How Do You View Music?


How Do You View Music?  

103 members have voted

  1. 1. How Do You View Music?

    • As simple entertainment, nothing more
      36
    • An artistic medium which I dedicate much time into studying and understanding
      49
    • Other
      18


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This kind of goes with the Do You Listen To Full Albums thread. I'm just kind of surprised at how few people actually listen to full albums. It makes me think 1 of 2 things, both of which may be wrong assumptions to make.

1. They don't care enough about music to really explore the genres, and just look through whatever is big, find something that has some songs they enjoy and are content with that.

2. They look at music as little more than entertainment and don't care for things like a story an artist is trying to tell through a full album and other such things as much as others.

Not trying to say listenig to music this way is wrong, we all have our own way of doing things. It's just strikingly different from how I'm used to listenig to my music so I was trying to understand the other side of things better.

I think I'm a lot more into music than most people....have had over 150gb of music at times. I own more CD's than any of my friends etc. I've played various instruments....drumset, bass guitar, guitar, xylaphone, piano etc. I read about music theory and such and spend considerable amount of time thinking about an album from a psychological viewpoint. Why did an artist create this particular song? What moods are they trying to convey through this instrumental section? Things of that nature.

Another thing I'd like to bring up is genres. Seems some people only stick to one or two, and others are more branched out. I'm more the latter myself.....used to listen to little aside from classic rock and various types of metal....but now it's classical, metal, hip-hop, electronica, new age, reggae, jazz, indie etc. I think maybe this ties into how people view their music....entertainment types are possibly more prone to just "stick to what they know they like" type of mentality, while people like me who take their music more as something to study branch out to compare various genres, their influences and roots and understand the tree of genre's better.

Feel free to input your 2 cents. Glad to hear from anyone on the subject.

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I love music, and listening to it is one of my biggest hobbies. However, I rarely read lyrics, they don't appeal to me. Music is the music itself to me, instruments and vocals, not lyrics. As long as it sounds good, I'm happy.

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I like a good album with a pretty picture on the front and a good theme all the way through, But I'm not gonna sit down and try and analyse wtf the people were thinking when they wrote it - I just enjoy the music.

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Many years ago I was diagnosed with depression, not very bad depression but enough they tried treating me with low level medication. After 2 years on the medicine I found I was getting worse and so did the doctors. I needed a way to pull myself back together so in a theropy session it was suggested to try to find something in life that would help and I found it in music.....

For over 14 years I have stayed off the meds and have been able to keep my depression at bay by the use of music. Music, if you let it, can be a very powerfull thing. I listen to it all day long at work, while at home on the computer and even at night while trying to go to sleep. Depending upon my mood depends upon what I listen to since different music causes differnt moods or thoughts. For the most part I listen to Trance and Progresive House but now and then I put in some Dark metal or even some classical music.

I don't always listen to music to hear what the artist is telling me but there is a good amount of time that I do that and that helps cheer me up or calm me down.

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yeah im kinda the same as krazy1 on music, it depends on the mood and also it can depend on what the artisit's message is, rap is a good genre when it comes to that sort of thing as a lot of songs are wrote about that artists struggles in life and what not, im not a fan but eminem - the way i am is a perfect example, its one of his only songs i do like because i can feel his anger and hate that he describes so well in the lyrics, alot of tupacs songs had good messages in them too, but then like with trance alot of my favourites dont have a single lyric in them and the onlt thing i can picture while listening to it is dancing in a club so its not like they use the synths to send a message, i have a very varied music taste from artists such as tiesto, armin van buren to evanesence (who also have brilliant lyrics) blink 182 and linkin park and then onto tupac, jay-z and ludacaris and i could go on to describe many others different tastes i have, imo i enjoy it as entertainment and for the messages they can send out through the lyrics

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I just listen to music for fun these days. I used to play in a band and really respect musicians for the stuff they produce,but I'm not interested in the poetry or emotion of other people's songs, that's their business, not mine.

I mainly listen to music when I'm at work, or working at home on the computer, or browsing online. It's not often that I just listen to music and do nothing else. I see it more as secondary thing to go with what I'm actually doing at the time. I don't have the time to do more than that.

I tend to stick to a few genres also, mainly guitar based indie / rock.

Also, I'm just not clever enough in that department to take it any further than entertainment. :/

Just as an example of genres, on my muvo now...

