I haven't evolved since high school. Still listening to the radio but only in the car. At home it's YT in the bg... which is mostly radio stuff. Didn't care about music beyond that. I just never had a need for playlists and satellite spotify siris. Obviously I'm on an island there. What else is there to consume music? What is it that makes apps so much better?

I too haven't evolved since high school. The only difference between now and then is that I have a 64GB Micro SD card in my phone instead of a 500MB mp3 player. I've never had a need for a Spotify account so I never got one.

That said I do listen to a fair bit of music on YouTube, usually to check out new artists.

How did you come across your favourite bands back in the day, Ness and Emperor? Radio? TV? Video Games? Friends etc.?

These days I'm too lazy and if I'm in the mood for new music I'll just fire up Spotify, go into a favourite genre (typically indie) and just let that play into the background. If I enjoy a track, I'll bookmark it, listen to more of their stuff and get Spotify to put together a playlist based on one of my favourite tracks. This usually gives me more rabbit holes to go down. If that's not doing it, I'll just listen to the latest releases.

Then there's always YouTube. I follow a few channels that promote new tracks and there's the odd critic like Fantano who'll review whatever album is making the rounds.

If I'm feeling inspired, I'll go through the charts on RYM and just add them to a playlist and marathon them.

Back in the day, I'd read publications like Pitchfork and NME. I'm not beyond flipping through a JB Hi Fi catalogue just to see if something more local has slipped through the cracks.

Music festivals were huge as well and I'd always check out who was playing at Big Day Out, Soundwave, V Festival, Laneway, Splendour etc.

Which isn't to say you should only be on the hunt for new music. In fact, I tend to use these resources to go back and discover songs that slipped through the cracks, but capture the times and may have been something I heard in the background of an HMV or watching HIMYM.

Jan 29, 2024 2:10:53 GMT Ness said:

What is it that makes apps so much better?

They provide easy access to gigantic catalogs. That's their killer feature.

I've been trying to expand beyond my same playlists every day. Spotify has some nice generated playlists based on my tastes that will push the boundaries a bit.

I recently learned of the Spotify playlist called "Daylist." Every day it's different with a weird title. Today mine is "60s-70s mellow rock monday morning."

I'm mainly with Ness and Emperor. It's Youtube for me when I'm in the mood for some music. I do have a spotify account but have mainly used it just for listening to one podcast over the past 6 months.

Jan 29, 2024 17:00:16 GMT Big Pete said:

How did you come across your favourite bands back in the day, Ness and Emperor? Radio? TV? Video Games? Friends etc.?

I wish I remembered the whole story.

Word of mouth at school is what motivated me to start exploring music. I had no friends but the cooler kids in my school liked rock music, so I started investigating the likes of Guns N Roses and Bon Jovi. Music TV introduced me to more rock bands and my beloved heavy metal. The video for iron maiden 's Can I Play With Madness? was the turning point. I had heard some metal songs before then but I wasn't hooked until the mighty Maiden.

My first memory of power metal was a friend (well, more of an acquaintance) recommending a Sonata Arctica song, however I am convinced that I was walking to school listening to power metal on my 500MB mp3 player before that point. I do acknowledge that my memory may be faulty and perhaps Sonata Arctica was the crowning moment.

When I first started discovering my own music was when it was still on TV and sort of a big deal, MTV and TRL. Parental advisory stickers on your CD was a badge of honor. By time mp3s rolled around I found myself just downloading all the hits rather than listening to whole albums from said hits. Oh I tried, but I found very few b sides I enjoyed so eventually I stopped deep diving. I got into wrestling and anime not long after so a lot of my mp3 folder was from that. When that eventually cooled off and CDs were not really a thing anymore I returned to radio in the car (before that I would just burn CDs... of course it was a lot of the same stuff that was on the radio anyway).

I only listen to music at home or when I'm driving, I didn't really get into things like devices/apps. I had various walkman/mp3 capable cd players but that was mostly because I didn't have full access to the PC. By time I was able to have my own, the days of mp3 players were behind me. Youtube essentially replaced the need to have folders of music. All my needs are mostly met in this way. When I bought my car a few years ago Sirius wouldn't leave me alone about a trial. I contemplated giving it a shot and then saw one of the advertised channels: All Pearl Jam. WTF? That's literally every metro's rock station LOL. Do they even have enough for 24/hr loop even including a bunch of underground and live releases?

I found I was almost embarrassed by my music because I have never found anyone who enjoyed it past say 2003, which makes no sense because what I listened to is mainstream af evidently. But rock is dead so I eventually stopped sharing my interests. To me radio is just part of the driving experience. Yeah I can't listen to what I want when I want like at home, but it's good enough for the drive. I find I don't really care too much about expanding beyond that. I have heard and like music past 2012, but I'd say the bulk of my taste peaked around then. I'm just a young boomer.

