Buying Music When You Have No Idea What It Will Sound Like

[StudioShutIn]

I'm talking bands you've never heard of. You have a preconceived idea of what Radiohead sounds like.

But it's worse when you buy an album (without listening) by a band that you usually like, and it turns out to be awful!
Case in point: "Saviour Sorrow" by Mushroomhead

[republicofcheese]

It's old hat by now, but I kinda feel like having the entire world of music more or less at your fingertips has ruined this. I used to do this quite often when I was in high school and while objectively it's kinda silly to do these days, I definitely miss the feeling of totally blind buying something and discovering its awesome. I discovered Built To Spill and Dinosaur Jr, among others, this way (Actually I probably have old skate and snowboard videos to thank for Dinosaur Jr but the point remains the same.....)

I'll still buy records based on recommendations or word of mouth - without having actually heard them - and this can be awesome (Deerhunter) or diabolically shit (Wavves). I don't think that'll ever change.

but I pretty much would never actually purchase anything by someone I've never even heard of anymore.

[dubkitty]

aren't you doing something akin to "buying without knowing" when you click on a YouTube link for something you've never heard before, minus the monetary investment?

when i was into the rave scene i used to buy techno CDs based on the cover art and/or the credibility of the label (e.g. Plus8) and also used to trust Kranky and Constellation to not issue crap in the salad days of post-rock and Blood & Fire for reggae. i've also bought CDs blind based on AllMusic or other sites' listings of "Similar Artists" to artists i like, e.g. from MBV to Loop nowadays i'm too broke to buy stuff i don't know.

[theactionindex]

It's usually worked out positively when I've bought music based strictly on recommendations but no previous idea of the band's sound. Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Jesu, etc. were all bought with no idea of what the band sounded like, but worked out extremely well . However, any time I've gone off of album artwork for album purchases is another story entirely...

[jrmy]

I discovered two of my favorite 90's-era bands by doing this - the albums in question were "Uncle Anesthesia" by the Screaming Trees, and "Nowhere" by Ride. Had mixed results on other occasions, but those two wins were more than enough for me to credit it as a worthy process.

[mathias]

Yeah, I found one of my favorite bands, Steel Train, based on their awesome album covers.

[Seedy]

Trick: If someone is smoking a cigarette on the cover, it's probably awesome. Here are true examples of things I bought using this theory with success.






This lead to me using a pic from an ex for my own band's cover

[andtheLiquidmen]

When I was in Tokyo with my girlfriend a few years ago, we stumbled upon a proverbial CD Mecca in the heart of Shinjuku called Disc Union. It's a fairly well known chain of CD stores, but this one in particular was specialized. The basement floor was entirely Japanese underground, one floor was Prog/Psychedelic rock, one was movie soundtracks, and one was avant-garde and experimental. There were two more floors which escape me right now.

Needless to say we ended up dropping a few hundred dollars on CDs/vinyl/crap there. When we were poking around the Japanese underground floor, we decided to grab a few albums based solely on cover art alone.

These were:
Miki Curtis and Samurai - Kappa

Shinki Chen - Shinki Chen

Blues Creation - Demon and Eleven Children

Harry Hosono and The Yellow Magic Band - Paraiso


Aaand it turns out every single one of these artists have been extremely influential:

Miki Curtis has been a musician/actor since the '60s, and is still active today.
Shinki Chen's band Speed, Glue, and Shinki were pioneers of Japanese heavy rock.
Blues Creation were one of the biggest Japanese psychedelic rock bands of the '70s. Their guitarist Kazuo Takeda is one of the biggest/most influential Japanese guitarists.
Harry Hosono was in the psyche/prog band Apryl Fool, and went to form the Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO) with Ryuichi Sakamoto, who were instrumental in popularizing video game music.

That, and all of the albums were really fucking cool.

[mathias]

Yellow Magic Orchestra is awesome stuff.

[snipelfritz]

Yellow Magic Orchestra is awesome stuff.

F'realz, and the combination of their Archie Bell and the Drells cover and the Snakeman Show sketches on their Zoshoku album make me piss my pants with delight. "Do you understand what I am saying, Mr. Ohira? Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Personally, I really like being able to find and preview just about anything. I'm an advocate for internet piracy. Greater exposure to media is always beneficial. That said, I can understand the appeal of a mystery album. However, it seems rather hater-ish to say the Internet killed that activity. You can still do it, but it is expensive and something that was birthed out of necessity, not enjoyment. One must remember this.

[Cody_Pole]

Yellow Magic Orchestra is awesome stuff.

F'realz, and the combination of their Archie Bell and the Drells cover and the Snakeman Show sketches on their Zoshoku album make me piss my pants with delight. "Do you understand what I am saying, Mr. Ohira? Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Personally, I really like being able to find and preview just about anything. I'm an advocate for internet piracy. Greater exposure to media is always beneficial. That said, I can understand the appeal of a mystery album. However, it seems rather hater-ish to say the Internet killed that activity. You can still do it, but it is expensive and something that was birthed out of necessity, not enjoyment. One must remember this.

The internet didn't solely kill it but it did contribute, apathy and general laziness did the rest.

[snipelfritz]

Yellow Magic Orchestra is awesome stuff.

F'realz, and the combination of their Archie Bell and the Drells cover and the Snakeman Show sketches on their Zoshoku album make me piss my pants with delight. "Do you understand what I am saying, Mr. Ohira? Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Personally, I really like being able to find and preview just about anything. I'm an advocate for internet piracy. Greater exposure to media is always beneficial. That said, I can understand the appeal of a mystery album. However, it seems rather hater-ish to say the Internet killed that activity. You can still do it, but it is expensive and something that was birthed out of necessity, not enjoyment. One must remember this.

The internet didn't solely kill it but it did contribute, apathy and general laziness did the rest.

Kill what? Your ability to walk into a record store grab any cd/vinyl/tape that doesn't look familiar?

Saying that new technology killed what was great about old, obsolete technology is just silly. It's all technology that was new at one point. Recorded music didn't stop people from going to concerts. Then again,

[Cody_Pole]

Yellow Magic Orchestra is awesome stuff.

F'realz, and the combination of their Archie Bell and the Drells cover and the Snakeman Show sketches on their Zoshoku album make me piss my pants with delight. "Do you understand what I am saying, Mr. Ohira? Ahahahahahahahaha!"

Personally, I really like being able to find and preview just about anything. I'm an advocate for internet piracy. Greater exposure to media is always beneficial. That said, I can understand the appeal of a mystery album. However, it seems rather hater-ish to say the Internet killed that activity. You can still do it, but it is expensive and something that was birthed out of necessity, not enjoyment. One must remember this.

The internet didn't solely kill it but it did contribute, apathy and general laziness did the rest.

Kill what? Your ability to walk into a record store grab any cd/vinyl/tape that doesn't look familiar?

Saying that new technology killed what was great about old, obsolete technology is just silly. It's all technology that was new at one point. Recorded music didn't stop people from going to concerts. Then again,

That's not true at all, how do you explain the vinyl resurgence.

[mathias]

That's not true at all, how do you explain the vinyl resurgence.

Hipsters on the internet.

Seriously.

Every person I know that gets vinyl doesn't buy it from a physical record store. They order it online with a digital download included.

[Cody_Pole]

Wait are you calling me a hipster?