Which would you keep?

[jandl100]

Nazareth ...

Jeez, that's taking me back to 1973.

Hair of the Dog

[Marco]

That's fine, Jerry - I get that.

Well, I feel sure that you will correct me if you think I have this wrong (!), but by & large the non-classical spinning today just tends to be lists of things played with no discussion.

In reality, it's more a mixture of both. Some folks like to extrapolate on their listening choices, and have the skills to do that job rather well.

Others, such as me, (in general) mostly just listen to 'choons' that make us smile and feel happy (nothing much deeper or more 'meaningful' than that); therefore a list of some of the music I've been listening to recently, suffices. In that respect, I'm a simple soul.

Bear in mind also that, as I work from home, I can spend 8-10 hours a day listening to music, and so I play more albums in a day than I could ever hope to discuss here in a meaningful way.

And anyway, the thought of 'intellectualising' my music listening fills me with horror - probably as much as it does you trying to identify what you have an emotional connection with!

Marco.

[Barry]

Hi Barry,

Why? Shouldn't the defining criteria be whatever equipment performs best, sonically, to your ears, regardless of its age?

I would no sooner use all vintage gear, if it sounded pants, compared to the best modern kit, than I would do vice versa!

I'm therefore completely agnostic, in terms of the age of the equipment I would choose to use. For me, sonic performance must always come first, ahead of any romantic feelings of nostalgia, or the desire to own the 'latest toy'.

Marco.

Most of my equipment is 'vintage' because it was bought some time ago at a price I could then afford at the time. I rarely audition new gear these days because, with few exceptions, I cannot afford the thousands of pounds usually asked, so there doesn't seem much point.

I do attend the occasional hi-fi show and get an opportunity to hear some new gear, though not necessarily under the best of conditions. Stuff I like is always way out of my price range.

Vintage gear is now becoming so expensive and rare, that I would most likely seek out used, second-hand samples of 'new' products that do sound good to my ears. It pains me to say this, but some of these can be found on eBay for a reasonable price if you are patient and keep your eyes open.

It has nothing to do with "owning the latest toy", although I do believe that significant advances have been made in some areas: small stand-mounted speakers for example.

[jandl100]

That's fine, Jerry - I get that.



In reality, it's more a mixture of both. Some folks like to extrapolate on their listening choices, and have the skills to do that job rather well.

Others, such as me, (in general) mostly just listen to 'choons' that make us smile and feel happy (nothing much deeper or more 'meaningful' than that); therefore a list of some of the music I've been listening to recently, suffices. In that respect, I'm a simple soul.

Bear in mind also that, as I work from home, I can spend 8-10 hours a day listening to music, and so I play more albums in a day than I could ever hope to discuss in a meaningful way.

And anyway, the thought of 'intellectualising' my music listening fills me with horror - probably as much as it does you trying to identify what you have an emotional connection with!

Marco.

Yep, more differences between us!

"Intellectualising" well, not really. Sure, some folks do, a bit, some folks don't.
But just a title or an image of an album cover provides me with no useful information at all. If you like something, then why not share the joy and try and explain why so others may be tempted to try it?

Would I like it? Should I get it for myself? ... no information provided by a mere title, none at all. So I can't be arsed to involve myself, tbh!

Anyway, enough of my sermonising!

[Marco]

Sure, I getcha. A lot of the stuff I listen to people will know anyway, so it needs no introduction, but if it's something more obscure I'll sometimes add a few lines describing what it is. In that sense, simply listing the music you're listening to can spark someone else into perhaps playing the same album that they haven't listened to in ages, making them 'rediscover' it in the process, which is a good thing

By "intellectualising" my music listening I mean the way that people sometimes describe what they're hearing as being in the style of so-and-so from such-and-such a band from 30 years ago, or something (you might do a similar thing with conductors or composers), using flowery prose in the process that one would find in the likes of Mojo - that ain't me. I'm also no music 'geek' or historian.

It always amazes me the kind of 'Top Trumps', near-encyclopaedic knowledge of music that some people have...

For example, I could never meaningfully participate in threads in the music room, such as 'The Lyrics Thread' or 'Degrees of Separation', simply because a) I rarely pay attention to or absorb the lyrics in songs (I'm simply a 'tunes and rhythms' man), so in that respect I wouldn't have a clue, and b) because I don't possess the necessary historical knowledge to participate in the latter, in the way the likes of Barry, Nick, Chris or Alex can - and indeed enjoy doing. And I respect their knowledge.

