While collecting music, which of these ways do you prefer?

[Aktivator]

#3 for me although it's more new than old. Since about 2000 I've been buying at least 50 new releases and at least 25 old. While in the last few years that has changed to less purchases as I just listen to a lot on spotify I still purchase plenty.

Lately the new is mostly indie rock, singer/songwriter, new prog and a few from no particular genre. The old is mostly prog and 80-90's stuff I missed because I didn't know a bunch of these bands existed back then. Sort of how I think a lot of people here think about new music. Hopefully the few of us here can help others find at least a band or two.

I've got over 40000 songs plus about 200 classical I've never converted and a 200 cd book of bootlegs.

 

[Vehicle]

My dealings with new music, for years, was solely what I was exposed to while driving my kids to and fro.

Once they discovered music, I never once told them they couldn't listen to this or that or whatever.

They are music lovers, same as me. So, anyway, that was my primary exposure to newer music for quite a spell.

It's how I discovered Avril. (her latest effort is substandard, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms.)

While I don't have any real sizeable collection from any one 'new' artist, I have a bunch of really good cuts they turned me on to.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand...


I can honestly say, this forum has vastly changed the way I go about finding music.

My attitude has changed. Before, if I heard a song I liked, ok, good song. End of search.

Laziness on my part.

People that say there's no good music out there today aren't looking hard enough.

There is a huge amount of really good music, but you have to go and find it. That's why this joint is such a gold mine.

There's a lot of old timers here, but that's just in terms of age, not ears.

There are several cds in my collection that are direct results of what I've heard in the threads.

In the last year, I bought probably close to 20 cds, easily surpassing the total for the last couple years combined.



How I do it now:

1. I never disregard something just because I don't immediately love it. Give it a chance to breathe, you know?

2. If I hear something I like, and I go hunt for more. That's the only way you're gonna find it.
You get one or two good songs dropped in your lap, and don't follow it up, you're gonna have 1 or 2 good songs, as opposed to maybe 7-8 songs.

3. Most important, I always make it a point to listen to at least one song in here that I'd never heard before. Ideally, by a band I've never heard before.




Anyone with any time here knows about my intense love affair with Shinedown. These cats are firmly entrenched in my top five all time, rubbing shoulders with SRV, Aero and The Boss. And it's not a fluke. They're staying.

Soot posted a couple cuts, and if I hadn't followed up on them, I'd have two Shinedown songs in my library, rather than all their cds and every stray song I can find.

The good stuffs out there. Ya gotta go get it.



Oh, I'm also in the same boat with AAG. I don't have all the discography just to have it. The 4-5 Queen albums are the ones I like, same with Mellencamp, KISS, Van Halen, etc. I don't have the whole set, just the ones I like best.

 

[gcczep]

New old stuff...

I am rebuilding my vinyl collection. It should be those 180 gram reissues this year of older music that I have grown up to. So yep, it is option #1.

 

[Mr. Shadow]

I tend towards classics.

 

[Jonny Come Lately]

I definitely tend to prefer to have established classics in my collection, in one respect it gives me a sense of satisfaction to have ticked off some of the 'great albums' and also, in a lot of cases, there's a good reason why they have become established classics - because they contain great music!

However, I do not listen to albums purely because they're regarded as classics (want evidence? I don't own a single Beatles song), I tend to research bands before listening to them to give an idea of the sort of sound they have and the types of song they have, I find this tends to give me a good idea of whether I want to give a band a try and if so, where to begin.

One thing I would say is that I tend to get the classic albums by a particular band first, then if I really like them I'll go exploring their discography more deeply. Looking at my collection Pink Floyd would be a good example of this, having started with the two most acclaimed albums (Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here), I now own and enjoy Atom Heart Mother, which doesn't tend to be regarded as essential Floyd.

Sometimes, though, I ignore critical recommendations and simply base it on what I like, for instance the first Dire Straits album I bought was Communique (on the grounds that I liked 'Lady Writer' when I heard on the radio), despite it being neither critically acclaimed or commercially successful.

When I first started listening to music seriously a couple of years ago I was actually leaning towards building a collection predominantly consisting of contemporary music, although to be honest I didn't really have any particular musical style in mind - it was only really once I listened to Pink Floyd that I went down the classic rock path, which has made up the majority of the music I have purchased since.

 

[Musikwala]

That was an interesting read, Jonny!

I remember my Pink Floyd phase well. I think I started getting interested in them around 1994 or 1995 when the Division Bell singles were being played on MTV. I distinctly remember liking Take It Back, High Hopes, Coming Back To Life etc. If I recall correctly, The Wall and Dark Side of the Moon were the first albums I purchased... in cassette version initially. Then, come 2000 and I moved to the US for higher studies I started buying CDs and it was too tempting not to buy every one of their albums, no matter how expensive they were! Ahh that was a good time of discovery and exploration.

 

[Jonny Come Lately]

Thanks - glad you enjoyed reading my post!

My introduction to Pink Floyd really came over the course of a summer holiday a couple of years ago, when having previously not been familiar with any of their songs (though nonetheless aware of their legendary reputation) I heard quite a few of them in quick succession:
- The first song that played on the radio in the cabin of the ferry was Another Brick In The Wall Part 2 (I didn't know it at the time, but I definitely remember the children's choir and Gilmour's guitar solo)
- There was one evening when we were in a restaurant and Wish You Were Here came on the radio.
- We watched the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, which included a cover of Wish You Were Here (and a rather good recreation of the album cover, with a dummy being set on fire).
- One evening there was a live band playing at our resort who played quite a few classic rock songs, including Money and Comfortably Numb.

Strangely enough I think the live performance of Comfortably Numb was the one that really drew me in, I recall being very impressed with the poetic lyrics and the guitar solo, and subsequently downloaded the original version. It quickly became one of my absolute favourites - my family soon realised where this was going and that Christmas I was given CD copies of DSOTM and WYWH, and I was hooked.

 

[Musikwala]

It generally always starts with those classic albums like DSOTM, Wall and Wish.

 

[Sox]

I went for the third choice, collecting what I consider the classic albums is and always has been a must for me but also some of the later, modern gear that catches my ear and which I hope will in turn become classics in their own right, is a big part of what I do.

 

[Abraxas]

Both. I like the old and new.