Best Ever Albums

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 18:32:49 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/28/2013 23:32

I love the movie Spirited Away.

btw, the previous argument is kinda like how I feel about the movie Prometheus. That movie had some problems with the story, but I loved the movie, no doubt.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 17:57:58 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/28/2013 22:57

Alright, I was going to let this argument go with it being so old, but on returning to find this, I have a few bones to pick with this response.

SquishypuffDave wrote:

Correct. Objective elements are neutral descriptors, whereas subjective elements are about human experience.

Okay, so you've just agreed with the singular point I've been trying to make: that there is an objective element to music. You don't seem to understand the point I'm making at all if you agree with this statement and continue to debate.

SquishypuffDave wrote:

This just tells us about how people react to music. You cannot use peoples' experience of music as an argument for objective value. If listening to a lot of music and getting a musical education leads most people to prefer Pink Floyd, so what? Maybe it's making their taste worse. Maybe people are born pure and musical education distorts their apprehension of musical quality.

Those who are educated on a subject are generally more well-equipped to evaluate it than those that aren't. People who know very little about music will enjoy certain music and have no idea why they enjoy it, whereas those with more musical knowledge will understand not only why they like the music they do, but why others enjoy the music they do. There is a science to music, and whether it can be used to quantify musical quality or not, it can sure as hell be studied and understood, and I'm not going to sit here and argue that those who understand it will more often than not produce more justified evaluations of it, whether intentionally or not. If we can't agree on that, then we're not going to agree on much of anything, I'm afraid.

SquishypuffDave wrote:

Firstly, you're describing objective qualities in terms of value, which is begging the question.

Secondly, you're completely wrong. Jonas Brothers outmatch Pink Floyd in:

- shortness of songs
- compression of dynamic range
- repetitiveness of lyrics
- rigidness of rhythm

Do you not find these acceptable indicators of quality? Tough. There's no logical difference. Pink Floyd just has objective qualities that you prefer.

I repeat: There are objective qualities to music. This we've already agreed on. But as I said quite clearly in an earlier post, the weighting and significance of each of these is up to the listener. You're right, the Jonas Brothers do outmatch Pink Floyd in each of those qualities, but I don't see any reason why any of those would be an appropriate criterion for comparing the two bands. Others may disagree, and that's where the subjective value lies, but based on the criteria that I deem appropriate, I consider Pink Floyd to be the vastly superior band from an objective standpoint.

SquishypuffDave wrote:

Science doesn't tell you the value of things. Because it's science.

Aesthetic quality is a description of an experience, meaning it is by definition not objective.

I'm confused what definition you're referring to. The chemical reactions an experiences causes in your body sure as hell are objective, and that's exactly what aesthetic perception boils down to. You enjoy a song because the sound waves are quite literally physically pleasant to your ears, your mind, your body, etc.

Let me give an analogy. Take the question of the existence of God. Needless to say, there is a lot of disagreement on this issue. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that the entire world agrees on the definitions of "God" and "exists" to an extent that the answer to the question "Does God exist?" has a definite answer. Of course, no human being knows the answer to this question for sure, but many have examined the evidence and interpreted it to the best of their ability and come up with different answers. So while there is a definite objective answer to the question, there are thousands of subjective interpretations of the evidence that could lead to differing answers.

Another example: I'm somewhat of a movie buff, as well. I have a handful of favorite movies, but for the purpose of this conversation I'll choose these two: Spirited Away and Elf. Now, most critics would agree that Spirited Away is the better movie, and I would agree. However, I find myself enjoying them both about equally. So why do I call Spirited Away my favorite movie of all time while I think of Elf as fairly subpar next to it? Simple. Spirited Away is so good it gives me goosebumps. It blows my mind in a variety of areas, particularly plot, animation, and character development. Elf is a dorky comedy which makes me laugh my ass off and is overall quite uplifting. To me, that's not enough to qualify it as a masterpiece.

I hope I've shed a little light on the point I'm trying to make. I really don't think we disagree at all, we're just not communicating well.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 17:14:05 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/24/2013 22:14

For some reason, the album Ace of Spades seems to go by pretty quickly.

Re: Best 9 Track Albums

Hayden — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:26:08 GMT

Author: Hayden

Posted: 01/20/2013 01:26

JMan wrote:

How many 20 min. songs are there?

I gave 57 songs that are 20+ minutes in my iTunes library... There's probably hundreds though.

Best 9 Track Albums

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 20:23:07 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/20/2013 01:23

How many 20 min. songs are there?