Blur

David Gilmour

Hard-Fi

Hot Hot Heat

Long-View

Mew

Phish

Pink Floyd

Radiohead

Super Furry Animals

Supergrass

Tears for Fears :p

The Beatles

XTC

Year of the Rabbit

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I like to know the story behind a song, the artists life, and perhaps why they use the lyrics, and what it means to them etc. Eminem for example, years ago, when I listened to his music, you could tell that all his lyrics were personal to him, and weren't just made up for fun or for the hell of it. I think the best music is that which really means something to the artist. Eminem's lyrics often tell a story from his life, and this is what makes his music so good, he really means what he says and can speak from experience. There are many other artists like this, I was just using Eminem as an example, but I think music suddenly becomes alot better when you know the whole story behind the song, so I like to read about songs, or the band, if I really like their stuff.

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I love music, and listening to it is one of my biggest hobbies. However, I rarely read lyrics, they don't appeal to me. Music is the music itself to me, instruments and vocals, not lyrics. As long as it sounds good, I'm happy.

I absolutely agree.

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Yeah, looking at some of the responses in this thread already, I can definately see why a lot of people have the "Just pick out the songs I enjoy and stick to that" mentality. Thanks for the input.

I'm more along the lines of your style KRazy1. There is music playing 24/7 in my room, I'd always play it at work, I always drive to music and so forth. One of the reasons I've branched out to many genres is I feel music can better fit my mood and my current feelings on life if I have a wider variety to select from.

The Eminem example was good. I'm not a fan of his by any means, but I do like hte mentioned song due to how well he does portray his emotions in it. I bet if I gave him a chance and really listened to him, I'd enjoy a lot of his more serious songs.

Aesop Rock is my favorite hip hop artist for this reason. His lyrics are incredibly descriptive and usually tell tales from his life, but they're written in one of the most unique and itelligent ways I've ever seen in my opinion. Basic Cable, a song about his love / hate relationship with TV, has been a favorite of mine for some time. Here's a link to the lyrics, as well as a song of his which I think makes incredible use of imagery in the setting of New York.

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Aesop-Rock/Basic-Cable.html - Basic Cable

http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Aesop-Rock/6B-Panorama.html - 6B Panorama

I'm usually more interested in the vocals as an instrument rather than following along to the vocals, but certain artists make me do otherwise.

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I can listen to music in either of those ways.

One day, I might listen to 50 Cent, which is clearly option 1.

The next day I might listen to something amazing like Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds in 5.1. Then I will listen to it properly and let the music affect my emotions like true art does.

And by the way, if anybody hasn't experienced War of the Worlds in 5.1, you haven't lived, it's amazing.

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I kind of do with Scooter what you do with 50 cent. I don't consider to be a talented group by any means, but they're a fun band to play at work. Just gets you goin, makes it easy to bounce around all energetic and get my stuff done, hahah. Reminds me of DDR music.

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me == songwriter, so generally i use music as research for continuing and upcoming trends. very important to keep up with music history. remember. history repeats itself

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Sometimes music really affects me. Rammstein's Amour really carried some weight for me, but most of the time I think musc is intended just for something to listen to to take your mind off the boring world around us.

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Music is very big part of my life.... I use it to take my self out of lifes problems and just chill listening to my favourite artists. could not live without it. ;)

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Music is not "just" a simple entertainment medium, and as such I cannot stand all this soulless manufactured crap that comes out..

However I don't feel a need to "research" the music I'm listening to... faithless - insomnia, is an absolutely amazing song of the sort that just like, you know the songs that really have an impact, but I'm not going to start dedicating time to looking into it.. that'd just cheapen it for me and I'd rather let the music have its own meaning for me based on what I've experienced when its playing or how I feel during its play.

Now about albums, you do not NEED to listen to an album to enjoy it, unless the album is designed as such...

Ayreon - The Human Equation is an album that you have to listen to as an album, it tells a story, its beautiful and builds up and flows throughout, playing that on random or in a random playlist wouldn't be good...

Arch Enemy - Wages of Sin however, well you can listen to it as an album... it does have a theme, a story as far as I can tell and it is good to listen to albums like this as albums, but it is also good to take songs from this individually... think about mix tapes and the like, I make custom albums fairly often - lets say I want all the songs I view as metal classics like "Arch Enemy - Nemesis" or "In Flames - Free Fall", or maybe I want an album or playlist to drive to at high speeds - if I listen to albums as is then I'll be driving and then some song not in the right mood for driving will come on...

I suppose I grew up with -lots- of mix tapes, and very different types of music (drum and bass / classic rock) so I can either listen to music for the flow and feel of it (custom albums) or for the lyrics and story (actual albums)..

Ah ... shouldn't type so much.

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