Does anyone listen to an album anymore - except the first time

[nothingspecial]

A long, long time ago when I first started buying music it was on vinyl. You put an album on and you listened to it all the way through (well at least a whole side).

Then came cds, with a shuffle option, but you still listened to the whole thing even if it was in the wrong order.

Nowadays I don`t even know what I`ve got `cause all the cd`s are in the attic. So I just play my collection on shuffle.

I used to choose an album to listen to, looking through my collection.

I feel I`ve lost something.......

[schauerlich]

I hate shuffle.

I don't remember the exact quote, but I heard this somewhere:


I like all of the songs on my computer.

When I play them on shuffle, I like about every fourth song on my computer.

[il-luzhin]

I feel I`ve lost something.......

Then play just an album.

I always prefer to make a specific listening selection rather than whatever pops up on random. I will put on several different albums in a day. The trick is you must be willing to be burdened by having to start a new album after an hour, having to choose another album to listen to, rather than just turn generic music on in the morning and forgeting about it.

[nothingspecial]

But, over 20,000 tunes.

I can`t decide

129310

[razorboy5]

think artists dont make truly great "albums" anymore either
they make great singles which i can listen for days but haven't heard any GREAT albums that i repeatedly bashed into my ear for weeks in a while

[aaaantoine]

Can you shuffle full albums or only individual songs?

[Whiffle]

Playback > Order > Shuffle (albums)

:D

(on fb2k)

[Sinkingships7]

I've always hated the idea of "singles". I despise the artist who makes an "album" with the intention of having only one or two songs on it that people actually want to listen to.

I organize and play all my music through iTunes, and I'm proud to say that I VERY rarely ever touch the shuffle button. I listen to an album from song one straight through to the end, the way it should be done.

I strongly differentiate between Artists and One-Hit-Wonders.

[nothingspecial]

Playback > Order > Shuffle (albums)

:D

(on fb2k)

True, but you`ve only got so long.

You can`t listen to album after album etc

What I`m saying, is that I used to have a shed load of cds in my living room and if I wanted to listen to something, I`d look through the collection and put an album on.

Now, I start searching, but get bored about halfway through B and just put it on shufle.

[nothingspecial]

I listen to an album from song one straight through to the end, the way it should be done.



Amen, just doesn`t happen in this house much...............

[beercz]

I listen to entire albums (albeit on CD) when I am in the car.

Other than that, it's usually on PC, sometimes in shuffle mode and sometimes filtered by a particular artist or album.

[Whiffle]

True, but you`ve only got so long.

You can`t listen to album after album etc

What I`m saying, is that I used to have a shed load of cds in my living room and if I wanted to listen to something, I`d look through the collection and put an album on.

Now, I start searching, but get bored about halfway through B and just put it on shufle.

Yeah, this is true. I do the same thing, except I usually have an album in mind before I go looking through the list.

Or, I'll be thinking to myself, "Self, what I do want to listen to? Man, I got no idea". So, I'll put it on shuffle and within 20 minutes something will come on and I'll think, "I want more of THAT!" and go queue a bunch of stuff up.

[PurposeOfReason]

I only listen to albums. I really love stories in them too such as Boys Night Out - Trainweck or The Early November - The Mother, The Mechanic, and the Path.

[randrews]

I often select an album on my Zune and have the whole thing play through, although I always have shuffle on, so the tracks could be in any order.

[Barrucadu]

I only listen to entire artists on shuffle—or on an even more abstract scale, entire playlists on shuffle. Even things that are to be played sequentially (such as a musical) I'll listen to on shuffle; I get bored if my music is in the same order :P

[openfly]

I regularly avoid creating custom playlists because iTunes is a steaming pile of fecal matter.

But I do enjoy albums... some albums this is essential to. The wall wouldn't be the wall if you didn't listen to it straight through.

[nothingspecial]

What about the greats.

Sgt Pepper

After The Gold Rush

Highway 61 .......

[koleoptero]

I almost always listen to my music by albums. Most of those times I listen to them whole, but sometimes I might change to some other album. Then more rarely I listen to auto-playlists with my highest-rated songs.

[ChrT]

I keep my 50GB music collection in flac on a NAS box, and listen to it with mplayer. I toiled to organise it myself, with bash alone, and I sure as hell am not letting an application pick my music for me.

[sideaway]

I have two collections (libraries if you will), active and passive. Passive is for just in the lounge when I'm not actively concentrating on the music, coming and going and doing work, just background music, this consists of albums relaxed, chill, acoustic and other stuff but generally just decent album works. The other is active, this is when music is taking up more of brain power, like when I'm browsing the web or just whatever. This is most of my singles, favourite artists etc... :)

Works quite well for me :)

[Muffinabus]

I still listen to albums on vinyl. I've a small collection of vinyl and I play them almost daily.

[Xzallion]

Personally, I use both shuffle, and albums. If I just want music, I use shuffle. If I'm in the mood, I'll put an artist on sorted by album in album order, and listen to them, hearing how they progressed. Other times I'll shuffle by album so that it plays an album then randomly selects another one.

Another way to find your albums that you like that your missing seems to stem from looking through them, make sure you have the album art and try a graphical view of the albums so that you can just scan through till you see one you like. Thats what I do with Amarok.

[ctrlmd]

<<<< He always pick an album to listen to [the whole album]:guitar:
why would i buy an album when i want to listen to one song:confused:

[pwnst*r]

A long, long time ago when I first started buying music it was on vinyl. You put an album on and you listened to it all the way through (well at least a whole side).

Then came cds, with a shuffle option, but you still listened to the whole thing even if it was in the wrong order.

Nowadays I don`t even know what I`ve got `cause all the cd`s are in the attic. So I just play my collection on shuffle.

