How Do You Listen to Music?
I’m a curious person. One thing that always strikes me about a person is the music that they like.
I’ve been thinking lately about how I listen to new music. This isn’t a new consideration for me, but my context is always changing. For instance, ten years ago, I didn’t have a job where I could listen to music at my desk while I pondered some email from a customer or tried to make a good resource allocation suggestion to my boss; the change in context has shifted how I listen to new music.
One thing that is certainly a constant is that I really know that I’m trying to get into an album if I get it on CD and put in my truck’s stereo. I’m a person who takes a lot of road trips; as such, it makes sense for me to have music as I travel. In fact, having singable CDs is important for the long trips, because singing is one of the things that I do to stay awake. [A propensity for hyperactivity unfortunately leaves caffeine as an unpredictable stimulant for me---at times, caffeine intake will cause my body to get sleepier!]
I’ve noticed lately that I go through three steps of listening to a CD:
- The work background listen. Most new stuff gets this these days. It also happens at home, thanks to my Series2 TiVo’s ability to stream from network-aware hard drives. In fact, as I type this entry, Wilco’s a ghost is born is playing in the background.
- The road test. Albums I want to know more deeply get placed in the Blaupunkt for a few spins. I focus on the lyrics more clearly, trying to get them down to singable status.
- The liner notes stage. I know that I’m really into an album when I’ll listen to it, track-by-track, with the liner notes readily available. This usually happens in the context of the work background listen. [As such, I'm wanting to come up with a step in The Great CD Preservation Project to capture liner notes data like lyrics, songwriter, etc. Yes, I'm a geek, and this borders on the obssessive.
I am, however, interested in knowing how you, dear reader, listen to new music. Do you have a system? Do you have no system? Do you have a system of systems? Have you ever given it any thought? Do you just not listen to music [poor, lamentable soul!]? Please, take the comment space to tell me. If you want to take all sorts of space to answer this question, write your own Weblog entry about it and just give me a TrackBack or Pingback.
[...] der: Get To Know Roger Music — Roger @ 11:30 am Geof asked the question in his recent post. He also mentioned that we could write about it and just let [...]
November 17th, 2004 at 16:30I listen to music while programming… it helps me get into a rhythm and clears my mind. Adriene and I will listen to CD’s on road trips, too. We like to surpise each other with CD’s that we brought for the trip, but lately, we just plug in the iPOD and put it on random, which is fun for surpises, too.
And, I’m an order freak. I’m wierd. I’ll listen to an entire artist’s catalog in chronological order, or I’ll pick a year and just listen to albums from that year for a day. I don’t know why, I guess it ties the music together with a common theme.
November 16th, 2004 at 07:56Jeff: Your year-by-year is interesting … but do you do it by year produced or year acquired?
November 16th, 2004 at 08:35I’ve done it both ways. Such a geek, I’m telling you! I’m such a geek!
I loved in “High Fidelity” when the main character talked about listening to his albums in autobiographical order. I thought I was the only one that did that.
November 16th, 2004 at 08:40When a CD makes it into my truck, that’s where the serious listening (and yes, singing along) begins. I listen at work to lift my spirits, but if it is new music, I just can’t focus the attention on it to really get into it. As for home, there are few times where I will just put music on. Normally when I do, it is while doing homework, which then also leads to a lack of concentration on the music.
So when I said that I had Share the Well and Peterson’s Christmas Album in the truck, that was a good thing.
November 16th, 2004 at 09:39All my new CDs go straight into the car CD player. Share the Well, for example didn’t budge for at least three weeks, and the only reason it budged was because I was going to the Mark Schultz concert and I didn’t have his newest CD until a week or so before the concert. I had to put it in so I knew all the songs by the time I got to the show.
Maybe I will write something up about this. Good idea…
November 16th, 2004 at 13:52Done
November 17th, 2004 at 10:35I’m similar to others who’ve posted here. With my study schedule, most music goes into my iTunes Party Shuffle as background while I read or write. Anything I want to give a serious listen to has to come along in the car on a trip.
November 18th, 2004 at 06:05here’s my general pattern:
1. unwrap cd. put it in my home stereo and pull out the liner notes, which are always key for me. listen and read along a bit. put down the liner notes and go get a cup of tea and settle in for more listening.
2. the next stage is the car. usually if a cd makes it from my home to my car it’s a big step. (many have never made it). often a cd will stay in my stereo for at least a week. this is when the singalong stage happens for me too.
3. occasionally, i bring a cd into work if i haven’t had a chance to give it a full listen. but i actually only have a few cds on my computer at work. parts of 4 AP cds, one CC, jeremy casella, johnny cash, normals, patty griffin, and some bootlegs.
November 18th, 2004 at 12:37Anything new, that actually came on CD, is immediately ripped to mp3 and dropped onto the iPod’s “Newies” playlist, which is then listened to in the car during the next travel.
November 18th, 2004 at 17:53I was thinking about this topic as well recently, perhaps slighly different tangent, more along the lines of why people like certain music. I was thinking what makes someone like a song or despise it?
Then I thought what makes me like a certain song?
I know what I like in a song, but it is hard to define. I have to think about this more and go for a blog entry soon:)
November 26th, 2004 at 13:49Eric: That question is much harder to answer, as the answers are as individual as the questioners.
November 27th, 2004 at 16:26My process is very similar to yours… except sometimes, the CDs skip the liner notes stage because I’ve already rocked out to ‘em so much that I don’t need the notes. That’s the highest compliment on this end.
And if they don’t endure past the work background listen, they are often sold.
November 27th, 2004 at 20:26I usually start with a recommendation from somebody to listen to a song or CD. If I like it, I add it to a list of songs to burn. Once I get a good number of them built up, I make a cd for the car.
I love Italian music, and can even sing a few songs in Italian, although I understand very little of it. It’s just beautiful and romantic. My friends tell me that I am probably singing about a man who sells fruit on a corner in Chicago, or something.
I love show tunes, gospel music and just about any other genre aside from rap. That type of music has never apealed to me.
I cannot listen while writing or reading.
December 3rd, 2004 at 09:19I listen while cooking or cleaning.
I always open up and read the lyrics first, and I listen to the songs whoes lyrics I like most first. then I listen to the cd at night as background or at work.
December 21st, 2004 at 12:12