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:34:51 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 17:34

I've listened to Rush's 2112. That's 20 minutes. And I use to play an 18 minute version of "I'd Do Anything for Love" in my head when I was bored at school.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

drakonium — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:31:16 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 01/19/2013 17:31

Have you ever listened to a twenty minutes song? Like Echoes by Pink Floyd or Supper's Ready by Genesis? What would you do in this case? Just listen to the first five minutes? That philosophy is silly I think. Again, I don't want to tell you what to do, but it's good that you did not skip that Stevie Wonder track.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:24:44 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 17:24

I guess I should just relax. In fact, I considered skipping the rest of a Stevie Wonder song just know, but I decided not to.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

drakonium — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:20:40 GMT

Author: drakonium

Posted: 01/19/2013 17:20

Happymeal wrote:

Is that sarcasm?

Yes it is 😄

JMan, I hate every little bit of your behaviour. Don't take it personally, I have nothing against you. Just that first, it was that "objectivity" thing, and now you want to skip songs when you "know you'll like it"... Seriously, WTF? I also try my best to listen to as many albums as I can, mainly because I got into music very late and I have to catch up, somehow, but... I want to take pleasure when I listen to something! Nobody should be a kind of msic factory and act like "you listen to an album, you think it's good, now you listen to something else and will never come back to the previous one". Like the others said, do what you want but the way you listen to music is kind of crazy for me. Be cool. Just relax and enjoy what you listen to.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 11:18:13 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 16:18

I listen to the whole song if I know I like it. I always finish a Meat Loaf track, cause he's just too good for me.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:28:45 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 13:28

JMan wrote:

No one answered my question.

If a song is eight minutes, and I like the song, but I wanna get through more albums to increase my chart quickly, and Iwent through the first six minutes, should I skip the rest of the song?

I do this from time to time. For me it usually comes down to my familiarity with the song and the album. The more familiar the more likely I am to skip. If I already know that this album is on one of the extremes like it's either definitely making my chart or it's definitely not I'll be more likely to skip. If I'm kind of on the fence and not sure where it might land then I'm more likely to keep listening.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:22:28 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 01:22

JMan wrote:

I told you, do what you feel, but I suggest listening to the whole album, start to finish and every song.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 20:21:08 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/19/2013 01:21

No one answered my question.

If a song is eight minutes, and I like the song, but I wanna get through more albums to increase my chart quickly, and Iwent through the first six minutes, should I skip the rest of the song?

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Jasonconfused — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:40:01 GMT

Author: Jasonconfused

Posted: 01/18/2013 22:40

lightmyway wrote:

I've never been a song skipper. Most songs sound best in the context of the album. I have been known to cherrypick favorite tracks for mixtapes but yeah.

I do this somewhat, but usually for other people. I'll listen to full albums, but if I want to get someone into a certain band, I might burn a compilation of my favorite songs for them to check out.

Also, sometimes if I'm just going somewhere really quickly I'll listen to any random song I feel like listening to since I don't have time to listen to a full album at that particular time.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

lightmyway — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:34:38 GMT

Author: lightmyway

Posted: 01/18/2013 22:34

I've never been a song skipper. Most songs sound best in the context of the album. I have been known to cherrypick favorite tracks for mixtapes but yeah.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 17:04:54 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/18/2013 22:04

If you're listening to an album from start to finish, you can't just skip songs. By thinking in your head that you're listening to the record as a collective body of work you should be dismissing the idea of adulterating the experience entirely. You wouldn't skip a scene you didn't like in a movie, so skipping a song in an "album experience" to me seems intolerant and gives people a false image of the overall album.

But there's no law saying you can't just listen to individual tracks and avoid the ones you don't like if that's what floats your boat.

And at the end of the day a song is only 2-6 minutes on average, that's not so much of your life taken away. And who knows, that song might just grow on you.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:56:37 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/18/2013 20:56

JMan wrote:

Song: Black Man
Length: 8:27

How far into in before I should skip it?

That's up to you which songs you like, which songs you skip and etc.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:48:44 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/18/2013 20:48

Song: Black Man
Length: 8:27

How far into in before I should skip it?

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:44:23 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/18/2013 20:44

JMan wrote:

So far, when it's a long song I skip it at the last thirty seconds. But that's not often.

That's perfectly understandable, but meh. I don't skip songs generally, but sometimes I get side tracked when listening to albums, but I was listening to Dropkick Murphy's newest album and I had to skip the last track because it was too long by then.

Re: Do you listen to the whole album?

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:42:50 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 01/18/2013 20:42

Happymeal wrote:

Nah, take the time to listen to the whole thing. It's a great album, also, don't worry about listening to a lot of albums in a short time, more or less just worry about listening to more album. Generally, I have more than 2 or 3 albums open along with songs because I get board easily so i stop halfway or whenever I feel, do some stuff, and come back to it.

So far, when it's a long song I skip it at the last thirty seconds. But that's not often.