It’s already happening. I remember sitting around in high school, remarking how it would never happen to me - I loved music too much. I could never be one of those people who didn’t care about new music, who had their era, their bands, and that was it. My father had his classical music, his classic rock, and that was it - attempting to give him new music was like trying to sell Green Day’s American Idiot to real punkers (I hate that crap about what is real “punk”, “rock”, “selling out”, et.al. Music is music. Good music is good music).

So year later I find myself, driving around L.A, mostly listening to music that’s already on my iPod and buying records from bands I already know. There is so much great new music in L.A, but sometimes I think that is the problem, the volume. There is just so much good new music, that one can’t possibly follow all of it and have a normal life. Especially when most of the good stuff is hard to identify and is often a “grower” (requiring multiple in-depth listens to truly grasp and appreciate - see every Radiohead album post OK Computer).

Who has time to download a new album of unheard material, listen to it 5 times (very intently) and then decide if one likes it? Listening to new music, particularly an album, is a commitment, and now that iPods dominate listening (most people I know rarely listen to the radio), the discovery of new music is a strange process, mainly, that I have to actively participate in it. I have to sit down on a Sunday, say “I’d like to discover some new music,” and then go online and start listening to stuff.

That entire process is not fun when I can pop in my old favorites from when I was growing up like Savage Garden’s eponymous classic (OK, a joke - BUT - that song “Truly, Madly Deeply” is kind of schlocky good). But the album’s on my iPod are a known quantity; I already love them, I know I’ll enjoy them. Listening to new music is not only an effort (especially the loading of the darn music onto the iPod), it’s a risk - I may sacrifice some of my valuable music listening time to crap new music that I only downloaded because Metacritic told me it was the album of the century.

So this is how it happens. We no longer have time to sit around all day, listening to the radio, browsing record stores, discussing every track, every album with friends. We barely have time to listen to a whole album at any given point. And with the music discovery process changing, it’s no wonder I can’t be moving forward. I just can’t keep up. I was enjoying the Decemberists’ latest album when I was informed that the Decemberists were “so three years ago”. Doh. It’s officially over. Pretty soon you’ll find me in a rocking chair reading the paper, outdated iPod technology and all, and never going to concerts. I had my time to discover new music, and now it’s over. Savage Garden 4ever.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

Related Post

• Angriest Man In LA — No More Bands
• EARTH SUCKS: THE MUSICAL by Critic at Large Jeremy Lake
• Concert Review: DeVotchKa at the El Rey Theatre
• NoHo Scene: Everything You Want in One Place
• Interview with Al Doyle of Hot Chip
• Music Tonight: Man Man, Samantha Ronson, Earlimart
• This Rocks: LA’s Own Lady, Jenny Lewis