Do you listen to more or less music now than you did 15 years ago?

[Ron Obvious]

It occurred to me the other day that we have access to an incredible amount of music in these days of broadband internet and other technological advances, and it's right at our fingertips in a way it's never been before.

I've got our entire CD collection ripped to the hard drive of a server that's accessible throughout the house (or for that matter, the world), so I don't even have to go through the bother of putting a CD in a player. If there's music I would want to listen to but don't yet have, I can probably acquire it within seconds without leaving the house.

And yet I don't listen to music all that often these days. Far less than, say, 15 years ago when I played CDs or 30, 40 years ago when I depended on my records and tapes.

I thought that was rather curious, and it even made me a little sad. I was always so excited to buy and listen to a new LP or CD in the past, and I wonder if I've grown blasé about music because it's so easy to acquire now. Possibly it's because the internet has given us so many competing ways to spend our time and money, or possibly it's because I don't get exposed to a lot of new (to me) music these days since I already have this vast collection.

I wondered if this was a larger trend in society or if it's more likely personal to me. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts.

16 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	I listen to a lot more music than in the past
	8 (50%)
	I think I probably listen to more music than before
	0 (0%)
	I'm pretty sure it's about the same
	3 (19%)
	Probably less now
	0 (0%)
	I listen to a lot less music now than before
	5 (31%)
	I don't listen to music at all anymore
	0 (0%)
	Other (please elaborate)
	0 (0%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[valerief]

1. I was still old 15 years ago. nt

[Adsos Letter]

2. Less

I listened to tons of rock when I was a teen/young adult. Then I started listening to less music and more talk radio (KGO). As I got older it became mostly Talk radio.

Nowadays I don't listen to much music, or talk radio. Watch practically no tv, for that matter.
Read the news on DU, and spend lots of time working on the house or in the yards.

[Lochloosa]

3. Saw Gov't Mule last night. Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi sat in.

Susan sang The Sky is Crying and Warren and Derek did Dreams.

Not a bad night at all.

Oh yeah. Kofi Burbridge was there with them.

Not bad for an old fart.

[Enthusiast]

28. That had to be good.

[Lochloosa]

29. Real good. We thought would pop in. They only live 15 miles from jacksonville.

And they weren't touring.

[Initech]

4. Pretty much all I listen to is music.

Aside from the few random podcasts I listen to, but it's pretty much music all the time.. The last two years have seen some great albums, and here's a few of my favorites.

2013:

- Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
- Arctic Monkeys - AM
- Cage The Elephant - Melophobia
- Fitz And The Tantrums - More Than Just A Dream
- Bastille - Bad Blood
- Dream Theater - Dream Theater
- Dropkick Murphys - Signed & Sealed In Blood
- The Neighbourhood - I Love You
- Queens Of The Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
- The Roots Feat. Elvis Costello - Wise Up Ghost
- Nick Cave - Push The Sky Away

2014:

- Elbow- The Take Off And Landing Of Everything
- Wolfmother - New Crown
- The Black Keys - Turn Blue
- Death From Above 1979 - The Physical World
- Kongos - Lunatic
- Julian Casablancas + The Voidz - Tyranny
- Slash Feat. Miles Kennedy & The Conspirators - World On Fire
- Robert Plant - Lullaby & The Ceaseless Roar
- Interpol - El Pintor
- Weird Al Yankovic - Mandatory Fun
- Flying Colors - Second Nature
- Opeth - Pale Communion

[mackerel]

23. that is a pretty good playlist

[Generic Brad]

5. I have more time now

I can carve out at least an hour a day. When my daughter was young I was lucky if I could listen to an hour a month.

[DebJ]

9. When my chldren got to the age where they listened to music, that's when I pretty much stopped.

And they are in their early 30s now.

Only time I really listen is on long drives in the car, or like today, when I have a full day of heavy physical
chores (spring cleaning) to do around the house, I blast it for maybe a few hours; it keeps me moving.

I used to do homework as a teenager while listening to music.

Now, I prefer the quiet. Or maybe the brain just can't multi task anymore.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

6. I listen to a lot less music now,

but its because (..and maybe I'm weird...) I really to like to focus on what I'm doing, more-so as I get older; so that when I do listen to music I really savor it. But when for instance, I'm driving all day, I like to listen to the gears shifting, and every squeak and rattle of the vehicle, or if I'm walking down a busy street, I like to be tuned into every peripheral sound and sight. Music has become sort of like serious drinking; I won't listen unless I'm going all the way.

[Mr.Bill]

8. That's pretty much

the way I feel, too.

I also kind of feel that it's increased availability makes it not as special as it was when I was younger and had to save up to buy an album.

