Ask Lemmy

re: art vs. content: I'm not sure of the distinction you're making. Can you explain what you mean?

I didn't start listening to music until I was 15 and even then I only had a few mp3 files given to me by friends. It still took me another ~10 years or so to figure out my own music taste.

I don't have a favorite song or artist and don't talk much about music with anyone. In general I use it as background noise to help me focus when working on something.

Great question! Music is important to me, but the sound quality isn’t something I fuss over.

I think the right music can entrance any situation, so I like exploring a lot of different genres to see if there’s something I like.

I’m currently trying to build the best Christmas music list (trying to get some of the mainstream stuff mixed in with a bunch of really deep cuts so it’ll keep the list from getting stale through all of December).

Music is art, and some songs can allow the composer to speak directly to your emotions.

I care about music. I look for new stuff I enjoy. I listen to albums. I think about the lyrics. I see bands live when they tour. Sometimes I make mixes with a theme.

I used to ask people sometimes if they made mixes, and if so where they fell on the spectrum of "these are some songs I like" and "each songs inclusion and ordering has been carefully considered".

I don't just hit shuffle or let an algorithm wander through music. Songs are like spells and different tunes evoke different feelings.

I don't relate to people when they say they like "all kinds of music" or "I listen to a dozen new songs every day". That's just not enough time spent with those new songs to form any sort of bond, for me.

I only have a couple friends who have what I call an interoperable relationship with music. It's not that we like the same music, but that the music we each like, we like in a mutually comprehensible way. Like I can say to my friend, "oh this song could go right next to that song because xyz ", and they'll be like "oh that's good. abc fits in with them, too".

My other friends, talking about music, at most I get a "cool song, bro".

Music is almost a daily thing for me.

It's either to listen while I'm doing something I want to focus on, ie work, hobby.

Just for recreation ie find new bands, watch guitar/bass/drum covers

I also listen to analyse certain elements of songs ie bass lines, riffs, drumming, keyboarding etc

I had some workers doing some work at my house not so long ago and one guy asked the other if he knew this song and he's replied, I'm not really into music.

I was a bit taken back, to me that feels like a soulless life but each to their own! Life would be boring without music imo

I generally will always have a song in my head. Current track: Suffer in truth by Meshuggah... Why? I dunno just woke up with it playing lol

I had a somewhat shitty youth, and music was one of a very few things that gave me enjoyment — I'd say it did a lot for my mental health. I thought I was ambivalent or even disliked most music, until I discovered proper alternative music, both electronic and rock, instead of what my parents and grandparents listened to, and what played on the radio. With the advent of internet access in my part of the world, something was playing on my computer pretty much 9-to-5. I read Wikipedia and other sources about artists and music in general, and know the difference between deep house and Balearic house.

Perhaps the fact that Nurse With Wound and Black Vomit were my favorites for long night walks through the city for a while, illustrates my attachment to music quite graphically. I'm also not irritated by the sound of MRI machines.

I used shitty headphones, treating them as expendable, until buying Sennheiser by chance for office work because they reportedly isolated external noise (which was untrue about that model). That's when I learned how the bass guitar actually sounds and that there are good bassists besides Bill Laswell and Jah Wobble. Consequently, I try to use decent headphones and speakers now.

I try to discover new (to me) music more-or-less constantly, although I've finally gotten old and don't really know what's been happening in alternative scenes in the 2020s. Since I've heard plenty of musics, new stuff doesn't quite catch the ear that easily anymore, but once in a while I add something to my personal collection.

I don't use algorithmic recommendations, aside from Last.fm in the past and Bandcamp's ‘people also like’ now. Mostly I have a long list of artists I've read about, or flip through recommendations in topical communities.

I thought I've heard most genres and tricks and would just be rifling through them back and forth, until I randomly came across Mamaleek. Not only they have amazing atmosphere and effortlessly combine disparate genres, but they switch up the sound on every album while somehow retaining the signature mood. This was like hearing good music for the first time again. No one else is like them.

Do you ever listen to music just to enjoy it and nothing else?

Don't really know what else I could be doing with music. The exception is when I'm looking for something to recommend to others.

I would say that I do care about music quite a bit.

I'm currently using more expensive earbuds from Truthear because my sister's ex boyfriend bought me a pair last year for Christmas and they sound great but I normally go with brands like Sentry that offer decent sound for the price.

