[sephka]

Lately I have been experiencing a music overload, so to speak. The problem is this: With a growing CD collection (and some mp3s, I’ll admit,) I have so many albums to listen to. The fact is, the music starts to lose its character among my shuffled playlists and all the constant playing it gets. It's similar to what happens when I play the same artist too much: I don't want to hear them for a while. However, this is happening with most of my music. I've thought of a possible solution: "ration" my listening, perhaps have more sit-down listening time than background-playlists, listen less, and so on. Share your experiences, if you can relate, and any "solutions."

 

[razerx]

Whenever I get bored with my music I try something different. Lately I have been buying CD's of the stuff I listened to from high school like Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult (remember the Black and Blue tour!?!). Agents of Fortune sounds a lot better right now then it did on my Kmart 8-track. Next will be Ted Nugent Double Live Gonzo.

 

[blessingx]

Quote:

Originally posted by sephka Lately I have been experiencing a music overload, so to speak. The problem is this: With a growing CD collection (and some mp3s, I’ll admit,) I have so many albums to listen to. The fact is, the music starts to lose its character among my shuffled playlists and all the constant playing it gets. It's similar to what happens when I play the same artist too much: I don't want to hear them for a while. However, this is happening with most of my music. I've thought of a possible solution: "ration" my listening, perhaps have more sit-down listening time than background-playlists, listen less, and so on. Share your experiences, if you can relate, and any "solutions."

I feel this way exactly. Either because my mental capabilities are limited or I can't simulteously be into (and carefully listen to) more than say a dozen albums at a time. I actually question how people can really listen to 40 gigs of music (tree/forest thing), but that's a different story. Try refocusing on a specific type or band and move back out from there. I was bored and a recent thread here about My Bloody Valentive had me spiral around the album Loveless, then on to Yo La Tengo (which I finally after years got), then Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso, etc.

 

[sephka]

Yeah, i'm still enjoying some bands considerably. Right now i'm liking David Bowie, especially the newer stuff (Black Tie White Noise and on.) Some of this tends to be on the electronic/industrial side, so I may slowly get back into that kind of music and see how it goes.

 

[Braver]

I am constantly looking for new music and spens a lot of time listen to it. but sometimes, sometimes I really have to slow down a bit, listen a bit more intently and really try to form a solid opinion on things, categorize it somewhat, before moving on again. it's not so much overload, but all the new stuff gets confusing, I need to 'put it somewhere' for it not to be just another piece of sound.

playlists and shuffle are evil IMO. you can't get into the music with that, it just besomes wallpaper.

 

[grrr223]

Quote:

Originally posted by sephka Lately I have been experiencing a music overload, so to speak.

I couldn't agree with you more. I have recently found myself skipping over 5 star tracks by my absolute favorite bands like the Who, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, or Weezer. My problem at the moment is that I have sooo much music, 700 or 800 CDs, and probably 8,000 mp3s in addition to that, but such a small fraction of it is in rotation. It's slow going ripping cds on a 450 mhz G3. I have started making heavy use of my "Unheard in the last 45 days" and "Unheard in the last 15 days, 5 star" playlists to keep me from getting tired of stuff I love.

I have also found a kick-@$$ website. Rocklist.net I will admit, I'm not much of an indie music fan, but I do know that there is a LOT of great music that I don't get a chance to experience every day, and even the mainstream best of lists such as Rolling Stone's Readers' Top 100 Albums or VH1's 100 Greatest Albums of Rock & Roll have a ton of gems in them that I never would have found such as Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, The Clash's London Calling, or even Michael Jackson's Thriller. With recommendations from these lists and my parents (I am so thankful my parents have instilled in me good taste in music.) I have kinda gone crazy buying CDs off Amazon, Half.com, and I just joined BMG. I'd recommend all of these sites to everyone.

I also try to restrict my shuffle listening to album shuffle only which essentially becomes randomly selecting a CD and playing it from beginning to end, you get a much greater appreciation of new music that way, and it keeps you from going insane hearing Rap, then Jazz, then Rock, etc. one right after another.

So, basically, I'm combatting my music overload with...more music

, if that makes sense. By taking the time to listen to entire albums and enjoy new music instead of just shuffling through my 5 star favorites until I never want to hear my favorite songs again. There, that even makes some sense

.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I suspect your problem is that you keep listening after you get tired. The solution is to simply stop listening to that for which you are not in the mood. The problem with this is, you have to keep a larger fraction of your collection with you when you're wherever you are.

 

[Newbiez]

Well, my problems come with the need to be different every bloody week. I started out from rock, goes into hip-hop/R&B, turns to dance, U-turn back to jazz and now I'm back at rock and oldies doo-woop style. I've immeresly enjoyed all of the songs I've listened too, but never did find that one special genre that I will be an expert in.

 

[dabblerblue]

Listening to a whole lot of different music on random shuffle gets to me, because I feel it usually dilutes the effect and defeats the impact of a good concept or album.

I've taken to listening to albums from start to finish, and I feel i enjoy music a lot more that way.

When I sometimes feel like I'm a little tired of my current sound, I seek out something new.

Like right now, I'm discovering The Beatles (which is weird as hell for me!), and loving everything about them (which I wasn't expecting at all).

But definitely...as other people here have also expressed, I feel that listening to whole albums, rather than a random jumble of individual songs, is very important to my enjoyment of music.

The same may be true for you.

 

[FalconP]

I often wonder whether I've got too many CDs already -- there are big piles of stuff that I bought 3 years ago but still remain shrink-wrapped. I'm sure my collection will last me a long long time, if not for life -- unfortunately I'm a sucker for bargains

.

Back to the question about music starting "to lose its character", my way out of it is to have "themed" listening sessions -- tonight it is solely Scottish folk; tomorrow, Mozart and Schubert; the night after, electronics; and so on. This way I'll be more "tuned in" to hear the differences between the style of each musician, and that makes the music more interesting.

I completely agree that a "random" or "shuffled" playlist is not the best way to listen -- a good album should have a sense of flow or movement, and that should be appreciated. As a rule I listen to at least one-third of a CD before moving on to the next.

There are times when nothing I put in the CD player sounds right. When this happen I go back to my "home-base" collection of recordings -- music that I've enjoyed all my life, that can be counted on to give me the kicks: the Chieftains, the early and mid period Kitaro, Loreena McKennitt etc. This usually gets things going.

But in case I feel really jaded and absolutely don't feel like listening to anything, I go to sleep.

 

[grrr223]

I hear you Falcon, I think I honestly enjoy buying or "acquiring" music as much as I like listening to it. My acquisition rate tends to be a slight bit faster than my listening rate, which always provides for new opportunities. And by the way, the Chieftans rock, By themselves, they can solve all our music overload problems, who could ever get tired of them?

So basically, the general sentiment here seems to be that shuffle is bad is the root of all of our music overload problems!

Well, now that we've got that settled, what do we want to talk about? I am going to stick with album shuffle, if your player has it, to be a great way to avoid music overload. It's essentially just randomly changing CDs. I think an entire album is enough to appreciate what you're listening to and then move on to something else. This way you get to listen to all your music and appreciate it too.

I think my solution to music overload is actually just to select my ALL SONGS playlist and put it on album shuffle, and if I get bored by that, then go to the 5 STAR or 4 & 5 STAR playlists, but keep it on album shuffle. That way I get at least 2,3,4 or even more songs by the same artist in a row.

Happy listening everyone