POLL: When you play music, what typically drives the selection?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by If I Can Dream_23, Mar 4, 2021.

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  1. mwheelerk

    mwheelerk Sorry, I can't talk now, I'm listening to music...

    Location:
    Gilbert Arizona
    Right now I'm deep into a rotation of listening to albums that I have zero count on. It was some time ago during a combined OS upgrade and external drive change over I lost all my play counts. I finally decided that I would "systematically" listen to every album in my library again. When I started there were 2700 albums of 3100 that had zero play count. As of right now the count is down to 465. So until those are done that is the vast majority of listening I do. The exception is when I add albums to the library I will listen to them first. Otherwise my listening on earbuds or on the go in the car is based on topical playlists of all sorts.
     
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  2. utopiarun

    utopiarun "on the road to Utopia"

    Location:
    Staten Island NY
    There is no system for me. Sometimes someone will say something and I can automatically have a song for it and start singing it and have to play it. Other times I’ll just look through my cds and decide what to play.
     
  3. spencer1

    spencer1 Great Western Forum Resident

    Playlist?
    What the f***k’s a playlist.

    I usually flip through albums and something hits me.
    Sometimes dive in with something in mind.

    (Just went from listening to Freddie Hubbard to B.B. King because I was going left to right. Almost put on Humble Pie “Rockin’ the Fillmore”)
     
  4. POLL: When you play music, what typically drives the selection?

    The mood I'm in,
    and the urge to hear a song or songs, or an album.
     
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  5. Chemguy

    Chemguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Western Canada
    Yep, I usually want to hear an album.
     
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  6. Two Sheds

    Two Sheds Sha La La La Lee

    I like to choose an artist's discography, especially for use in the car. It drives my wife crazy, and everyone else questions my sanity, but that's what I like.
     
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  7. planetexpress

    planetexpress Searchin' for light in the darkness of insanity.

    Location:
    Chicago
    I guess it depends on the format. If I'm listening to LP's / Cassettes I'm certainly not going to skip around and typically listen to the entire album before moving on. For CD's I have a 5-disc CD changer so typically I'll just pick a few random albums I want to hear and hit shuffle*. (* Does not apply to new CD's which I'll listen to from start to finish at least once before shuffling. If it's an album I REALLY want to hear I *may* play one song a day to savor the experience ((It's also the only way to listen to 45's)) so I may listen to single songs more often than I initially thought.) When I don't have access to physical media / don't know what to play I'll pull up a playlist with my favorite song from every album I own for inspiration and skip any songs I don't feel like playing at the moment. Finally, if I want to hear something new I'll just put on the radio / listen to some genre specific musical podcasts. The one thing I don't think I've ever done is binge an artist chronologically as I fear I might get sick of someone with a large discography.
     
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  8. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    I turned the radio off in 1991 :)

    As for listening habits, it's almost strange to think that for, what, 25 years or so my entire listening was driven by what was just released, what I'd just bought, and what albums were having singles taken from them or being (re-promoted). Everything revolved around that for me. And now, all that has gone. Aside from what I've just bought, but that isn't simply what new albums are in the stores. I used to get a pile of stuff, and then try to keep up with it all and work through everything. Looking back, no wonder it never really made me happy. I enjoy my music a lot more now.

    Plus I stopped writing reviews of new music and just focused on stuff I wanted to write about. Another pressure removed.

    EG.
     
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  9. DK Pete

    DK Pete Forum Resident

    Location:
    Levittown. NY
    Holy cannoli...we *are* of similar minds. I think you're the only person I've come across in all my time on the forum other than myself who considers this their favorite Who album! I was mesmerized by it from the first time it was given to me as a birthday present in 1969 (I turned 12). In a definitive top ten I came up with about 30 years ago-and have stuck with much more than less-it ranks as my ninth favorite album of all time. The "listening to you" coda is my favorite repetition sequence in all of Rock. I love when they extended it in their concerts from that period and wish it was twice as long on the album.
     
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  10. Bluesman Mark

    Bluesman Mark I'm supposed to put something witty here....

