Why Do We Even Listen to New Music?

[Leo]

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/listen-to-music/

yes, I know, pitchfork's shit, we all hate it, etc.

 

[subvert47]

Why do we even listen to new music anymore? Most people have all the songs they could ever need by the time they turn 30. Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube can whisk us back to the gates and gables of our youth when life was simpler. Why leap off a cliff hoping you’ll be rescued by your new favorite album on the way down when you can lay supine on the terra firma of your “Summer Rewind” playlist? Not just in times of great stress, but for all times, I genuinely ask: Why spend time on something you might not like?

In other words you're not really that interested in music are you. You just listen to what you already know you like. (Which is usually what you listened to when you were 18.) And that's perfectly okay. I just eat what I already know I like, but I'm not really that interested in food.

 

[Leo]

the writer isn't endorsing that behavior, though. he's describing how most people feel.

 

[subvert47]

the writer isn't endorsing that behavior, though. he's describing how most people feel.

Yes. But I don't see there's anything wrong with feeling that way. Music doesn't have the same importance to everyone.

Also, I'm not sure Stravinsky's Rite is a good example of not wanting to hear new music. The audience were certainly there to hear new music. It's just that some of them weren't ready for that particular music. But they were later, as the coda at the end of the piece makes clear.

 

[Leo]

agreed, music certainly means different things to different people.

I do tend to gravitate towards music similar to what I already like. there's a part of me that enjoys exploring something entirely alien, but it's a small part and I wish I was more openminded. this article did a good job of explaining some neurological factors behind that.