[one-cool]

An interesting article I found on Pitchfork:

http://pitchfork.com/features/resona...e-their-music/

I've been spending time with World, You Need a Change of Mind, an album by the UK singer-songwriter Adam Bainbridge, who performs as Kindness. The album is all over the place. Some songs are firmly entrenched in the reverb-heavy, hazy-pop-gem sphere, others incorporate production elements borrowed from dance music stretching across several different eras. "That's Alright" even goes so far as to resurrect the bombastic gated-snare of late-80s dance pop, bringing to mind the signature sound of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. Bainbridge is clearly skilled at bringing all of these familiar sounds to life, whatever you think of his songwriting. And since it all goes down so easy, Kindness strikes me as music that is meant to be "shared" and not really listened to or thought about. Discussion of what the music is, how it works, and what it might mean to someone listening to it is far less important than the act of passing it along to others.

Highly personal responses to music are irrelevant when sharing--
as opposed to listening to or thinking about-- is the primary goal.

For music like this, context, whether broad or narrow, takes a backseat. And to allow for such smooth passage through the social media sphere, the music needs lubrication. There needs to be something inside of it that is clearly recognizable, so the music itself becomes a kind of language based on common aesthetics and collective understanding. So when two people have the exact same ideas about song or artist, "sharing" can happen without friction. Pausing to consider what something means and how it works and figuring out your own responses are all impediments to this process. Ideally, sharing can happen without explanation. You learn to recognize your own tastes in the tastes of others, so you start to develop an idea of what you might like (or what you might like other people to think you like) purely by virtue of who you see listening to it. Idiosyncratic and highly personal responses to music are irrelevant when sharing is the primary goal (which is not to say that these things aren't present; they're just not an essential part of this process).

I highly love the whole article itself, but this part is also something I have been thinking about lately. Do people actually think about the music itself anymore? So when I ask someone, "What have you been listening to?" I'm trying to learn something about them. Not hearing the one bad-ass music I need to hear because everyone shares it. You learn something about the other ones personality when you discuss the music you love and why you love it.

No idea how to start the conversation on this now... But I hope that some of you might read that.

[Yavanna]

From what I noticed lately, people listen to what everyone else listens. I don't care about sharing music, I don't have many people to share it with anyway, since most listen to cr@ppy music.

[Dantos]

From what I noticed lately, people listen to what everyone else listens. I don't care about sharing music, I don't have many people to share it with anyway, since most listen to cr@ppy music.

Yeah, people tend to do that.
I myself try to keep off the mainstream as much as possible.
I listen to totally random songs just to *prove* I am not "modern"

[Bastardo]

Does this have something do with people obsessed with a "thematic" disco, for lack of a better term, where there's always that one very particular nuance from that particular genre playing, that pretty much always has the same tempo and drum base, hell, the same 20 tracks playing for a year or three? And that's pretty much what they will always listen until they start frequenting a different disco, then suddenly they hated that shit all along and they love this other crap to death.
Very often the music being played in such discoteque has a powerful, regular beat that resembles a crude march and the DJ will often indulge in pretty deep techno-poems or sermons, deep considering he's talking about a bunch of apes dancing, getting shitfaced and trying to score.

[Dino]

I don't really care about music or what music other people listen to. In fact, I don't even talk about it with no one and I appreciate it if they didn't waste my time either.

[Zeri0n]

From what I noticed lately, people listen to what everyone else listens. I don't care about sharing music, I don't have many people to share it with anyway, since most listen to cr@ppy music.

Share it with us

[Powaz]

Pitchfork annoys me to hell.

Certainly, there's this aspect to sharing music that involves some sort of communication, learning of others personality. It depends whether a person likes genres or concrete artists. Most of the time I don't care about the recommendations of others, and not because I think their recommendation is bad but because I can't find myself in that music, so it serves only as a way to understand the Other.

I often get reproached that I talk too much about trivial things, like music, and barely about myself, and my answer always is that while talking about music I tell much more truth about myself than if I tried approaching myself directly.

[Dantos]

I often get reproached that I talk too much about trivial things, like music, and barely about myself, and my answer always is that while talking about music I tell much more truth about myself than if I tried approaching myself directly.

Would love to be able to talk about trivial things like you instead of myself from time to time!
But yeah music does tend to "show" what kind of person are you, though not quite. I listen to "dark gothic emo" songs but that doesn't make me depressed or anything like that. I just like the Dark side!