[Ron Obvious]

16. I appreciate the distinction

I know what you mean, but I also have always found some kinds of music really enhance my ability to concentrate on the task at hand. Before retirement, I was a computer programmer and found that listening to (pre-1980) electronica, and certain types of classical music worked extremely well to get me in the right frame of mind. Bach, Vivaldi, indeed most Baroque is also perfect, but "nothing with words", as I used to say.

That's also a likely reason why I listen to less music now: retirement. I do listen to more opera than I used to, though, which, again, fits with that theory.

[LawDeeDah]

7. A lot less, I have lost connection to people who showed me.

My daughters tastes aren't mine (altho she really likes my 90s obsessions). It's kinda needle in a haystack thing. I know there is stuff out there, new, that I would love, but how to find?

[Arugula Latte]

22. A few suggestions --

Find a radio station that plays music you love (it can be located anywhere in the world and you can stream it). Pay attention to the new songs you like.

You can enter the name of a band you like into online gizmos like "Last.fm" and it will give you a listing of similar bands. I've found many more obscure groups that I love through this method. You can enter the name of, say, a 90s artist you like and find out who was influenced by her/him.

Use pandora.com or last.fm or grooveshark.com to create your own "station" that will play music based on what you enter, like a particular group or song or genre.

If you know you like one or two songs by someone, enter their name into iTunes and listen to their five or six most popular songs. It's likely you'll find another song you like.

[LawDeeDah]

27. That's very good advice, thanks. I will copy/paste.

[astral]

31. I do that with slacker radio

And while I had some dry spells over the years where I didn't pay much attention to music, now the digital ting has made it a whole new world, of hearing lots of stuff you didn't know about, or different versions, by different artists, and like said above, exploring artists who people who like your artist also listen to. With slacker you can do the paid version and have no commercials, unlimited skipping of songs you don't like when streaming, the ability to create your own song lists, and offline sets of albums, song lists or even radio stations which contain a decent number of songs you may not have even heard til you are playing it offline. When you mark songs as favorites, it can also keep a list of all the artists you marked favorite songs for, and the songs.

I loved pandora but it started dropping the connection and became totally unreliable, slacker is better anyway. And I still have a thing for sirius radio.

But there are fun apps that hold radio music you can use to stream music on without a subscription (slacker has a free version too)

You tube is a great place to do this same kind of artist discovery, some of these can be downloaded too, but lots can't.

I just discovered a new favorite artist Warren Haynes thru slacker and you tube.

So music is all new and fresh and maybe no longer a permanent collection, but a flow that moves and changes.

Another treasure I found this way is Stevie Nicks' demo version of The Chain. Just her and her guitar and it is hauntingly beautiful and different. She and many others could go far doing unplugged acoustic stuff. Songs people can sing to.
Here it is

And her demo Dreams

Good topic!

[Arugula Latte]

33. Yes -- good ideas.

I meant to mention youtube as well. I've looked up videos of songs I love and then seen the lesser-known suggestions on the side of the page and that has led me to some good discoveries as well.

(BTW, a friend of mine just saw Fleetwood Mac play the other day -- they're touring with the Rumours-era line-up.)

[IrishEyes]

10. I listen to more music and a better variety

[BeyondGeography]

11. Much more

There is more truth in music than in anything else. There is no more enjoyable way for me to understand life, past and present, and the best of it is more than occasionally beautiful and moving. Several nights a week I do nothing but listen. Love putting together playlists, too. It takes you places; amazing how many great songs there were about trains, e.g., and how long that lasted, and how it all ended in the early 60s when cars took over. There was a certain reverence and awe of the machines themselves but also what they meant for people, including hobos (tons of great songs about hobos...).

[Ron Obvious]

17. I agree with that sentiment

It's similar to how I feel when I go for a hike into nature: "why don't I do this more often?" I always enjoy it when I take the time to select and listen to music, certainly my enjoyment is no less than before. It's just that I don't often make the time for it.

I've realised for the past several years that I would be a whole lot happier if I turned off the computer and went back to reading and listening to good music more often. It takes some discipline, apparently.

Agreed about trains, too.

[Jamaal510]

12. I listen to more music overall, but

far less of what is mainstream. Almost all I have on my iPod are either old school/underground rap and R&B songs, or music from other genres (e.g. metal, reggae, jazz, etc.). The quality of today's mainstream music has pushed me to become more open to other types of music than when I was a kid.

[kentauros]

13. About the same.

I'm not involved in the local Pacifica station any more, so I'm quite thankful for the likes of Soma FM and di.fm. Plus, my favorite musician (Bill Nelson) is quite digital these days, so while some of his backlog has to be ordered from British suppliers, he's been making more and more of his albums available as FLAC downloads

And now I've discovered noise!

