Focused music listening/appreciation projects
Many of us listen to whatever music strikes our mood, but there are some out there who, in addition to mood, listen to and appreciate music in focused listening projects. It could be a discography of an artist you want to finish, or it could be listening to all the top 10 albums from each year. There's really no end to the listening projects we get ourselves involved in. I'd like to open a discussion about this.
I've been involved in a number of listening/appreciation projects over the years. For example, even though half the year hasn't elapsed, I've already finished my 2023 Listening Challenge, in which I listened to 50 albums on a variety of criteria.
Right now I'm discog diving some of my favorite artists, and the experience has really opened my ears to the lesser-known avenues of exploration. I've completed so many already, satisfying my urge to always be doing something goal-oriented. Right now, for example, I'm listening to The Musings of Miles as part of my Miles Davis discog dive.
So what are you into project-wise? Please share your experiences!
I hunt new music in old styles. In other words, I like to play you a track recorded yesterday and laugh when you tell me it's an oldie from 1955 or 1982. I've been at this for a very long time. That's my radio station, and it exists in a place no algorithm can fathom - I've put chatGPT on this and while it's not useless, certainly better than search engines, it's still relatively clueless and only gets the big ticket artists. That's hardly where the fun is.
The fun is in finding absolute gems like these...
That's a tiny tiny taste of what's cooking. Time was, I dumped all of my scalps each year into the listentothis bestofs along with thirty or so other obsessive cratediggers - several of whom are right here on Tildes now - and frankly, only NPR's bestof lists could approach what we could do.
Those are ancient history thanks to moderator burnout, but the habit continues - I can't just turn it off. So, I've got what you might call a mixtape royal flush brewing - the next six sounds vintage mixtapes are nearly done. I built them out of keter-class earworms this time and put the same effort into them that I used to put into the bestofs.
I'll put 8-13 up on 8tracks in the coming months with a proper mix. I'd rather put them on youtube, however that is impossible thanks to the asinine vagaries of copyright law and I have no patience for fucking around with idiotic systems and rules anymore.
8, 9, 10, and 13 are done, kinda impossible to make these better than they already are, but they are only on spotify right now. 11 and 12 will be along eventually, but they are still fighting me. Nailing down the perfect 60s psych vibe and late 70s/80s glam vibes is taking some time, but I have confidence that music is out there. It's an odd habit, but it's more fun and challenging for me than a jigsaw puzzle.
As for where to start, let the covers be your guide. ;)
Or just hit my profile page with all the other playlists too.
I'm not sure anyone else can view this, but here's the collection of artists I've built up so far. It's not exclusively sounds vintage - I dig anything from ambient drum and bass to post-rock to prog metal - but it's definitely very heavy on the throwbacks.
There are some more in my comment on the WhyBLT? thread from this week.
Incredible response! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm fascinated by your unique approach here. Also, I'm a big fan of Mixcloud. Although I don't host anything, I've been listening to stuff on there for years. Following you now!
And yet one more. This fellow has the most badass collection of Spotify playlists by genre ever created. He singlehandedly one-upped the entire listentothis mod team making that set.
For anyone wondering what Acid House or Groove Metal or Modern Classical sounds like, he's got a playlist that's got you covered, and that playlist has some serious research behind it so you will get the albums that ground those genres.
Oh, and there's another listening project similar to this one you might enjoy. The fruits of /r/vintageobscura (still reddit's finest music sub) are collated in frequent mixtapes released by an old friend of mine. These actually are vintage, and frankly I doubt anyone can even find half the copyright holders on this stuff. It's insanely old, obscure, and fun.
I am not on Reddit anymore, but when I was, I would sometimes post and often read the vintageobscura subreddit. I agree it is an excellent resource.
Mixtapes are still the finest tool for musical discovery ever invented. I can't think of a better way to plug 20 artists at a time.
Getting slightly off topic, but ... Early in the lockdown part of the pandemic I bought a refurbished cassette deck and made a few actual mix tapes, on tape! It was SO MUCH FUN. I'd spend a few nights on each tape, after my wife went to sleep. It's amazing how much more rewarding it feels compared to throwing together a playlist on Spotify or YouTube. An entirely different experience.
That's not off-topic. You were engaged in a focused listening appreciation project.
Good point! It was very focused indeed.
Thank you, again!
