We live in an era of absurd musical abundance. Streaming services put the (in)complete history of recorded music at our fingertips, with sophisticated recommendation algorithms that promise to tailor us the perfect playlist. More than 100,000 new tracks are uploaded every day to platforms like Spotify, Apple Music or SoundCloud. As the hip-hop innovator Kool Keith put it in a 2020 interview: ‘There’s so much new music out there that it’s just too much for the average antique person.’ It can be too much for any person, antique or otherwise. We’re saturated, inundated with the stuff. But the problem isn’t just abundance: it’s what we do with the musical riches at our fingertips.

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[–] cwagner@beehaw.org 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

While I do sometimes pick up older music, there are two issues.

a) I like having a chance to see a live performance. Now, with a ton of indie music I like, that chance tends to be low, but it’s still there.
b) If I like a band, I rarely like only one album. So I want more of that band. With old music, that chance is gone (unless the band still exists, or simply has a big backlog).

In general, besides personal recommendations (or very rarely when I’m out, but they mostly just play the same ~100 songs that they’ve played 10 years ago and everyone but me seems happy with that), I mainly stick to metal review sites, not because I’m not open to listening to other things, but because there aren’t many genres (industrial rock & folk rock are probably notable exceptions, if anyone has website recommendations for new releases in that area, I’m open :D) where I’d enjoy a whole album, and I’m not a singles person. The effort of going through hundreds of albums to find one I might like is just not worth it.

edit: Just in case it wasn’t clear, I don’t use streaming services, I only buy albums, usually on bandcamp.

[–] rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use Bandcamp a lot, also, and have had some luck by checking out the label a band is associated with. Not all the artists I listen to have one, but I have found some neat music that way. Or people like you who have posted a playlist haha.

[–] cwagner@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mostly don’t care about labels. Though there’s some fun stuff at I, Voidhanger who only take really weird extreme metal bands on ;) Alas, mostly too weird for me.

[–] rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Omg the album artwork on that label is incredible, thanks for sharing!

[–] cwagner@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hah, YW. The one album I bought was Sermon of Flames with I Have Seen The Light, And It Was Repulsive (Industrial/Noise Death Metal), and both Yearning: Promethean Fates Sealed by Fleshvessel (Death Metal Jazz Fusion?) and Determined To Strike by Sarmat (Technical/Math Death Metal) were under consideration

[–] rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well I just listened to a fair bit of Fleshvessel, amazing. Lots of different instrumentation and soundscapes there. I guess I have a new 'metal' band to get into!

A label I have listened to artists from is Cuneiform Records. Not the same genre outright, but similarly hard to classify groups. Not much singing.

[–] cwagner@beehaw.org 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Aww, what a teaser. I was getting excited to check them out, until the last 3 words. Vocals are essentially mandatory for me, even if they are only used as an additional instrument (like in Berio’s Sinfonia from 1969), I still require vocals.

[–] rhythmisaprancer@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Ya I am definitely odd with that. My mom was a professional singer when I was a child, and so I grew up with her singing in the house. A lot haha. I don't know if that is why. Also, many (not all) things on that label are older/reissues, so not something you could see live probably.