Well, this is my first posting here, and I recall reading not long ago that frequenters of this site (and probably, I imagine, those of other, similar sites) don't take too kindly to first-timers posting comments without first establishing "forum credibility" in other contexts, so for that aspect of this I sincerely apologize. But I can think of no better (or, indeed, other) way to establish my sincerity and good faith than by beginning somewhere, so here it is.

My question is: What are some of the general, idiosyncratic patterns of listening habits you exhibit when it comes to music? By this I mean to include questions concerning whether you find yourself listening to strings of instantly cherry-picked tracks or entire albums (or even strings of cherry-picked tracks in which you have invested much thought and deliberation--otherwise known as mixes); whether you listen to a single album over and over again for an extended period of time before moving on to another, or whether you keep a number of albums in full-length rotation at once; if the latter, about how many albums do you rotate at any given time, and how long on average does any given album stay in the rotation; how much time do you allow to pass between listening to albums; and are you ever dissatisfied with these habits and patterns, wondering perhaps if you are spending too much (or too little) time with a particular album, artist, or genre?

I ask this because I have noticed recently that, for the first time in my life (and to the unending disappointed head-shaking of my former musical self), I seem to be giving short shrift to my music, frequently listening to not more than a few minutes of selected tracks before seeking out some new two-minute thrill. Previously I would listen to music primarily in my car and, having only a tape deck that I found far too cumbersome to use to skip individual tracks, this resulted in a steady pace of single-ablum, extended-period listening. My more recent habits began at just the time I purchased an iPod and began to buy albums much more frequently via iTunes. I attribute much of the change to these facts--the ease of track switching made possible by the iPod's design, and the ability (and desire) to purchase many more albums than I can reasonably devote much time to made possible by iTunes. I am troubled because I feel for some reason that I *ought* to be devoting more time to entire albums. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Advice? Encouragement?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ethan James,

Who do you work for and what are you selling?

quote:

Originally posted by Filmore Holmes:
Who do you work for and what are you selling?

Hehe.

More often than not, I actually listen to albums rather than just picking out tracks from my MP3 library. My (admittedly very tiny) Audioscrobbler list consists mainly of whole albums' worth of songs perfectly ordered on my Winamp playlist.

I'm quite obsessive-compulsive about how I listen to music, really.

I was so overwhelmed by the volume of questions EJ posted that it took me moment to get that, Filmore. Nicely played.

Like you, EJ, I find myself listening to entire albums less and less, though I haven't gone so far in the direction of individual tracks as to only be listening to select segments before moving on. My own listening has certainly been affected by one of the online services, though in my case it's Rhapsody, which is a subscription service in addition to a download service. I have a component attached to my stereo that streams Rhapsody using my home WiFi network, so I tend to dump a lot of albums I am interested in hearing into a big playlist and hitting random play.

I've never owned a CD changer so the move to CDs in the 80s meant I went from listening to LPs start to finish to listening to CDs start to finish. The ability to grab individual tracks or shuffle multiple albums easily has caused a big change in my listening habits. I guess I'm listening to music using more of a radio model than ever before.

I've read a few columns (one in the NYT comes to mind, though I'm sorry to say I cannot find it right now) that argue that just shuffling a big list of songs robs them of their context. In the case of classical music, I think that's true. I don't like to listen to a movement of a larger work on its own. I would also agree that there are a handful of albums where track sequence is important and listening start to finish is the best way to experience them (as has been discussed in these forums elsewhere), but I do think that represents only a handful of albums.

In the end, I think I am listening to a wider variety of music and artists than at any point in my life since I worked in a record store. I also think, however, that I'm not listening as deeply as I once did. I don't think I am nearly as familiar with some of my favorite albums of the last couple of years as I would have been when it was just me and the turntable.

Now Playing: CNN's Daybreak

SHILL! SHILL! Someone works for Ipod!!!

All kidding aside, I appreciate your post EJ. It's nice to see someone making their first post interesting and not trying to sell something, advertise something, trolling for a fight, or pushing some agenda.

I try to listen to everything I purchase in full, as an album, at one time at least once. Then I try to re-listen to it in full, but usually by the second go-around, I'm skipping tracks that don't interest me.

I don't have a digital player, so I don't have the Ipod attention span. I do make mixes, but I make them for others, not myself. I will occasionally put several discs in the changer and let fly, but my general listening pattern is to put a single disc in the player and play from start to finish.

Welcome Ethan James. Good topic!

I still listen to albums the old fashion way--- straight through every time, usually focusing on my newest. I've played Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs and Super Furry Animals' Songbook Vol. 1 at least 30 times each in the month I've had them, and I plan on playing them at least that many more, without ever skipping tracks. I never skip unless I'm trying to play something for somebody I don't see that often. I have about 50 CDs in my computer room which I pick from right now, but I probably only play about 5-10 of those much right now, and I have to physically put the CD in each time I change them.

