit lame" but "everything before this date is a bit lame", ie fvck the early funny stuff. But yeah feeling strong enough w/ your tastes that you can say "oh yeah i like them" without needing to have heard everything else in case someone comes along and catches you out is a really good moment.

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dubdobdee.livejournal.com

alll music sounds grebt at dubspeed

i remember once listnin to weber's clarinet concerto on LP w.my mum, and she was all "at school i performed this! i must have been tremendously talented!" and then we looked and it was on at 45

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Only downside to dubspeed: I was extremely confused when I first encountered the genre of music known as "dub".

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The entire culture of leaked demos! You can be a completist about songs which DON'T EVEN EXIST now. Some of the r&b and hip-hop leak blogs have terrifying quantities of stuff posted on them.

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'OK am I the only person in the world who, when faced with an open Spotify application, never has any idea what to listen to? '

no i get this a lot too. i wish they'd expand their portal page more, listing more new releases and playlists.

i made a list of 09 albums to listen to thru it tho so have been working thru those. was supposed to be going thru pitchfork's top 100 albums of the 70s too but seem to have stalled there.

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atommickbrane.livejournal.com

I get this faced with whatever toot I've downloaded on the external hard drive! It's a bit easier on spotify because there isn't already a filter of "I have already chosen this" to worry about what my music choice *~means~*. But - neurotic.

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have downloaded a lot less stuff since spotify, this is GOOD

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Why would you ever go thru PITCHFORK's top 100 albums of the SEVENTIES?!

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HAHAHAHAHA you beat me to it.

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have you seen it?

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Why and how would I have seen it?

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if you wanted a list of recommended 70s music, where would you go for it?

pfork's lists for this era would likely be more diverse than any others out there bar individual elitist/more partizan lists

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