Do you still follow new music?

[METALMAN]

So, EWB. Most of us have been around the block a bit. We're getting old. Maybe there was a time when we used to think "I'll never be like my dad/uncle/whatever, dismissing everything new and refusing to listen to anything that was released after 1972".

I used to think that. Between the ages of 15 and 23 (or thereabouts; so 2006-2014) I used to get my hands on everything I could. Sometimes, this wasn't even a particularly meaningful experience: often, I'd listen to an album once and never think of it again, because I was far too keen to have a listen to something else. There were, of course, also those that stuck with me.

But I don't really care about new music anymore. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not saying that my music is better. I'm just not particularly bothered about finding out. 

Perhaps this is a bizarre reaction to the rise of music streaming services. Perhaps, intimidated by the sheer, limitless scale of music to listen to, I've retreated to what I know. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

I usually listen to the weekly new music playlist that Apple Music puts together for me. I like most of the songs. But I've never been motivated to look into an artist further or dig out an album or something. There's probably only one new artist that I've discovered over the last three or four years that I regularly listen to (Kamasi Washington, if you're curious). Aside from that, I don't really care.

But aside from all that, the way I actually consume music has changed completely too. Where, only five years ago, music was my main interest, now it's usually something that I have on in the background as I'm reading or working. With it being something in the background, I'm not too bothered about having something new. It's also led to me listening to far more classical music than I did before. If I'm exploring new music - or music that's new to me, at least - I'm only going backwards these days, not forwards.

How do you lot feel about this?

Edited July 4, 2018 by metalman

[MalaCloudy Black]

I feel about the same way. I'll hear whatever Spotify puts together on the Weekly playlist and if there's a particular song or songs I like I'll star it and move along, but I'm not really fussed about seeking out new music anymore. I used to be the same way as you as well, I'd seek out and listen to anything I could get my hands on, give it one or two listens and then it's relegated to the iTunes dustbin to be found at a later date and mused about. Like "Oh yeah, Blood Brothers, I remember them, that album had a few decent tunes on it".

But now I'm just like.. I'll look at what music videos are trending on YouTube and watch them and that's good enough.

[apsham]

I don't even feel like I go to the recommended stuff all that much anymore - I don't really have the time in my day to track down new music, which is a weird thing to say because I usually have all the time in the world to do it - but when I fire up my music applications I usually just gravitate towards the same albums from the artists I've been listening to for the last few years. Every once in a while I'll get on a kick, add a bunch of recommended albums and I'll pick up a few songs that way.

[Moses Julep]

I think that staying away from streaming services has forced me to keep looking for new music, but having satellite radio did slow that process down. While I used to look for new music all the time when I was younger, the time I spend looking keeps decreasing. December’s a great time for me with year end lists though.

[Bobfoc]

A lot of those thoughts are familiar to me. I haven't listened to a new album in about ten years. I'm sure there's probably plenty of new music I'd like, but I think I've just retreated into familiarity because I wouldn't know where to start.

To a lesser extent, I've found myself taking a similar attitude to television. While I do watch a couple of new shows, I'm much more likely to spend the last twenty minutes or so of the day watching an episode of an old comedy I've seen many times before. Perhaps it's just easier to resort to something that's comfortable and requires no additional thought.

[Malenko]

I think about this often although I still add new bands to my collection now and then. Just not as frequently as I did in, say, 2006 (not even close). 

Nowadays I get to know new bands through a) playlists or b) festivals/gigs.

a) occasionally I just put on a playlist of a style/genre I like or similar artists to a band I like and leave it as background music while I'm doing something else. Whenever I happen to really like something I haven't heard before, I'll check the band out.

b) I always check (schedule permitting) the opening acts and often find some cool stuff I end up listening to on a regular basis. When attending music festivals I usually know most of what I want to check out but there are always a couple slots (usually in the early hours) I don't know anyone who's playing in any of the stages so I just check those out beforehand and then pick the one I feel I could enjoy the most.

 

(As opposed to how it used to be 15 years ago when I would subscribe to a bunch of labels' mailing lists and be warned every time they released anything new and listen to it because why not)

 

EDIT: Just to clarify, I meant new bands, not new albums. I still get new albums often enough.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Malenko

[Rich]

Still listen to new music all the time

[JasonM]

Personally I used to listen to the radio a lot, and I still kinda do. But music just doesn't pull me as it did ten years ago, and maybe it's because i'm older and more jaded, or because music nowadays just doesn't have the pull it had ten years ago, I don't really know.

I do know that I tend to drift a lot towards alternative music, and with the past x years being all about singer songwriters and the like there's not been a lot of attention to the styles that were popular a decade earlier. And I also know that around your 16th is when you make the most 'memories', and so it makes sense that i'm drawn to early/mid 00s alternative and even EDM/Rap/etc.