For the second question, I kind of unintentionally do both. Right now, I'm listening to music from Eternal Nocturne by Dobu Usagi (AKA dBu) and I'll be listening to some of their other albums until YouTube recommends me music from other Touhou artists like 暁Records, Sound Holic or A-One. YouTube seems to recommend music to me that's related to what I'm currently listening to, so it makes sense that I'm currently getting recommend videos from Eternal Nocturne with a few from other albums like Necromanza and Scarlet Rapsodia or the other artists I mentioned. When I'm away from home, I use my android devices to listen to music during the car ride, where I just have a bunch of random music I've downloaded over the years and I mostly use MPV to listen to them but I do have VLC on one device because MPV doesn't work properly on that device for some reason.

For the most part, the only time I listen to music by itself is just when I'm in the riding in a car.

Maybe sometimes. I do like to talk about some of the music I listen to. I wont go into specifics because that's not the topic for this post but for example, with dBu, their music sounds like a mix of music from Mega Man and Castlevania because it has that gothic/orchestral rock/metal with some techno sound to it. I also like 暁Records, Sound Holic and A-One because of the variety of music they make. I just really like Touhou music, if you couldn't tell.

I do sometimes look for music but I temporarily had to stop because my external hard drive got full. I asked for a new one in my Christmas list so I hope I get it.

I've never really thought about that last question before but I guess both.

Decent enjoyer. I don’t care much about the highest quality hifi sound systems, but I don’t want bad sound systems either.

I rather listen to full albums rather than individual songs.

I don’t really search much for music anymore. I know which artists I like and follow them. Sometimes I diversify with new music though.

I like many different, amazing types of music.

I care about Creative Commons music.

Professor Kliq, Aydio, DML grunfeld, Dusted Wax, Xera Lliendes, NIN, Grace Valhalla, ChillOhm, Toucan Music.

I care about these tunes, because I feel that these artists have shared a little more with me.

devices: I prefer high-quality audio equipment but if I don't have it to hand I'll listen on what I do have... or just sign out myself

album / playlist: I have favorite albums, I have favorite playlists, but my favorite way to listen is via a nested tree of smart playlists that automatically rotates in music depending on how highly I've rated it, how recently it's been played, and how many times total it's been played.

Do you ever listen to music just to enjoy it and nothing else?

That is the only way I listen to music.

passion: yes, to the point of getting in trouble with my wife

searching: yes, I spend about a twentieth of my listening time on new music hoping to discover favorites

I maintain like a dozen playlists with specific vibes. I constantly try to discover new music, whether through algorithms or active searching. When I find a really good album I'll just sit and listen, maybe doing something that doesn't require concentration.

There are bands that I really like that I bring up all the time. When I find a new one, I'm telling everyone who might like them. There are some I'll listen to over and over, and some I ration to try not to burn out.

I like great art, but I'm also down with meme music and other goofy shit.

1: MDR 7506 2: I have favorites which change constantly. 3: Sure 4: Yes 5: Yes TLDR: Yes

1. I have the nicest listening devices I can afford to enjoy my music but on the go whatever works is sufficient.
2. I have a plenty of favourites but I mostly listen to internet radio streams. Those are usually defined by genre or are just regular radios that play random stuff you can’t control
3. Doing nothing but listening to the music is the best way to listen to music. Unfortunately real life is usually too busy for that.
4. I don’t really have super favourites to the degree that I passionately talk about them but I do passionately advocate for art generally
5. I keep a note of artists and albums to search and then I will occasionally download their stuff for my archive

I think music is art although there seems to be a lot of “music” being made purely for content purposes these days, especially now that ai music is starting to invade streaming platforms. So I guess perhaps some new music is just content slop

I care a fair bit about music, but in a way that's likely very unpopular around these parts.

I'm a fan of AI-generated music. I've got about 600 songs I've generated over the years and almost all of them are about things and are in styles that I personally find relevant to my interests and life.

Some of your other questions are rendered moot by this. There's no albums or artists for these songs. I've loosely grouped them into a few giant playlists based on the sort of mood they fit. I listen to them while doing things like walking my dog. I don't use particularly fancy earbuds or other hardware, though I made sure to get decent speakers for my computer for while I work on them to make sure they're high quality at their source.

Since most of the songs are personally meaningful to me, if only because they scratched a very particular itch I was having the day I generated them, I care about them. I don't expect most of them would be of interest to other folk. I mostly don't share them since they're for me and anyone else can easily generate their own custom stuff, though I've made some public when they've struck me as particularly amusing or interesting.