[Mercury]

Do you ever get overwhelmed, overwhumped, overcome by the enormity of how much music you want to hear and how little you've truly heard?

I mean when I am out in life, you know, in real life I am a FORMIDABLE source of musical knowledge. At least that is what I seem to be to everyone I deal with in person. I can say I have probably heard far more music than anyone I deal with on a consistent basis.

Since I was about 10 I have been interested in music. I've been shooting off in all directions, only getting caught up in one subgenre for small periods of time. I've had my classic rock phase (as many of us have), my Hardcore punk phase, my thrash metal phase, my delta blues phase, my urban/chicago blues phase, my soul phase, my proto punk phase, my (very short lived) jazz phase, my country phase, etc. but generally I am all over the place musically - getting into anything and everything on a whim - for about 14 years now.

As a result of this I have maybe heard, idk, 3000-4000 Albums in full. Maybe 40,000-60,000 songs. I've listened to maybe a thousand artists. I have learned about and heard of thousands of musical minds. And before I came to know many of you, I was somewhat haughty and proud. I thought I was the bee's knees. I thought I was the shit.

Once I came to this site a few things happened. For one I met a lot of like-minded people who shared a similar passion for music. I discovered that I was not alone in my knowledge and obsession. I learned also that I DIDN'T REALLY KNOW ALL THAT MUCH! At least not in comparison to some of y'all.

Boy, was I a bit chagrined. It dawned on me that my modus operandi of getting into everything everywhere on my whim lead me to having a starter's knowledge of many genre's, and at best a very good knowledge of a few small subgenres. There were yet whole bodies of work and whole genres of great music that I had never even glanced at or touched upon. Ambient? House? Dub Step? "Kraut Rock"? Post Rock? I didn't really have much of a clue.

And what's worse I found that my seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of genres like Punk and Delta Blues was equaled or surpassed by several prominent members here.

Now I see that my knowledge, while still huge compared to the avg. person, is not all that impressive around here. Just to name a few examples, lethalnezzle clearly knows tons more music than I do. Same with Norman. And Manc/Magenta (come back soon) and joyofdivision and meccalecca, Kool Keith Sweat and many many more. There are people here who have insane knowledge of subgenres that I can't even get my head around - Cymro with his love for garage/psychedelic , Geevy with grime and other relatively modern stuff that I know nothing about, Nezzle with hip hop and many other styles too, thePoe with all his knowledge on world music, romanelli with country-rock and rock in general, etc. There's sooo many examples.

And the thing is I do know quite a bit of music. And there are recommendations I can make and have made to all of those people above. But for some of them it's like crazy! It's like a 15 to 1 ratio of my recommendations to them versus their's to mine.

Anyway, it's kinda wild. This whole realization has gotten me to think. I don't have the time or money or energy or inclination to try to listen to all the music ever made. And it's really easy for me to give up and go into an apathetic state of mind like "what does it matter? Why waste so much time on music?". But the main thing I am feeling now is a sense of wonder and exploration. I know that I only have so much time this life to learn and listen to new music. So I better not waste it. Interesting thought....

Anyway, what do you people think of this? Do you ever have similar thoughts of inferiority (LOL) whilst discovering music on BEA? What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts on people around here and their vast knowledge of genres? How do you explore music, all over the place or do you try to tap one genre or era at a time? and really what I am most interested in is what are your thoughts on me (because I am a self interested egotist.) ((especially if you are one of the people I mentioned or you are Drakonium, Brandon, NickVolos, or you are a friend of mine and you know who you are rocky racoon, samistake2ice etc)

Peace.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Goodsir]

Yes. All of the time. But it doesn't bother me too much.

[Puncture Repair]

Fantastic post Mercury, I think many of here feel this way. I've always felt a little like the underdog here, I try to listen to at least one new album a day, and I'm still stuck under the 1,000 mark.

The thing you really need to ask yourself is, do you want an encyclopedic knowledge of all music, or do you just want to enjoy it? Of course we want both, but often when I get too carried away with trying to achieve the former, I'm not actually embracing the main reason I listen to music, and that is simply to enjoy myself - so maybe that's the advice I ought to give you, because if at any point music is giving you anxiety about how 'good' you are at listening to it, you're doing it wrong.