Quite honestly, I couldn't tell you who the members are of half of the bands that I listen to, or who they once may have played with, or what 'style' of guitar playing a particular guitarist has in comparison with another. I just don't 'connect' with music on that level. I have a certain amount of musical knowledge, based on what has 'stuck' over the years, but I simply can't engage in the level of in-depth analysis that some people are capable of.

I simply play stuff I like and groove along to it, perhaps if it's music from the 80s that I grew up with, reminiscing about what I was doing 'back in the day', when a particular song is playing, without needing to search for any 'deeper meaning' from the experience, or entering into any more detail about it than that. That's why you'll never read any 'epistles' from me on the subject of music: I just do my own thing quietly and get on with it.

And as for classical music, I simply don't know enough about it to describe what I'm listening to in a meaningful way. I just know what I like when I hear it (Shostakovich, for example), and so I just play that and enjoy it on an informal, fairly superficial, 'non-intellectually taxing', way!

I do listen to many hours of different music every day, though. I simply couldn't live without it.

Marco.

[jandl100]

Fair enough, Marco. All good points.

But the different approaches to hifi and music are very noticeable!!

[Marco]

Absolutely - and all are valid. Thank goodness we're all different, otherwise it would be a very boring world!

Marco.

[griffo104]

Nothing wrong with discussing or intellectualising music.

I think the the reason you get more discussion on the classical blog may be down to the many different versions of a piece and conductor/orchestra combos that people tend to prefer.

In the non-classical section it's a bit like discussing cover versions - it just doesn't really happen when listening to a rock or indie album.

I love chatting about music, it's why I enjoy seeing what different people listen to in the album club and why they listen to it - so there is that discussion but it's much more formal.

Having had the pleasure of visiting Jerry and listening to his hifi AND his music and seeing his reaction to some of it, there's definitely a fair amount of passion going on there (and some pain when my Art Blakey was going on as well).

[Marco]

Nothing wrong with discussing or intellectualising music.

Indeed not, if that's your 'thang'. The latter, however, doesn't interest me one iota; in fact it can quite often bore me to tears, especially when snobbery or elitism rears its ugly head!

I've always preferred listening to music than talking about it. I'll talk about hi-fi until the cows come home, but then I've 'studied' that subject more. I don't study music; I simply play it and immerse myself in it my own way, gleaning from it what I will, in the process. Whatever sticks, sticks, and whatever doesn't, doesn't.

I love chatting about music, it's why I enjoy seeing what different people listen to in the album club and why they listen to it - so there is that discussion but it's much more formal.

I do too, up to a certain point, but it has to be about music I can relate to or stuff I would be interested in. However, I'm much more of the 'play it, enjoy it and shut up' school of musical appreciation!

Having had the pleasure of visiting Jerry and listening to his hifi AND his music and seeing his reaction to some of it, there's definitely a fair amount of passion going on there (and some pain when my Art Blakey was going on as well).

Lol... No doubt old Jezza lurves his choons!

Marco.

[griffo104]

I do too, up to a certain point, and it has to be with music I can relate to. However, I'm much more of the 'play it, enjoy it and shut up' school of musical appreciation!

Relating to music is difficult thing. I started off as a teenage metal head but over the years my love of classical and jazz has made me realise that sometimes you really need to hear something new to expand your musical horizons.

going back to when I was younger - say about 25 - if someone told me I'd have a few hundred classical recordings I'd have had a good laugh at them but things change and sometimes you just hear a piece which triggers something off in you - in my case with classical it was Shotakovish and subsequently reading about him and his music and Stalin (I was reading a lot of Marx and Engels at the time so the whole Communist thing interested me).

I've had a problem with films. Having watched some very serious cinema in my formative years it became very easy to dismiss a lot of Hollywood as being cheap and having no real depth to it. It became to a point where it was pure snobbery on my part. I still enjoy serious cinema but I've learnt to switch off and enjoy a good action film for what it is (I still struggle with some of the crude stuff they regard as comedy though at the moment).

I can understand how it's easy to dismiss some music as it's not your 'thing' but every now and again your 'thing' gets readjusted