I'm also not one to frequent festivals due to my own social anxieties, but I do try to track the major ones at least a little, but that's ultimately hit or miss depending on whether or not they want to showcase upcoming artists or established ones.

On the flipside, I've become less of a music snob for music. I can just as easily enjoy putting on Britney Spears, Lady gaga, or Nickleback than I'd put on Pearl Jam, Royal Blood, or David Guetta. I've gotten over 'This artist is shit because it's pop', and just found the stuff of artists that I enjoy even if it was cringy back then or right now. I just don't care, if it's good music I can enjoy it... As long as it's not slow music I tend to toss it into my spotify playlist that runs on shuffle.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

I find new stuff I like all the time still. Don't search as hard as I used to but I'll find 2 or 3 new albums I like a month.

[GA!]

I listen to the Radio 1 Rock Show on long journeys and discover some news gems through that (although the first 90 minutes is always forgettable... Kerrang boy bands singing in perfect pitch, bleurgh). But I tend to fall back on music I discovered between 2001 and 2014. As you say, @metalman, the sheer choice on Spotify makes it difficult to choose anything so I go with what I know. Plus I don't particularly listen to music now unless I'm driving or in the gym.

[Skummy]

11 hours ago, metalman said:

Perhaps this is a bizarre reaction to the rise of music streaming services. Perhaps, intimidated by the sheer, limitless scale of music to listen to, I've retreated to what I know. Or maybe I'm just getting old.

I agree with this completely (and also with Kamasi Washington being one of my few worthwhile recent discoveries, incidentally).

I've mentioned plenty of times before, but I'm always amazed how a certain class of popular music seems to have just frozen in the early 2000s. If I go to a rock/metal night, everyone there wants to hear the same thing that was being played on Kerrang and MTV2 in 2002-2005; they want to hear System of a Down, "Halo" by Soil, Sum 41, Disturbed. If I go and see a generic covers/function band, they're playing "Seven Nation Army", "Mr. Brightside", Stereophonics, The Coral. Everything just stopped. I could understand if the audience requesting, or reacting to, this stuff were all my age and it was purely nostalgia, but it's people ten or more years younger too.

I think music needs to be curated to some extent. When our access to music was more limited - governed by what got played on the radio, or on a couple of TV shows, by what was available in the shops, and by what was covered in the music press - we paid more attention to it, and knew what shows to watch, what reviewers to trust, who's recommendations to take seriously, about what music we followed.

Now, we've got the whole world of music at our fingertips, but no one pointing us the right direction. It's the paradox of choice. If I'm into an obscure band, and my local HMV never gets their music in, the moment they get one copy of their CD in stock, I'm snapping it up straight away. Go on Amazon, where there's all fifteen of their albums available to purchase, and it's overwhelming, I don't know where to begin, and I end up not buying any of them.

 

Age and changing habits have played a part in it too - a lot of how I discovered new music has changed. I don't buy music magazines, or really follow any music sites or writers online any more. I used to go to a couple of festivals a year, but haven't been to any for the last six years or so, so I don't have the experience of stumbling across bands at shows, or researching the bands playing to figure out who to go and see. I don't DJ any more, and a lot of the venues where I used to go and watch live bands have closed, so I'm not seeing local music live, not spending as much time with musically inclined friends and having the, "what are you listening to at the moment?" conversations.

I used to walk into HMV every week, especially when I got paid weekly, scour the New Releases wall, and pick out everything that took my fancy. So I could be buying anywhere up to nine or ten new albums some weeks. Even if I wasn't buying them, that physical act of walking in and looking at that wall was teaching me what was new. Since our local HMV closed down, that's gone, and I've not bought nearly as much music since. I'll still pop into the record shop every now and then, still go to Fopp or HMV if I'm in England, and maybe pick up one or two things, but as often as not I'll have a browse and not commit to anything.

There are a handful of artists that I could guarantee I would buy their new stuff without fail - but, over the last couple of years, a great deal of them have died. David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, Prince, The Fall...I think the only surefire purchases left for me now are Tom Waits, Scott Walker, Sparks, Sage Francis, Earth and Eliza Carthy. And, in a lot of those cases, there's no guarantee I'll even hear about it when something does come out. 

 

I'm reluctant to say it's an age thing, though, as I have a few friends in their mid-to-late 40s that are considerably more active about pursuing new music than I am. 

[MalaCloudy Black]

I haven't thought about "Halo" by Soil in probably 10 years. Maybe more. Thanks, Skumfrog!