As a result I base an artist's value on their mainstream hits. It is what it is. That's why I'd make a comment like Radiohead being a 1-hit wonder. In fact you could argue I don't even like bands/albums I just like songs. Best of/comp/greatest hits are my jam... I don't only listen to what's on the radio, but it's a passing grade for sure.

Radio is not for me. Like most people on PW, I'm a deep diver. I find something I like, I dig as deeply as I can, and that goes for music. Hence I am unsatisfied with the concept of radio whose goal is to play the big hits, the crowd pleasers, over and over ad nauseam. Even rock and metal radio stations don't interest me. My knowledge of pop music, especially in the last two decades, is shockingly bad.

Ness's post unlocked another memory. The brief time where I owned a CD player and brought it to school to listen to the handful of CDs I owned. A very clumsy portable music device. I mentioned Guns N Roses and Bon Jovi before but the most I did with them was download a few of their big hits on the ol' virus factory known as Limewire. These CDs were Foo Fighters, Sum 41, Linkin Park. Later on I bought metal CDs. I remember on a school trip to Barcelona my CD pouch got stolen from my backpack without my knowledge (I'm sure I was an easy target for pickpockets). The next day I stumbled upon a rock/metal CD section in a random store. To fill the musical void I grabbed a Nightwish compilation album. I had heard a couple of tracks before, so it was an inspired purchase, and a good one. That helped fill the long coach trip back to UK.

My mother is a chronic worrier so I never told her that my CDs were stolen. Instead I re-bought them, a few at a time, so that she wouldn't get suspicious at my lack of CDs. Not long after that CDs became obsolete so I got rid of the lot.

I like the YouTube music app most for albums & I like creating playlists. I learned that most radio listenerships don't care about hearing new shit. They want the same thing.

The only "new" stuff we want is if it comes from an old band! Now if you'll excuse me Glycerine is calling.

Only new stuff I listen to is when a new Sabaton or Powerwolf shows up in my Youtube feed or when something goes viral for pissing off the snowflakes.

The big advantage of streaming is access to everything as Gyro alluded to. I had about 15k plays last year, comprised of about 1200 unique artists. Back in my iTunes era (2009) the same amount of plays came from 300 artists.

Jan 29, 2024 17:13:36 GMT Gyro LC said:

I recently learned of the Spotify playlist called "Daylist." Every day it's different with a weird title. Today mine is "60s-70s mellow rock monday morning."

This is cute isn't it? It's based on what you listened to at that time in previous weeks. I've got "floaty speakeasy tuesday afternoon" right now.

A few months ago I revived my old 60-disc changer. I had to replace the drive belt as the rubber was no longer stretchy and slipped a lot. It was fun to listen to some old CDs, especially ones that aren't on streaming due to complicated licensing. Soundtracks and compilations have this problem. One of my favorites is the South Park Chef Aid album.

Jan 30, 2024 22:43:07 GMT Gyro LC said:

A few months ago I revived my old 60-disc changer. I had to replace the drive belt as the rubber was no longer stretchy and slipped a lot. It was fun to listen to some old CDs, especially ones that aren't on streaming due to complicated licensing. Soundtracks and compilations have this problem. One of my favorites is the South Park Chef Aid album.

Quite a few albums that I used to love can't be found streaming. The big one I been thinking about today is Fear Factory Archetype album from 2004 is my favorite album of theirs. Ive been collecting soundtracks here and there over the years, Desperado, Mortal Kombat, X-Files, Dracula 2000, Lost Highway. Some others lost to time/licensing rights some of the live Ozzfest albums from 2001-2002, Tattoo The Earth live album, the Family Values 98 live album, the Nativity In Black II tribute album to Black Sabbath, the Iommi solo record from 2000, I hate how those can't be streamed and how I can't use some of those tracks in my Amazon playlists.

I'm going to play Family Feud with Ness ' Top 10 tracks.

I'm starting with 5 guesses.

Marilyn Manson - Beautiful People
Pantera - Walk
Apache Indian - Boom Shack-A-Lack
Korn - Freak On A Leash
Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff

Tell me if any make the board.

EDIT: Damn! I think I wiffed on the Limp Bizkit pick. I think I know what it is, and it should be obvious to any WWF fan.

You know I was actively annoyed when I got home the other day and My Way started up right when I parked. Been listening to Crack Addict from WM19 a bit. Shame they didn't like how it sounded in the arena because they considered it a flop. I refuse to believe a song that says "turn that mic into a flame.... damn that shit's hot" doesn't get all the dimes.

Does the Survivor Series 2003 theme rate? Or is it the red-headed step-child next to Rollin, Crack Addict and My Way?



End of an era song right there.

Good shout with a track from Dumb and Dumber. Will have to do a top 50 after Fergus to complete the full on plagiarize.

Before all the discography threads I’d just listen to the handful of bands/artists I already liked. I have auto play on.. on YouTube music which I’ve discovered some good stuff through (Liquid Assassin comes to mind) and TikTok has helped out with a lot of tracks but no so much albums.

I used to watch Anthony Fantano’s channel a lot for recommendations but aside from one or two artists we have very different tastes.