    Location:
    Iowa
    On road trips where I drive, I've made several mix CDs, but, if the trip is long enough, I've made my own Allman Brothers 2 CD Fillmore East collection. Mostly the original album, but from the 6 CD set I included the full length Stormy Monday, with Thom Douchette's harmonica playing, (most of which Tom Dowd edited out), & the version of One Way Out from the same show, along with Mountain Jam & Drunken Hearted Boy. I did use Dowd's edit of You Don't Love Me, where he combined the best of two versions on the original album. That collection puts me in a perfect mood & rhythm for driving.

    If the trip is longer, I play other mix CDs after that 2 CD set.
     
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  11. 80steen

    80steen John McClane

    Location:
    West Virginia
    Usually to hear an artist which will often include the urge to hear an album by that artist but not always.
     
  12. julienbakerfan

    julienbakerfan Julien is her name, not mine

    Location:
    Arkansas
    The weather. I kid you not, I will listen to different kinds of music depending on what the weather is like.
     
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  13. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    I have never listened to Bob Marley in the rain.....

    EG.
     
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  14. bxbluesman

    bxbluesman Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bronx, NY
    I like to listen to my CDs/Hi-Res downloads on "Random" play. I like to be pleasantly surprised by songs that I forgot that I had.
     
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  15. spencer1

    spencer1 Great Western Forum Resident

    I have never listened to Leonard Cohen in the sunshine.
     
  16. D-rock

    D-rock Senior Member

    Location:
    Columbus, Ohio
    Ditto
     
  17. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    Urge to listen to an artist
     
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  18. If I Can Dream_23

    If I Can Dream_23 Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    United States
    There is indeed truth to this.

    I mean if I already had an urge to play a particular album, I wouldn't not play it just because of the weather. Yet weather indeed impacts mood, which can influence listening choices.

    I also definitely feel that already "great albums" can take on a more magical quality in certain kinds of weather. For instance, Sgt Pepper or The White Album (my two favorite Beatles albums) are even more aesthetically magical in summer/when the sun is out.

    Ditto for any Beach Boys record, etc.

    At least for me. :)
     
    Last edited: Mar 4, 2021
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  19. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I answered "other" because it varies depending on my mood. Though most of the time its a desire to hear a specific album. But sometimes I just want to hear (say) The Doors and then I'll decide which album to listen to.
     
  20. wrappedinsky

    wrappedinsky Forum Resident

    Location:
    SE USA
    "Son, go choose 5 random discs to put in my player."
    Boom, done: random music. A couple of nights ago he came back with Neil Young Decade, Icehouse White Heat: 30 Hits, and The Angels Greatest Hits. It totally hit the spot.
     
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  21. Score17

    Score17 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maryland
    The urge to hear an album most of the time.... or an album side, when spinning vinyl.
     
  22. bataclan2002

    bataclan2002 All You Need Is Now.

    I picked the top two. My listening is driven by artist and album. I listen to CDs mostly in the car and I try to exercise some self discipline, like listen to a disc all the way through before changing it out. Sometimes that’s hard to do and when I’m in a random mood, anything goes.
     
  23. Big Blue

    Big Blue Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Yeah, I don’t force anything, either. If the mood moves around a bit over the course of a day or evening, which does happen, that’s one thing, but I don’t, like, set out to necessarily listen to a variety of things. Usually I’ll kind of go with a flow, and it’s not uncommon for one of the final two or three tracks on an album to influence what I grab to put on next. Sometimes, that is something else by the same artist, but not always.

    But I’m trying to enjoy myself, not give myself assignments to complete.
     
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  24. Big Blue

    Big Blue Forum Resident

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    Oh, for sure!
     
  25. geezin'

    geezin' Forum Resident

    Location:
    Flintstone MD
    Having recently discovered streaming I am on a roll. Listening to stuff I've not heard in a long time. New stuff. Old stuff. Stuff that I've been curious about but never had access. Listening to Patrick O'Hearn Trust right now 'cause someone online mentioned it. Surprised my little system sounds really good playing it.
     
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