[Dino]

I listen to "dark gothic emo" songs but that doesn't make me depressed or anything like that

Oh I'm afraid it means exactly that :|

[Dantos]

Oh I'm afraid it means exactly that :|

No it doesnt!
I am actually the opposite of sad!
And besides I am way too chaotic to be sad for even a few minutes
I can change my mood at will...
Did take me a long time to learn that trick though... usually when I am returning home angry from school I put on this fake "noble face" around my mom and she thinks I had a "blast"

[Dino]

But anyway, I don't think I need to discuss music with people to get to know them better. It just takes a few minutes of staying in the same place with someone and exchange a few words.

And when I get asked "heeey what music do you listen to (sun) :O :O :O " I usually reply with whatever I like and end the conversation right there. Yeah, I don't want to be bothered.

[Dantos]

But anyway, I don't think I need to discuss music with people to get to know them better. It just takes a few minutes of staying in the same place with someone and exchange a few words.

And when I get asked "heeey what music do you listen to (sun) :O :O :O " I usually reply with whatever I like and end the conversation right there. Yeah, I don't want to be bothered.

Or maybe if you told em you listen to metal they'd think you are some crazy bloodsucker

[Dino]

Or maybe if you told em you listen to metal they'd think you are some crazy bloodsucker

Well, thing is... I don't listen to metal lately. Maybe just Black Sabbath but things end there. Right now I like Psychedelic Trance and some random opera songs, but mostly no vocals.

[Bamfy]

I listen to "dark gothic emo" songs but that doesn't make me depressed or anything like that. I just like the Dark side!

I am actually the opposite of sad!

Like a girl that dresses like a slut but thinks she's saint mary or something.

And it does tell some things about you, the fact that you listen to dark gothic emo but you're happy and shit. Like you being gay.

[Hellbilly]

Like a girl that dresses like a slut but thinks she's saint mary or something.

And it does tell some things about you, the fact that you listen to dark gothic emo but you're happy and shit. Like you being gay.

Honestly. What does one's music taste tell about a person, except that they like the music? Nothing, and that's it. When you start digging into the reasons why they like the music, then maybe you start finding out something about the person; but the superficial knowledge of that "person A likes genre B" doesn't say anything beyond that little simple fact.

[andorian22]

So what would be worse...Waterboarding...or being tied to a chair

and being tortured by nonstop Britney Spears or Lady Gaga music?

I will take the waterboarding!!!

I tend not to want to know anyone interested in fluffy pop shit

[Dino]

but the superficial knowledge of that "person A likes genre B" doesn't say anything beyond that little simple fact.

I am afraid people love to elevate themselves by creating such "psychological methods of getting to know the other person in depth by looking at his most shallow hobbies", which I believe makes them *think* they know so much about nothing at all.
It's the same as saying "oh look, I can tell all about that person by the fact that he likes to wear jeans, I am so vastly educated in human psychology"

You know, something like a group of people ganging upon someone who they only assume is weaker; it gives them a sense of imaginary superiority. I actually fail to see the connection between the two cases

[Powaz]

Honestly. What does one's music taste tell about a person, except that they like the music? Nothing, and that's it. When you start digging into the reasons why they like the music, then maybe you start finding out something about the person; but the superficial knowledge of that "person A likes genre B" doesn't say anything beyond that little simple fact.

Sure. Concrete artists tell a lot more about a person than genres. Genres tell nothing. I rarely listen to music because I like the genre, if I like for example Einstürzende Neubauten that doesn't mean I will like all the rest of the so called "industrial" music and I don't.

Then again, the asymmetry of how the Other perceives you based on your favorite music and how you actually feel about that music is always present.

[Hellbilly]

Sure. Concrete artists tell a lot more about a person than genres.

I don't really agree with that either. Sometimes the exact opposite is more true: genres tell more than individual artists. But again, what really tells anything is why someone listens to (or likes) something. And even that might not tell a whole lot.

[Bamfy]

Ahem... I was trolling?

I am afraid people love to elevate themselves by creating such "psychological methods of getting to know the other person in depth by looking at his most shallow hobbies", which I believe makes them *think* they know so much about nothing at all.

You must be in top of your class then. Noobs get to know a person, you already know about people.