My car stereo is kaput and I don't have a huge inclination to get it fixed right now. I just play the music in my head; it sounds just as good, or maybe even better, in there. When I'm out in the family room, I still have 1200 vinyl, 400 tapes and 400 CDs to choose from. I guess I keep buying new music because of my addictive personality. After all, I've been obsessing on new music for 40 years now. I also don't have much technology and I'm on dial-up, so I realize that I miss out on a lot, but I LOVE what I have and it's a big part of me, so I don't feel too left out.

I'll try to add some more later, gators.

When I'm at work I'll often use the "Party Shuffle" feature on iTunes, only because I can rarely listen to an album without constant interruption. Otherwise, I never skip songs, since I personally don't subscribe to the belief that a weak song is just "filler." Every song on Calexico's Feast of Wire and Will Oldham's Viva Last Blues — which I listened to in their entirety on the way to work this morning — are there for a reason significant to the songwriters. (I'll grant the songs between singles on your typical pop star's album don't mean squat, and might be considered filler, but that's neither here nor there.)

Thanks for all your comments fellow forum-members; I found them quite stimulating. I think my problem might have something to do with two conceptions I hold of (1) what counts for me as favorite music, and (2) what counts for me as "great" music, and my coming to grips with the fact that the two sets don't overlap entirely.

To explain: I began my "musical education" by eliciting recommendations from all sorts of people on which were the really important, classic, (at least relatively) universally adored, 5-star, "great" albums I should listen to for a competent self-education in rock history. Naturally, I was confronted with an overwhelming number of such albums which turned out to be *both* immensely enjoyable to me and recognizable to me *as* classics--I began to develop an ear for really "great" records *distinct* from my previously developed "favorite" detecting ear. And I imagine that, upon now being "brought up to date" as it were, I've slowly begun to realize in a very concrete way that those "great" records came out against the background of a wide musical context and were, accordingly, few and far between. *Now* for the vasy majority of new records I listen to, my usual response is to hear a number of favorite tracks on it, but not hear the whole as great.

The problem with this is that I *expect* any album on which I find there are a few songs I like also to be a great album (in the sense mentioned above), on account of my "training" experience. I've developed the expectation that all of these new albums really *are* great and that I just need to listen to them more because I had to do this with a couple of my training albums in order to reap their dual-category fruits (it always worked with them though).

The result is that I subscribe (more or less subconsciously) to the view that all albums I like parts of at first will turn out also to be albums that I can feel comfortable calling 'great' as wholes, and become discomfited when they inevitably fail and fall into this ever-swelling middle category of "has some good tracks but isn't great as a coherent whole"; hence the simultaneous feeling that I *ought* to be listening "better" (i.e., listening to albums repetitively, and as whole units) and contrasting behavior of actually listening to scattered tracks (i.e., succombing to the power the "favorite" has over me against the "great").

It's a possibility at least, in addition, of course, to the technological one mentioned previously.

In any case, thanks for all your input thus far in stimulating me to this reflection. Just thought you might like to see that your efforts in responding weren't all for naught!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ethan James,

I'm still very old-fashioned in my listening preferences. I prefer to listen to albums from start to finish, which is how I feel the artist intended it to be heard. I tend not to be "single" driven so this works for most of my cd collection. If an album can't hold-up over it's entire length, then I probably won't end up listening to it very much.

I do have a digital music player, although it's been less than six months since I got it. I can see the potential of just jumping from track to track and there are definitely times when this is preferred. The concept of whipping together compilations in just minutes is highly appealing, but I've only taken the time to put a few together so far. Maybe my habits will begin to change, I don't know.

I also find myself constantly seeking a "new musical fix" to feed my addiction. This means the bulk of my listening is spent on whatever new albums I've recently acquired vs. pulling out all of my old favorites. The digital music player has enabled me to easily switch over to my older favorites though, so I have spent more time recently on listening to these.

Finally, due to my 35 minute commute each way, I'm finding myself only listening to the first 35 minutes of any particular album, which usually means that the last couple of tracks aren't getting much airplay. I will often skip over a few songs in the middle in order to ensure that the last couple of tracks get played, if they are some of the stronger songs on an album.

Interesting post Ethan!

I'm also an old-fashioned, listen-to-the-whole-album-at-once guy. If I can't listen to a whole album I usually don't listen to anything. The exception is when I'm listening to something new, which is usually at my computer. Then I'll listen to an album in bits and pieces as I become familiar with it.

I find listening to music while I'm on my computer or while I'm not doing anything to be less enjoyable that listening while I'm doing something else. Probably the most ideal listening situations for me are when I'm driving, doing chores around the house, or playing Nintendo (at least games that don't require too much intense concentration).

