How has technology changed your listening habits?

**bassybill** · #1 07-06-2010, 12:55 AM

Back in the days when my entire collection was on vinyl or tape, I generally used to put on an album and listen to all of it. Now, in these days of having all my stuff on HDD, I find myself flipping from track to track a lot more (this was quite tricky on tapes!). Or, I pick stuff pretty randomly and drag it into a playlist for that particular listening session. This is all well and good, of course.

But when I do listen to a whole album nowadays, it sort of reminds me of what I'm missing. Sort of more time listening and less time just browsing. And if it's a good album, it coheres very well into something a bit special.

If you're too young to remember vinyl or tape, just ignore this thread.

Yakob · #2 07-06-2010, 01:05 AM

I should be too young to remember vinyl or tape, but thanks to having less-than-indulgent parents, I ended up listening to most of my music on CD or tape until a couple of years ago.

I'd say that, if anything, technology has expanded my musical tastes. There's a whole lot less in the way of "scouring" pawn shops and Goodwills to find music I know I'll like, leaving me more time to experiment and listen to new things!

XigXag · #3 07-06-2010, 01:12 AM

When I'm at home, and I want to sit and listen to music, I play the whole thing. Just like the old days.
I should add: I dont have my library on a HDD, I still prefer discs for various reasons. Sitting and listening to music usually means I'm sitting in front of a canvas, and I dont want to keep getting up and changing discs. So maybe that doesnt count as much.

I do enjoy the ability to set up a play list for a party or something, and just letting the thing roll. Nice.

Nic. · #4 07-06-2010, 01:17 AM

I tend to listen to one album on loop on my iPod when I'm travelling around for several weeks before going to listen to something else. Probably a habit from young, since my parent's car would have the same CD looping for weeks before being changed. Although recently my playlist has always been made of songs my band is covering so that I can get used to the song more.

**jmattbassplaya** · #5 07-06-2010, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yakob

I should be too young to remember vinyl or tape, but thanks to having less-than-indulgent parents, I ended up listening to most of my music on CD or tape until a couple of years ago.

I'd say that, if anything, technology has expanded my musical tastes. There's a whole lot less in the way of "scouring" pawn shops and Goodwills to find music I know I'll like, leaving me more time to experiment and listen to new things!

Same here.

I do find myself jumping around quite a lot on my iPod, but I still take the time to burn my own mixed cds for the car and I`ll typically listen to those front to back.

**Rune Bivrin** · #6 07-06-2010, 01:31 AM

Back in the day I'd put on an album and then meticulously examine the sleeve while listening. Half way through I'd get up to flip the record.

Ultimately that meant listening was a more active occupation, and certainly more tied to the album as a cohesive (or not) unit.

These days I often try to find more or less artificial means of selecting songs in new combinations. Like "all the songs with 'tree' in the title". Or "songs from 1993".

There's also a lot more looking for new music. Back then it was mainly a question of what reviews were in the paper and what was on the radio. Today the search is much more associative and random. Much goodness has been discovered this way.

Another issue today is the obsession with filling CD-s to the last byte, rendering the albums over an hour long. Few artists are honestly capable of holding my attention for that long, so the last few songs on a lot of discs often leave me feeling that they are lack lustre fillers when in truth it's just my mind that has wandered. I wish more artists would stop at the 40 minute mark, and maybe put out records more often instead. A bit like The Beatles, just to give a random example.

Lastly, today I listen almost exclusively through headphones. Mainly because so much of my listening is while I work, and that's just not a "loudspeaker" situation.

tycobb73 · #7 07-06-2010, 06:48 AM

put the ipod on random and go. Its the best thing ever. If I was listening to the cd I would have certainly skipped some osngs.

ridgeback · #8 07-06-2010, 06:53 AM

vinyl all the way...it just sounds way better imo...there is much more feel to the music..all the old funk /rock on vinyl sounds so real when you up the volume,ya can almost smell the fag smoke!!

Phalex · #9 07-06-2010, 06:55 AM

I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to all the new fangled electronical stuff. I have finally embraced the compact disc as my medium of choice, but they appear to be on the way out now......... The wax cylinder is going to make a huge comeback. You just wait and see!

pedroims · #10 07-06-2010, 07:02 AM

what HDD is? I still playing cds

i hate username · #11 07-06-2010, 07:13 AM

dont remember vinyl but i was there for tape and cd. Id say technology has definitely broadened my musical tastes, now that i can get pretty much what i want when i want it, regardless of whether or not it would actually be sold in a music store in my country(yes i am one of them but lets not start an argument on that, it'll completely hijack the thread)

That said i dont get into an album as much as i used to. Probably because i used to think that if id just spent €18 on an album im bloody well going to like it whether its s**t or not. these days i tend to put a load of new stuff and some old favorites on my ipod and put it on shuffle, something will always stick out and that will more than likely get more of a listen. The system seems to be working so far.....only recently discovered a Wilhelm scream doing that

Bruce Lindfield · #12 07-06-2010, 07:17 AM

I do have an iPod now, which I use on the train - but it has not really changed my listening habits - I always listen to whole albums - even if I have downloaded them and have never owned the CD.

