I thought this was absolutely on point. It’s a topic I’ve been spending a good amount of time thinking about lately too, especially in terms on how people consume music and also value music.
One thing I miss about the Top 40 radio of my youth is that it forced people to listen to things repeatedly, enough to form an educated opinion one way or the other. Today, I wonder if we give things the same due attention with our information-overloaded, sound-byte-packed, quick-to-blog culture. A friend of mine said it best: With so much at our disposal, it’s as if we’re more interested in hearing than listening, always eager to move on to the next thing.
Russ Breimeier
Would you say less is more then, when it comes to listening to music?
In a way, yes. It’s too “easy” to make mediocre music.
It’s a tough one though in that truly good albums have a far shorter shelf life now because the next big thing is coming out.
I’m all for less but more high quality. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done to discourage the prevalence of mediocre tunes now that anyone can record songs on their computer and immediately publish to Myspace.
Coming from the listener’s perspective, would you say it’d be better to limit oneself as far as how Much you listen to, in order to experience music more intense? I think it’s definitely a challenging thought, given that people (I include myself) always like to hear “new” stuff – almost like you read the newspaper everyday. In that evolution though, people tend to care less and less about the lyrics and often times it’s only about an emotional experience (especially in harder music like metal). But I guess the question goes kind of hand-in-hand with the general “speed” of every-day-life and the “system” one chooses to take part in – or not.