As far as mixes go, I don't think they're worth the time. The less time you put into a mix the more worthless it is. You can make a really good mix, but it takes so long to make it that it's pointless. I don't think I'll ever buy an MP3 player.

I listen with my ears.

I generally just press play and wait till either the album runs out or I don't feel like listening to it anymore (Which usually occurs 5-7 songs in if at all).

Sometimes I don't have any particular album I want to listen to at the moment, so I have a big list of my favorite 200-300 albums and pick one at random. This way I feel..well, A) It gives me the opportunity to be pleasantly surprised, and B) I don't forget how good a good album is, because I end up listening to all the good ones at least once or twice a year.

I listen to albums from start to finsish.

I often get excited about making a mix, and once complete, think it is the greatest thing ever, but that usually only lasts a week, and then never listen to it again (unless it is full of "hits", then I bring it out at parties).

I have just but an MP3 player, and am fully on board. There is nothing like have music on a run through the gardens or good long backcountry hike.....and unlike most who play exercise music - I think the slower, more atmospheric the better. Really lets you escape into another workd, and forget the pain of a good 10km slog.

-----------------------------------

Hmmm...

Generally with my ears.

quote:

Originally posted by SanchoPanza!!!:
Hmmm...

Generally with my ears.

Hmm...let me try it that way.

...Wow, that's much better!

I listen to albums all the way through, start to finish. However, with my iPod and iTunes, I occasionally like to create playlists for specific things: walking to class, writing essays, etc. Sometimes I set my iPod to Shuffle and let it do its thing, but more often than not that's when I can't think of anything specific to listen to.

I can't really call myself "old fashioned", though, because I'm part of the young iPod generation, and I've had access to CDs all my life, so one would think that I would have less patience when it comes to complete albums. I don't know if I'm an anomaly, or if there are a lot of younger people like me who prefer whole albums. Either way, I can't help but disagree when I see articles bemoaning the death of the album as we know it. If there are other people like me out there who prefer to buy CDs at record stores and dislike downloading, then 'the album' is safe.

But then again, maybe it's just me.

I've finally decided to stop lurking and start posting, so here goes...

I am definitely a album fetishist. I don't even like listening to EPs or compilations, let alone mixes. (Although I've made many in the past, I only ever listen to them twice at most). If there are one or two songs I dislike on an album (for example, Crazy Beat on Blur's Think Tank, I remove it when I put it on my iPod. That's as far as I'm willing to go. If an album falls into that 'middle ground' of having some really good tracks and some average tracks, I always end up dropping it out of rotation. There are just too many great albums out there that I struggle to get time to listen to.

I don't know why I am this way. I guess that when I started listening to music, there was less of the obsession with 'singles' and there weren't portable music players it was easy to shuffle and skip on. So I grew up listening to full albums, and it's something I've continued. I'm probably too old to change now, but at least it's something I'm comfortable with.

When I listen to albums, I listen to only one or two albums for a given time (a week, a couple weeks) and really take it all in. It doesn't necessarily matter if it's new or if I recently purchased it. Some CDs I've had laying around forever and finally listened to, will end up spinning in heavy rotation.

The absolute coolest part of listening to entire albums start to finish: if you are on a vacation, or something very significant is going on in your life, and you're listening to a particular album, every time you hear it you're going to think of the place you were. Having albums to relate to vacations or important periods is really a special thing.

If I have a low-key, mellow album that isn't sitting with me right when I'm feeling energetic, it works best to listen to it while I'm trying to go to sleep. Then everything else is silent, and you hear all sorts of things you may not have heard, had you played it during the day with other things going on.

quote:

Originally posted by Twin Forces!:
The absolute coolest part of listening to entire albums start to finish: if you are on a vacation, or something very significant is going on in your life, and you're listening to a particular album, every time you hear it you're going to think of the place you were. Having albums to relate to vacations or important periods is really a special thing.

I find this happening more and more in my life - a certain album will seem to pop itself into my CD player more often than others, and it works its way into my memory of what was happening at the time. For some reason this happens most often with romantic relationships, but fortunately no good albums have been stained by a bad breakup. Man, that would really suck.

I am and have been for years an album guy. Most of my friends are track guys or girls I find. When I was in highschool my dad bought me this awesome stereo. Tons of discs, and so the thing we'd do is pick a weird mix of albums and put it on random.

I haven't listened on random in literally years now. Funny how that changes. I'm the type of person who will look at the clock realize i have 50 minutes before I have to go somewhere and pick an album I know I can hear entirely. I hate leaving mid album.

This also is why albums I own that are unable to consistently succeed throughout the entire album tend to collect dust. I don't like skipping tracks so usually i'll just pick something that doesn't require me to do it.