[Gazz]

Quote

1. Metallica – Hardwired… to Self Destruct (136,000 sold)
2. Bon Jovi –This House is Not for Sale (131,000 sold)
3. Breaking Benjamin – Ember (117,000 sold)
4. Greta Van Fleet – From the Fires (98,000 sold)
5. A Perfect Circle – Eat the Elephant (94,000 sold)
6. Five Finger Death Punch – A Decade of Destruction (87,300 sold)
7. Metallica – Metallica (87,000 sold)
8. Judas Priest –Firepower (84,000 sold)
9. Five Finger Death Punch – And Justice For None (82,500 sold)
10. Shinedown – Attention Attention (80,500 sold)
11. Ghost – Prequelle (62,000 sold)
12. Godsmack – When Legends Rise (60,000 sold)
13. Kid Rock –Sweet Southern Sugar (59,500 sold)
14. Metallica – Master of Puppets (58,500 sold)
15. Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory (49,000)

That's the fifteen biggest selling metal albums of 2018 so far, based on physical copies sold. So the biggest selling album in 2018 was released in 2016, just outside this list are Godsmack and Sevendust and in terms of 'new' bands, fucking hell...

[GA!]

6 minutes ago, Gazz said:

That's the fifteen biggest selling metal albums of 2018 so far, based on physical copies sold. So the biggest selling album in 2018 was released in 2016, just outside this list are Godsmack and Sevendust and in terms of 'new' bands, fucking hell...

Metal is the one genre where you can start headlining festivals just because you've been around for years, even if your best selling album sold fuck all a decade ago.

[Gazz]

I believe the rumoured headliners for Download 2019 are Anthrax, Mudvayne and Herman's Hermits.

[Naitch]

54 minutes ago, Skummy said:

I've mentioned plenty of times before, but I'm always amazed how a certain class of popular music seems to have just frozen in the early 2000s. If I go to a rock/metal night, everyone there wants to hear the same thing that was being played on Kerrang and MTV2 in 2002-2005; they want to hear System of a Down, "Halo" by Soil, Sum 41, Disturbed. If I go and see a generic covers/function band, they're playing "Seven Nation Army", "Mr. Brightside", Stereophonics, The Coral. Everything just stopped. I could understand if the audience requesting, or reacting to, this stuff were all my age and it was purely nostalgia, but it's people ten or more years younger too.

This is what makes clubs nights at my regular haunt increasingly less appealing. Three out of four regular club nights consistently play mainly crowd favourites with only the fourth being able to adapt its playlist to the vibe of the room when a specific DJ is running the decks. The pop punk night used to be so predictable that you could work out the next four songs because they used the same playlist every single week, which even meant they played at roughly the same time every week.

In terms of discovering new music I've found that several Spotify playlists have been fantastic for expanding my listening habits with both new releases and older music that I was only vaguely familiar with. It helps that I work at a music venue so I'm often able to get away with putting on my headphones and smashing out a week's worth of social media posts.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

29 minutes ago, Gazz said:

That's the fifteen biggest selling metal albums of 2018 so far, based on physical copies sold. So the biggest selling album in 2018 was released in 2016, just outside this list are Godsmack and Sevendust and in terms of 'new' bands, fucking hell...

To be fair the Ghost album is damn good.

What's the source for the list out of curiosity? I wanna see what else is on it.

[livid]

I am definitely not on top of looking for new music like I used to be but I mostly attributed that to getting older. The paradox of choice re: streaming is an interesting thought that I hadn't considered before, though. 

I try to listen to the suggestions by Spotify every week and I try to remind myself to look for things more but when I do find something new, a lot of times it seems like a happy accident moreso than me seeking it out. 

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

One thing I did start doing last week as it happens was picking a random festival, choosing ten artists and making a 1-2 hour playlist using just them. Headliners have to be included, orher than that, no repeats. Plenty of festival variety to shake the playlists up and encourages new bands as I use them.

[tristy]

On 05/07/2018 at 08:24, Jerazil said:

One thing I did start doing last week as it happens was picking a random festival, choosing ten artists and making a 1-2 hour playlist using just them. Headliners have to be included, orher than that, no repeats. Plenty of festival variety to shake the playlists up and encourages new bands as I use them.

I do this when I go to Bonnaroo usually. About the 5th or 6th line, I'll notice I don't recognize any of the names. So I'll go to Wikipedia (or Google them) and look at the genres, and go from there.

But, yeah, I like to think I'm on top of new music. I've noticed in the past two years or so that I've been revisiting music from my teens more often than I used to, but I still like to discover new music. Sometimes I'll be really late to the game, like me just discovering John Moreland, Gangstagrass or Wallows, but the good thing about randomly finding a song from 2015 (which is what happened with John Moreland) by a band or artist that you haven't heard of is that, more often than not, they either have more current music available or they're working on it and you can check it out when it drops and not find out about it years from now.