Occasionally - if I am on the train and there is only a short time until getting off - then i might pick a favourite track; but for 99% of the time - the technology has not affected the way I listen. What it does mean, is that I have access to hundreds of albums wherever I am and not the few CDs I had picked up that morning when I set off. This is more convenient - but in practice I never listen to more than a few albums in a day anyway.

It has just made me lazier or more passive really - so rather than consciously picking out CDs to take with me - I can leave that part out. Also it possibly means my listening is more "conservative"...?

So - now I have put a few hundred of my favourite CDs on the iPod - and can't fit or be bothered to convert all my thousands of CDs - so now I tend to listen to "train-friendly" CDs and rarely get to my Mahler Symphonies - but they do become more "precious" when I get to them.

megadan · #13 07-06-2010, 07:18 AM

I always liked tapes and hated CDs when I was a kid, because other kids would skip tracks on the CDs. I wanted to listen to the whole album. That's why I liked tapes.

Now, of course, I shuffle a lot thanks to mp3s, but I still make a conscious effort to listen to full albums, because there are some pretty amazing ones out there.

Darkstrike · #14 07-06-2010, 07:19 AM

Not changed how I listen, really, but most definatly what I listen to.

Rather than buying whatever was in the charts/mags, in the style of music I liked, now there's just so much out there, of all kinds of styles, and with the fact that everything has free previews and tracks, you can listen before you buy.

Not to mention all the musicians and bands that make albums, and just give them out for free downloads to whoever's interested, I just got about 10 hours of seriously incredible music Sunday.

phatbass · #15 07-06-2010, 07:41 AM

Although I usually listen on an mp3 player, I still tend to listen to whole albums rather than mixing it up.

TJ55 · #16 07-06-2010, 07:49 AM

I rarely listen to studio music. It's live recordings almost all the time and because shows are so easy to come by now, I rarely listen to the show more than two or three times. Usual pattern is download, burn, listen and then give away and move on. If the show is exceptional, then I will remember it and come back to it sometime down the road.

Richland123 · #17 07-06-2010, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phalex

I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to all the new fangled electronical stuff. I have finally embraced the compact disc as my medium of choice, but they appear to be on the way out now......... The wax cylinder is going to make a huge comeback. You just wait and see!

I actually have some of the historic Edison cylinder records.

I still own a massive vinyl collection and occasionally throw on an album when I am sitting at the computer. Many of the records in my vinyl collection will never see CD or other digital formats. I also still like to look at the album jackets.

However, I do have many CDs and songs in my computer files and create my own various song CDs but I used to do that with cassettes years ago too.

New formats do have many advantages and are more portable than playing vinyl but there is nothing like listening to an album in its entirety on a turntable.

champbassist · #18 07-07-2010, 05:57 AM

I'm way too young to talk about vinyl and stuff: I just put my library on "random" and press play.

But I'm massively obsessed with vinyl mainly because the medium is intriguing and beautiful in a vintage way and also because of my grandfather's rather romantic descriptions of idle afternoons spent listening to classics on the Gramophone.

Tape and records were cumbersome, but more interactive media of listening to music, as Rune Bivrin notes.

Thunderscreech · #19 07-07-2010, 06:08 AM

my music collection would be a lot smaller, and probably more limited (but maybe not). Now it is HUGE and not limited but primarily still flavors of sludge and doom, with a bunch of random other things tossed in for effect and surprises when I set the whole thing on shuffle. It still kinda trips me out when, after an Iron Monkey song, I get to hear like Bob Dylan or something.

TJ55 · #20 07-07-2010, 06:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by champbassist

Tape and records were cumbersome, but more interactive media of listening to music, as Rune Bivrin notes.

I cannot bring myself to get rid of my "bootleg" tape collection. Before the days of shows being uploaded/downloaded from the web, live music was hard to come by and labor intensive to copy. The days of ordering blank Maxells by the pack of 50 and sending out "B & P" packages to strangers are long gone, but fondly remembered.