We all get stuck in our ruts, do our habitual haunting of our comfort zones. Take music for example. I spend most of my time listening to music made between 1964 and 1973; probably half my music is from the period 1966-1971. I enjoy my jazz and blues and classical; I do listen to music made after 1973, but just not that much. And, with children aged 21, 16 and 9, I get a vicarious feel for modern music.
Or so I thought.
Until I looked at this list at Debanter, a blog I found via twitter. And I couldn’t recall hearing of any of the bands or albums, much less actually hearing any of them.
Maybe this is the kind of stuff Casablanca listens to while pooh-poohing Jermolene’s taste? One way or the other, I have to try them out. Because.
I hadn’t heard of any of those albums or artists either! Here’s my list for 2007. I like a lot of music from the late 60s and early 70s too – particularly Neil Young, The Doors, Lou Reed, Beatles / Stones, The Byrds and Bowie. But I also think modern music brings plenty to the table. Perhaps it’s harder to find than back in the day (I was born in 1973), but thanks to Pitchfork and emusic I hear a steady stream of gems.
Hhmm…I’m 24 and the only artists on that list I’ve heard of are Teagan and Sarah and M.I.A. – and I don’t listen to either of them. Of course, my favorite artists tend to be from the 60s and 70s, so I’m not the best source for current music picks.
To second Phil’s point, there is some good stuff out there, it is just a lot harder to find!
Phil, Jacqueline, I guess this is where collaborative filtering has its strengths. As long as you guys listen to some of the things I listen to, I can use your playlists to convert the firehose into something manageable.
OUCH! I know one song by The Fratellis, but other than, it’s all Josquin de Prez to me. My 16 y.o. son was aware of about 30% of the names and really only knows one.
I think one factor (besides our age) is the disaggregation of music production. Thanks to our ol’ pal technology, anybody can produce and market their own music. There’s just huge amounts of material of all stripes floating around. Add some Long Tail type of thinking, and you find niche styles and sub-sub-sub-genres that find their markets.
I was talking to a kid who told me how chagrined he was to learn that the music he loved was known as “whine-core.”
Hey there!
While I won’t lie, my ability to stump might be making me a tad gleeful…but full disclosure – I work for a music/tech company. So somehow keeping up on the up-and-comers and little-knows is in the job description. I hope you find some new music you like! :-)
Rachel
I’d heard of Fratellis, and heard some Arcade FIre and a couple of the others, mainly because I watch the eMusic lists of new stuff … here’s my last.fm stats … http://www.last.fm/user/ric_aqualung/
I liked last.fm’s simple graph, but that seems to have disappeared: http://blog.whatfettle.com/2006/01/23/lastfm/