Go at your own pace, every song listen or album listen is valuable, so don't get hung up on always trying to hear new things, it might mean more to you to discover something new about the music you love.

But as long as you keep coming back here on the forums with your thoughts, we couldn't ask for more.

[Goodsir]

[Mercury]

Yeah that is beautiful, puncture repair. I agree and I think that is good advice.

One of the things that got me thinking was I have been listening to Hecker's "Ravedeath 1972" and I am obsessed. And I noticed that a lot of my favorite albums lately have been ambient electronic albums from the last 35 years and I realized I have heard basically nothing of this genre but most of what I have heard I have loved. So now I'm like "okay, let's do this." And I am just struck by the sheer magnitude of music to get into in the area of ambient and electronic music. I don't know where to start! Ha! An the ironic thing is Until maybe 5 years ago I was one of those music lovers who said "electronic? Not real music" and ignored it. So dumb!
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!

[Norman Bates]

I don't take it as "inferiority", but as an endless incentive to listen to new things. If anything, I feel thrilled that so many people know so much more music than I do and can put me on paths I'd never have treaded otherwise.

That said, I feel a bit different than you Mercury overall, because I know people IRL who know a lot more than me on several subjects touching music (Jacques, Aurélien, Jean-Pop, Thomas, Victor, if you ever read this...)

[Kool Keith Sweat]

Thanks for the shout out. You'll notice a lot of the users you mentioned are older; it makes sense that the breadth and depth of your musical journey will increase as you get older and continue to listen to things new to you. Not necessarily speaking for lethal, but keep in mind that lethal and myself have been largely unemployed for some time, giving us a bit more time to listen than most people our age might.

[NickVolos]

Mercury, I am happy to tell you that there 45 albums in your chart that I have never heard. So, obviously you know a lot more about the music you like than any of us here. I hope you are happy hearing this. 😄 Seriously now, we all feel the same - there is always some great music that we never heard before waiting for us to be discovered and that's a good thing - not something that we should feel inferior but happy instead for our new discoveries.

Peace,
Nick
_________________
"And can’t you see you’re in on it?
You were born though you need not
And is that not some cause
For worship, being born among these trees?"

[Guest]

Nah, I don't want to know everything about music, I just want to have some albums I really adore, I want to apply as many lovely albums and sounds to my life as I can, but otherwise...nope. It's just an interest, and something I have fun with, I don't feel inferior. I guess I feel similarly to Norman, except I don't know anyone irl who has even a small interest in music.


Also, Mercury is as neat as a caterpillar's feet.

[Mercury]

All good points so far.

I can see what you mean, Keith. Yeah I am young but compared to the avg age of these sprouts sometimes I feel sorta old around here. I think you and Nezzle are basically the same age as me. And I can see how that situation could give you more time for music.

And yeah, I suppose inferiority is the wrong word most of the time. When I'm a little on the not happy side, inferiority is the right word however. When I am in a better mood I am usually just blown away by looking at, for example, nezzle's 2013 chart where he mentions hearing 500 albums from last year! Like, WTF!?! I have heard maybe 700 albums from the entire decade of 2000-2009. So yeah, I tend to look up to those people who have heard so much.

Mainly, when i discover an album that just opens my eyes and blows me away or touches me on an almost spiritual level I start thinking about how many albums are like this that are just exactly what I want and will blow me away that I have never heard. And it becomes sorta desperate in a way. For example, The Tallest Man On Earth was a total random recommendation from a friend on Facebook in 2010. I then checked him out and I have been obsessed ever since. Now had I not gotten that rec at exactly the right time when I had enough money in my pocket to go buy the wild hunt and when I hadn't been right in front of my YouTube window ready to check him out I may never have discovered it. I mean I have gotten good ratings, reviews and recs on hundreds of albums that I never acted on. For sure, many of those albums are also potentially just as special to me as The Wild Hunt or ambient 1 or Chill Out or Mobile or whatever album I love.

It makes me think about how beautiful and random life can be.
_________________
-Ryan

ONLY 4% of people can understand this chart! Come try!

My Fave Metal - you won't believe #5!!!