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Poll: am I throwing away the 'first listen experience' by listening to it in the background? |
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Total Votes : 18 |
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Xavygravy
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- #1
- Posted: 01/14/2012 05:58
- Post subject: First impressions of an album
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Recently, I've been doing this thing where I listen to an album in the background whilst I listen to a podcast or audiobook or read.
However, I'm beginning to wonder... could this ruin the album in a way?
Listening to something for the first time is like a mystery.. you don't know what's coming next.
I feel I could be diminishing the impact of the next listen if on the first listen it's only in the background, and I'm not paying full attention to it. What's more, I could be missing out on a great 'first listen' experience by not paying full attention to it.
So basically, you can only listen to an album for the first time once, am I throwing this experience away by listening to it in the background?
Last edited by Xavygravy on 01/14/2012 06:16; edited 1 time in total
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Jackwc
Queen Of The Forums
Location: Aaaanywhere Sex: Incredible
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GARY
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- #3
- Posted: 01/14/2012 06:12
- Post subject:
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.
Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.
NO
. _________________ .
I owe $100,000 and wasted 4 years of my life.
And all I got was this silly hat
.
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mooseboy101
Gender: Male
Location: Geneva
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- #4
- Posted: 01/14/2012 07:19
- Post subject:
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If you're not giving the music you're listening to your undivided attention, you might as well not be listening to anything at all. _________________ sig
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19loveless91
mag. druž. inf
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- #5
- Posted: 01/14/2012 07:49
- Post subject:
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I do it often. OK I'm not exactly "listening" to other things like you say, but I do other stuff. Of course I do it with intention of listening to it again soon after. The thing is, whenever I listen to something for the first time, I rarely have strong feelings for it, especially if the artist does something out of ordinary - I just can't love (or even hate for that matter) it yet. So for me, knowing what to expect, at least in terms of the general sound, is fairly important. The worst thing is when I listen to something for the first time (giving it undivided attention) and the artist does something which I'm either not expecting or is just in general completely different to what I ever heard before, then I might dismiss this album, often unfairly. Because even with all that in mind, I put it in my subconsciousness that the album just isn't "that good" and I don't listen to it again.
Now if I listen to an album in the background, I won't have much of a negative impression of it (while still knowing what to expect for the second time I listen to it), and if something stands out for me then it's that much better. Maybe not the best example, but I remember when I listened to U2's first couple of albums for the first time. We have vinyls of that at home and I just put them on one after another, while doing some other shit. And there were so many times when I just stopped doing whatever it was (OK I was watching TV probably), and thought to myself.. Damn, this is good. And I checked the cover to see which song was that. I started listening to them a lot after that and they're still one of my favourite bands.
tl;dr - no I don't think it's neccesarily bad that you're multitasking while listening to something for the first time.
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Norman Bates
Gender: Male
Age: 51
Location: Paris, France
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- #6
- Posted: 01/14/2012 09:21
- Post subject: Re: First impressions of an album
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Xavygravy wrote: |
So basically, you can only listen to an album for the first time once, am I throwing this experience away by listening to it in the background? |
It all depends on what music, I guess. Listening to an ambient album in the background while doing something else, even on a first listen, could make perfect sense.
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Xavygravy
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- #7
- Posted: 01/14/2012 09:22
- Post subject:
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19loveless91 wrote: | I do it often. OK I'm not exactly "listening" to other things like you say, but I do other stuff. Of course I do it with intention of listening to it again soon after. The thing is, whenever I listen to something for the first time, I rarely have strong feelings for it, especially if the artist does something out of ordinary - I just can't love (or even hate for that matter) it yet. So for me, knowing what to expect, at least in terms of the general sound, is fairly important. The worst thing is when I listen to something for the first time (giving it undivided attention) and the artist does something which I'm either not expecting or is just in general completely different to what I ever heard before, then I might dismiss this album, often unfairly. Because even with all that in mind, I put it in my subconsciousness that the album just isn't "that good" and I don't listen to it again.
Now if I listen to an album in the background, I won't have much of a negative impression of it (while still knowing what to expect for the second time I listen to it), and if something stands out for me then it's that much better. Maybe not the best example, but I remember when I listened to U2's first couple of albums for the first time. We have vinyls of that at home and I just put them on one after another, while doing some other shit. And there were so many times when I just stopped doing whatever it was (OK I was watching TV probably), and thought to myself.. Damn, this is good. And I checked the cover to see which song was that. I started listening to them a lot after that and they're still one of my favourite bands.
tl;dr - no I don't think it's neccesarily bad that you're multitasking while listening to something for the first time. |
I kind of agree with this. A lot of albums I have gotten into by having them in my subconscious already (and, as you said, sometimes stopping to see what song was playing because it was really good), and then listening again later, with the impression that it'll be good and knowing what to expect.
However, some you don't really need to 'get', they're just instantly awesome. In those cases, I feel a bit annoyed listening to it in the background and realizing the already-awesome songs would've made so much more of an impact if I was paying full attention to it. This happened today when I was listening to "Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs", and I had to stop it half way through because I didn't want to spoil the experience any more.
So it's kind of 50/50.
I'll probably just listen to all albums with my full attention, unless it's one of those 'out there'/different albums.
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Xavygravy
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- #8
- Posted: 01/14/2012 09:27
- Post subject:
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Actually no. 9 times out of 10, it's probably better hearing it in the background / not with full attention first.
This was probably one of very few occasions where a 'first listen experience' was missed, and a great album should remain excellent every time you hear it anyway.
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RFNAPLES
Level 8
Gender: Male
Age: 75
Location: Durham, NC, USA
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RFNAPLES
Level 8
Gender: Male
Age: 75
Location: Durham, NC, USA
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