[QED]

14. My commute is now much shorter so less time for singing along

[hobbit709]

15. About the same but I catch a lot less live music.

[OriginalGeek]

18. I'm sure it's more but I don't think it's a lot more.

Like you, I have a music server - over 30,000 songs, but it's at work and includes mine and several other co-workers' music collections. I load everything up in Winamp and hit randomize and listen all day. But it isn't quality listening as I'm working, talking to co-workers, on the phone, etc....but I do periodically get in a mood for something specific and just make a quickie playlist and insert it into the master list.

the nice thing is most of it is also on my google play account so when I'm in my wife's car I can use bluetooth to stream it through my phone. That's better quality listening.


A while back I decided I miss the excitement of getting a new record so I've started buying music on vinyl only. I'm slowly replacing CDs with vinyl and any new music I get is vinyl only. Most of the music I like is being released on vinyl and almost always includes a digital download so I can add it too my server with ease. I do not yet have a working record player - well I have the player, I just don't have a good receiver to hook it up to but I'm working on that too. Meanwhile, I get to open records and see all the cool stuff but still get to listen. I want to get a good A/V receiver to hook up computer, TV, record player, game devices and everything in one so it's easy to listen, play or watch at will.

[taterguy]

19. Less because today's music sucks

Now get off lawn you whippersnappers.

[Ron Obvious]

21. Well, that goes without saying n/t

[Arugula Latte]

20. A LOT more now. By a huge factor. Why? = iPod

I love being able to control thousands of songs. It has changed my life. I have music going all the time now. I'm discovering old stuff I missed and finding new stuff I love. I'm pushing 50 but I'm more into music than I was when I was 25.

[Ron Obvious]

24. That's exactly how I thought things were going to be....

That's how I thought it was going to be for me as well. I had a Diamond Rio in the day (it was a corporate gift), the first portable mp3 player, and while it was clearly a very limited player, it seemed obvious to me we were going to experience a revolution in music in the near future.

For me, at least, the opposite seems to have happened. I LOVE my mp3 player (smartphone), but I use it exclusively to listen to podcasts while I walk/cycle/fly/drive, not music.

I really love it when I make time to listen to music, preferably room-filling sound, but it may be my lessening attention-span or advancing age or something.

As I mentioned earlier, I need to change how I live, I think.

[Arugula Latte]

25. I listen to it when I go for walks and when work out, but also when I do mundane stuff

like clean the kitchen or take a shower.

[cantbeserious]

26. It Seems All So Pointless In The Corporate Controlled World We Now Live In

eom

[Arugula Latte]

34. I felt like that more in the past.

When I was a kid, I was pretty much stuck listening to a couple of radio stations that played the same corporate-pushed stuff over and over and over again. It was maddening. Now an entire endless world of music has been opened up thanks to digital music and the Internet.

[cantbeserious]

35. Yes - More Access - More Variety - Does It Do Any Good - Apathy Abounds In The Masses

eom

[Iggo]

30. More.

I didn't have an iPod back then.

[JonLP24]

32. Much less

2001-2005 was the peak of my music listening days.

[progressoid]

36. CD player in my car is broken so...less.

I easily get tired of most of the crap on the radio.

[bigwillq]

37. About the same.

Which translates to: pretty much all the time. I wear head phones at work and listen on my phone, always listen in the car, and normally have the Music Choice Stations on the TV while I am home.

[MicaelS]

38. Much more...

With Pandora, and my phone being to carry 60GB of music with me anywhere I go, I always have music to listen to. I am still buying CD,s and discovering music I never heard about before.

Just recently discovered Sirenia and Within Temptation.

[RobinA]

39. Much Less

I'm a '70's person, high school and college. Had a nice stereo and a lot of records. I listened music to constantly.

Now- rock is dead so I switched to folk and classic. I don't like classic rock all that much unless I'm on a nostalgia trip. I just don't like walking around feeling like I'm back in 1976. It was fun then and fun to visit now and then, but I don't live there anymore.

I don't like downloading, I don't like listening to music in my ears, I hate being attached by a cord to a device. I liked buying albums, I don't like this buying random songs at all. I was always a lover of B sides, and now there are no B sides. There's just nothing special about downloading a bunch of music and then listening to it on headphones. An album was more than the sum of its parts. All gone, that. My music now is classical from satellite radio or a CD. Through speakers, damn it.

[davidpdx]

40. I listed to a lot less music than in the past, in fact almost none

I used to have lots of CD's before I moved overseas and most of it ended up going to Goodwill. I have music on my computer and could probably play it in my car if I wanted to. Unfortunately the traffic is so bad in the morning I have to put 100% of my focus on the road for the hour and ten minute commute.

[kwassa]

41. I've always listened to a lot of music. I listen to a lot less rock, though.

Rock is going in endless circles, and has been for decades.

The world is full of good music.