Has technology destroyed my enjoyment of music?

More specifically... computers!

Ten years ago, I'd view my albums as an entire entity in themselves and happily listen to an entire album from start to finish with no complaints. Some tracks were weaker than others in my eyes, but that's my opinion and it's the nature of an album!

But I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to an album from start to finish and enjoyed it.

Apart from CDs in the car, all my music is stored on the computer, if I buy a CD, I'll listen to it once or twice and then rip it to the computer for future use. I can put on my phone, my MP3 player, burn a compilation CD for the car, etc...

When listening with the PC as the source, I'll cherry pick certain tracks from an album, make a playlist of my favourite tracks and sometimes just get downright frustrated when listening to an album because I have to return to the computer to skip a track or pick a particular one to listen to.

I want to be able to enjoy my albums in their entirety, but the use of the computer seems to have destroyed that for me!

I've tried forcing myself to listen to albums on CD, but the habit of skipping/picking tracks is a hard one to break!

Anyone else finding themselves in the same situation?

 

Yes.

 

I used to have this problem. You just have to show restraint. Use the cdp as your source!
Remember, it's called an album for a reason!

it's just not the same listening to one track: the tracks before can build up emotion and feeling. Like one big story, you don't open it half way through and read a chapter, it would make no sense!!!

KWIM??

 

Kwim? Or Quim?

 

quim???? wtf

kwim: know what i mean

 

Put the blame on CDs they are just too long - You need to go back to Vinyl and stay fit changing the sides every 15-20 mins etc. The sheer impossibility of track selection without imposing terminal damage to an expensive stylus or irreplaceable source is discipline indeed!

 

I wonder how many people now use a computer as their main/only music source? It now seems the norm for the majority to use their laptop into some speakers.

Rather than listening to a whole album, playlists by genre, or simply clicking random would appear to be taking over.

 

Surely this has been a problem since the invention of the CD with remote control? I lost my remote for my CD - did me good.

Its a prime example of people not realising that the ability to have what you want exactly when you want it, may not actually be a good thing.

The problem is that a lot of the best tracks on albums aren't the ones which leap out. If people just flick through and listen to the ones that grab them immediately a) they might miss some really good music b) bands will only start to only make the sort of tracks which grab people immediately c) on the other hand there is no disincentive to filling your album with filler on the assumption that people can always flick through it anyway. Either way its not good, but there isn't a lot can be done about it I guess.

 

Buy more vinyl. I always manage to listen to at least one side before I fancy something else.......

 

It now seems the norm for the majority to use their laptop into some speakers

Where on earth do you get that from?

What proportion of the population don't own a computer? 35%
What proportion of the population don't have broadband? 43% in Dec 2007
What proportion of the population don't store music on a PC?

 

yes! me too.

..but I view listening to songs that I'm not enjoying a masochistic tendancy I'm pleased to avoid..

 

I hate CD's and "albums".

I like 45's and 78's

We all used to spend hours making compilation tapes for parties.

Playlists of your favorites are just like that.

Playlists are much better than albums.

 

Exactly right. I have a remote for my CD player but it sits gathering dust. Maybe I was lucky that my previous transport I bought second hand and didn't have the remote... I think it set me in good stead to appreciate my music!

 

If you were only to buy rubbish albums this might be true

 

I listen to fewer albums now, but love the shuffle setting on my iPod - I can fill it with my mates' music and then be surprised by the tracks that get thrown up. I'm too lazy to have progressed to playlists.

I do like walking or jogging to really well mixed dance album, though.

 

I've always been a serial flitter between tracks, even when I only had tape.

It's easier with vinyl and CD though...

I have a very short attention span, so an album has to be pretty damn good to hold my attention. "Songs for the deaf" by QOTSA, for example, bores me to tears. THAT'S an album that's about 50% too long. Distillers (and many other punk-esque albums) OTOH usually do the trick.

I'm avoiding iPods and MP3 for as long as possible. Until that train ticket holding the spindle up on my CD walkman gives out, I'll continue to do so

 

How can it be untrue ? the op asked this
"I've tried forcing myself to listen to albums on CD, but the habit of skipping/picking tracks is a hard one to break!
Anyone else finding themselves in the same situation?"

So I replied
"I hate CD's and Albums, Playlists are much better than albums."

That's the truth.

So for you the truth is different. I can live with that.

 

I've noticed recently that on a few long CDs (70+ minutes) the tracks are listed on the sleeve in blocks of 4 or 5 amounting to about 20 minutes of music or one side of vinyl. I've tried listening to these blocks instead of the whole CD and that has worked for me in avoiding the skipping thing. In vinyl days it was rare to listen to the whole of a double album at one sitting - you'd pick the side you fancied at the time - and a lot of CD's are around the length of a double LP.

 

Yup!

It's CDs wot done this, not confusers...



And remote controllers.




It's happening to television programmes too - as soon as the ads come on, I'm restless. My kids are much worse, they just flip channels and thing they're watching four programmes when in reality, they aren't watching any...

When I were a lad...

 

I find this is an issue with big symphonies and even more with opera