I used to choose an album to listen to, looking through my collection.

I feel I`ve lost something.......

about 70/30 with 70 being listening to the entire album.

[graabein]

Check out Dinosaur Jr's latest album "Farm". It's fantastic.

I always listen to entire albums when I'm alone. When we have company we tend to skip a bit more.

[gn2]

What about the greats.

Sgt Pepper

After The Gold Rush

Highway 61 .......

I prefer The White Album, Tonight's The Night and Hard Rain ;)

I never use shuffle or random options, I always choose what to listen to whether it's a complete album or a list of individual tracks.

[nothingspecial]

I prefer The White Album, Tonight's The Night and Hard Rain ;)


I was refering to what (some) people consider the greats, my personal favourites are Rubber Soul, On The Beach and Desire .....

....but then, as you know, I like Marmite. ;)

[Lightmaster]

But, over 20,000 tunes.

I can`t decide

129310
1+ for having a David Gilmour track right there ;)

[chriskin]

A long, long time ago when I first started buying music it was on vinyl. You put an album on and you listened to it all the way through (well at least a whole side).

Then came cds, with a shuffle option, but you still listened to the whole thing even if it was in the wrong order.

Nowadays I don`t even know what I`ve got `cause all the cd`s are in the attic. So I just play my collection on shuffle.

I used to choose an album to listen to, looking through my collection.

I feel I`ve lost something.......

i always listen whole albums

[koshatnik]

if you grew up listening to music as albums, on vinyl (in my case), or CD, then I guess thats the way you'll favour listening to them. For kids 18 and younger, who have never know anything other than mp3 and shuffling 1000's of tracks, the idea of an album is quaint.

When I started listening to music, it came as an album. Artists wrote their music and tailored their creativity towards this way of listening to music. Nowadays, thats gone out of the window, so artists have evolved to meet the needs of the ipod generation.

Doesn't mean that the concept of an album is dead, its just alot more fluid nowadays.

[chriskin]

if you grew up listening to music as albums, on vinyl (in my case), or CD, then I guess thats the way you'll favour listening to them. For kids 18 and younger, who have never know anything other than mp3 and shuffling 1000's of tracks, the idea of an album is quaint.

When I started listening to music, it came as an album. Artists wrote their music and tailored their creativity towards this way of listening to music. Nowadays, thats gone out of the window, so artists have evolved to meet the needs of the ipod generation.

Doesn't mean that the concept of an album is dead, its just alot more fluid nowadays.

wow wow
hold it there
why are people around 18 too young to know about vinyl and cds?

[steev182]

I listen to whole albums probably on the first time I get it and then a couple of months later to see if my first impression was right.

One case of this - Kanye West - 808s and Heartbreaks, my first impression was 'eugh, what a lazy fool, I don't like this album at all.' then the songs get played through shuffle and a couple months later, I listened to it through again and most songs on there are actually really good. (He's still an idiot though)

Also, if it's a concept album, most of the time I have to listen to the album fully and in order, just to hear it how it was meant to be heard. Coheed and Cambria albums get played through quite often for me.

[koshatnik]

wow wow
hold it there
why are people around 18 too young to know about vinyl and cds?

They're not. Its not what I said. Most young people I know, (I work with alot of them through my project), consume and listen to all their music digitally, as mp3. They don't own record players or even CD players. That's not to say they don't know what they are. The medium they are most familiar with, and favour, is mp3 and a computer, not vinyl or CD.

When I told some of the teenagers I work with that I have hi-fi seperates in my house, that I listen to music on, they thought it was quaint. :)

[pwnst*r]

if you grew up listening to music as albums, on vinyl (in my case), or CD, then I guess thats the way you'll favour listening to them. For kids 18 and younger, who have never know anything other than mp3 and shuffling 1000's of tracks, the idea of an album is quaint.

When I started listening to music, it came as an album. Artists wrote their music and tailored their creativity towards this way of listening to music. Nowadays, thats gone out of the window, so artists have evolved to meet the needs of the ipod generation.

Doesn't mean that the concept of an album is dead, its just alot more fluid nowadays.

^truth.

the ipod generation knows singles, which is a shame.

[BrokenKingpin]

I almost always listen to an album all the way through. I pretty much only listen to Metal, and I hardly ever listen to the radio, so I only buy CDs that have all decent tracks for the most part. I find that a lot of the artitsts they get a lot of radio play only have a few decent tracks on their albums, so people just buy individual tracks fom ITunes or whatever.

[spupy]

I also listen mostly on shuffle.
One time, as I bought an album and listened to it for the first time without shuffle, I found out that the ends of some songs blend into the beginning of the next one. I had a music-gasm and started to listen to whole album from time to time.

[RiceMonster]

I listen to single songs often, but I hate shuffle. If I want to listen to a bunch songs while I'm relaxing, I put on a couple of albums.

[ticopelp]

If you're having trouble deciding, then limit yourself. Introduce a restriction. Back up all but ten albums to a DVD or backup drive and only listen to those ten albums for the next month or two. Don't complicate it, just pick ten favorites and go.

[purgatori]

I ONLY listen to albums. Unless you are dealing with a symphony or some other lengthy individual work, then a single piece really doesn't make much sense to me. Each track on a _good_ album forms part of a whole -- they hang together and share at least some thematic and musical/structural concerns in common with one another. Of course this doesn't really apply to mainstream music (and this is a much broader category than people who look down on Britney Spears, and yet listen to RHCP, Fallout Boy, Wolfmother, Franz Ferdinand, etc. etc. etc., realize), so if that's the stream from which your musical selections are drawn, then you're unlikely to be missing much by listening to songs in isolation.