My pleasure as always. :)
Last month I started hosting a weekly radio show of New Orleans and Louisiana music. This has always been an area of special interest for me (I lived there in the '90s and was part of the music scene then, and have kept tabs on it ever since), so I didn't really need to do a deep dive. But I did anyway, and for the last few months have been gathering up tracks and listening almost exclusively to New Orleans r&b, funk, soul, rock 'n' roll, blues, zydeco, etc. I can't even guess how many albums and compilations I have downloaded or purchased since I started prepping for the show.
Here's a link to the show page for anyone who is curious. It streams live on Saturday mornings at 10am eastern, and every episode is permanently archived for later streaming. https://wfmu.org/playlists/N0
I'm not sure this exactly what you're asking for, but one of my peculiar predilections is music with lyrics that refer to what is happening in the song at that moment without losing sight of the general narrative of the lyrics. I think my interest in this probably began when I was a little girl and loved singing "Do-Re-Mi" from The Sound of Music, although that one is not as subtle as I generally prefer them now.
I am no musician and know little about music theory, but such songs give me a deeper appreciation of the craft and demonstrate the artist's delightfully nerdy passion for music.
Some examples:
"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye" by Cole Porter:
"Coin-Operated Boy" by the Dresden Dolls:
"Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen:
The lyrics take you both outside of the song and deeper into the song simultaneously - it would be fun to listen to a whole playlist like this. Would you happen to have a playlist of such songs?
Unfortunately, I don't know enough songs with this feature to have a playlist of them yet, but it is something I am working toward.
There used to be a website called "Ruth And Martin's Album Listening Club" where they'd invite a guest, find out what well-known album that person had not listened to, and then ask them to listen to it three times and review it. It was a good idea, let down by the fact it was done in the UK by media luvvies and so a lot of the guests are insufferable arseholes. (Or just downright bigots). They made a book out of it, and so they destroyed the website. But people copied it, so here's a link (Content Warning, JKR) Also, sometimes I find the writing just a bit much in the way that A LOT of UK music journalism is JUST A BIT TOO MUCH LIKE OKAY CALM THE FUCK DOWN MR/MRS PURPLE PROSE.
Anyway, I'm linking it because the "listen to an album, completely, in the correct track order" is something I stopped doing in the 1990s with shuffle on mp3 cd players, and I started doing it again occasionally after reading RAM and it does make a difference. Yazoo - Upstairs at Eric's has got some great tracks, his playing and her singing are both excellent, but hearing the full album does hit different. See also Cocteau Twins - Victorialand - the full thing in order is just oof, especially because it finishes with The Thinner the Air, which always gets me, but especially so in the context of all of the album.
Double posting, sorry.
The other thing I do when I, for example, hear a song on an advert is to go to YouTube and search for [song name acoustic cover] and then sort the results by number of views, and then just keep scrolling down. There are some interesting covers near the top but they tend to be quite well produced, which is fine if that's what you like but it's not what I'm interested in. Here I'm looking for people in their bedroom with a guitar just noodling about, using their camera audio or maybe one of the cheaper Zoom devices.
Sometimes when you get the the 200 and fewer views you can find someone who does a perfect cover - not a copy but their interpretation, and the playing is amazing and the singing is just out of this world fantastic and you see they have 28 subs and their channel has more great covers, but they stopped posting 8 years ago and, well, social media sucks at supporting and promoting the content I like I guess.
I usually treat artists I like as a project and listen to their entire discographies. During the pandemic, I wanted to give Country an honest chance because I really just couldn't stand mainstream, radio country. It started with a reddit community playlist for alternative and indie country and I started to quiz people on what they liked as well. I worked at a grocery store at the time and it was one of the few positive interactions I had with customers throughout that time period, particular older customers. One lady lit right up and told me to check out Tammy Wynette, who I enjoyed immensely.
My personal favorite bands like The Dear Hunter and Coheed and Cambria primarily release concept albums with ongoing storylines, so listening to their entire discogs tends to be a project of its own when they release new music.
Other times I'll use sites like Every Noise At Once to determine how Spotify sorts artists into genres and go through artists that are connected that way.
Finally, I'll make a project out of learning how to sing a particular artist's songs, like Dirt Poor Robins and spend a week or two on that.
I'm using this as an excuse to collect all my old work in one place :).
Love the Watermelon in Easter Hay reference!
My joke was always: "Trying to describe this show is like trying to grow a watermelon in easter hay". Looking back, I guess I should be glad I was too small of a fish for Gail to come after me :P
Ah yes! You don't want Gail on your ass. ;)