Is music becoming a passive experience?

[Grrface]

What I do like about post internet music 2014 is there's much less of a "scene" attitude these days. It used to be, you liked this, and maybe this but ultimately you "were" something (raver, goth punk, sXe, crusty, thrasher, emo, whatever) and now people just seem to be more into music for the music (or everyones a fucking hipster as the internet would have you believe).

Maybe that's a good thing and maybe it isn't. I'm glad I spent up until about age 20 "only" doing hardcore punk and metal and subsequently everything else after, but it must suck for kids nowadays who have trouble identifying with something during their formative years. Now the problem is everyone's an expert regardless if they lived it or read the wiki......

I wonder about that. Could it be that I simply don't spend as much time at all of those "scene" shows anymore? There were definitely still some scene kids at the last show I went to, which was He is Legend, I think.

[goroth]

After going through a down period where income dictated I didn't buy music I've now got a Spotify subscription. Fine, mp3 at 320kbps isn't perfect but it's ok. And I've discovered a lot of great music this way. I listen to it exactly the way I used to listen to tapes and CDs - I put on an album and I listen the whole way through. Sometimes I'll have it as background music while I'm reading, just as I've always done (Faith No More's King for a Day is still inextricably linked with the the Fellowship of the Ring for me - man did I listen to that album), or while I'm browsing ILF, but just as often I'll just sit and listen to an album. I love putting on an album, laying in bed, closing my eyes and just drifting away.

I make playlists with albums I might like and I try to listen to them until they click. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't - at which point I remove them from the playlist and go on. I've discovered some great stuff this way, and given that I've never had friends listening to the same stuff as me I'd almost say I'm more into music than I ever was. I still prefer the audio quality of a CD, and I prefer the theatricality of putting on an LP, but I like where I'm at in my listening.

[WayToHip]

i've noticed that I take in music differently when im home than when im at work or driving or watching a show in a bar. At home, I can sit and go through an album and really pick apart lyrics, listen to the instruments and what they're doing, and overall get into the album.
Anywhere else has disattractions and i cant complately concentrate.
so music as an experience be passive or assertive as you want.

[Blackened Soul]

Fuck everything and everyone.

sounds nice but, when it starts burning when you pee...

[D.o.S.]

Fuck everything and everyone.

sounds nice but, when it starts burning when you pee...

[sonidero]

also the comraderee of turning someone on to new shit
or gettin turned on by someone you respect
and the passing of copied cassettes or even burned cds
listening to it first time in a room full of homeys
that shit was important
that shit doesnt really exist anymore, does it?
im old now, so what do i know

I miss listing parties...

I'm just glad I'm in my thirties and not a fucking douche who likes lame douche stuff......

This is my new Mantra...

Don't own an ipod or things but I listen to lastfm and spotify and buy LPs at the local spots and mostly used CDs at the book store... Shows are everywhere here so I live music passive-aggressively I guess...

[D.o.S.]

Cool bit from a cool interview with Buzzo:

This is how it works: we lose about 20% of our audience every year and gain about 20% more people, and those are younger people. The target audience for music in general is between the teenage years of about 15 to about 35. When people get to be about 35 they move on in their lives and do other things. They may enjoy music and listen to it, but they're not the same kind of fans that would go and see bands. So the White Zombie people were coming to our shows, who were interested in The Melvins as a result of White Zombie, around 2000 and 2001. I'd see White Zombie shirts at our shows, a testament to the fact that they had to have seen us when we played with White Zombie. Those people have now moved on in their lives, they're a foreman at an auto factory with a mortgage now and kids. They don't have time to go to some bullshit rock 'n' roll show. They've moved on with their lives. Now we have the same younger people who are just as enthusiastic, but probably the vast majority of them didn't see us until the early 2000s. That's fine; I mean I understand. When I was a teenager I was too young to see a lot of the early punk bands that I loved, but that doesn't mean I wasn't a fan of that stuff.

http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville ... -interview

[Ugly Nora]

As usual, Buzzo agrees with me.

[retinal orbita]

I think what's interesting about that is how that definition of enthusiasm is applied. To me it's not about going to shows because well, I hate shows terrible beer overpriced terrible sound lame fucking aholes everywhere nothing starts until 11 pm and finishes at 3, etc.... to me I stopped going to shows regularly by the time I was 22 or so after playing and seeing a thousand basement shows in my teens. I'm only going these days if it's fucking Maiden....

It's not that I don't have time (I don't) but it's truly not worth making shows a priority, yet I still spend a fuck ton of money on music, and a lot of it new music.....