I decided to rant about my frustrations found with the “disposable” nature of our music culture. Sorry that it’s so long:
I love music. I don’t know how it become such an essential part of my life. I can’t play any instrument. My parents never influenced me in any way. It just happened.
I love music so much I started a music blog in order to find a place where I could spill out all of my favorite songs and new discoveries. I expected my friends to maybe read it, but that was about it. I never expected people to read my site daily. I never expected to befriend other great bloggers and even great bands. However, all this has happened to me somehow, and I’m very fortunate.
I always have had a pretty large music collection. I have hundreds of CD stacked in my room making a mess out of my shelves. I also have an ever growing record collection. I get more music than I can even listen to now with the start of this blog. I was already bad enough when I bought albums. I would buy albums based on word of mouth or good reviews and often, they would just sit there. Truth be told, I never really had time to listen to everything that was out there. I still don’t. However, more & more music comes piling in. It doesn’t stop.
You don’t need to be a music blogger to notice this. There’s an absurd amount of new music constantly being pumped out of artists. It’s impossible to keep up. Even if you do somehow stay a float in the myriad of new releases, are you really spending time with records? I bring this to your attention because I’m afraid to say I don’t know if I am anymore.
I find myself drowning deeper and deeper with new albums, new songs, new artists, and hell…even WAYS of finding music. Each day it seems like there’s a hot new buzz band, or a new album from an artist that you could have sworn just released one months ago. Then you have that older band releasing their comeback album. Then you want to dive back and give The Beatles a listen.
My point is, holy shit there’s a lot of music. With blogging, I’m constantly finding myself looking for new music because I love the discovery. However, another part of my new-found job as a blogger is keeping up. New bands will never stop coming.
There have been a lot of good albums in 2010. Some we can even call great. However, upon reflection, I realized I wasn’t getting to know these records very well. I’m jumping from new release to new release like it’s nothing. I was thinking of how I used to spend weeks with an album like Illinois, and it would literally be the soundtrack of my cold winter nights falling in love for the first time. It was a part of me.
While there have been tons and tons of solid albums, I don’t know how many I have let into my life the same way, and it pains me. I love music, but I don’t know if I love how disposable it’s all come.
I think I need to slow down and get myself to focus on spending more time with albums, and less with the kiss kiss, bang bang, nature of this new music culture.
You’re probably lying if this is not a problem for you. If it isn’t then god bless. I just want to slow down sometimes and just divulge in a few albums and get to know them like I used to. There’s so much great music out there, but for some reason, it doesn’t seem the same.
Please leave comments with your thoughts & feelings on this.
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