Keeping Up With Music

BTS for the most part are pretty bland by kpop standards so it's not surprising no one here is really that into them and despite their breakthrough in the west it seems like it's really more of an insular thing with a gigantic cult fanbase than something that's become a more integrated part of the us pop mainstream so i'd imagine if you don't seek them out they're still quite easy to have completely avoided? i did really love their gqom track "idol" though, that felt exciting. if there wasn't the kpop thread to absorb the "they actually broke through" discussion etc. i'm sure someone would have made one then, and that's the most interesting thing about them - that they managed to break through in the west in a way no other kpop group has really come close to.

There is no such thing as 'keeping up'. In any given month the amount of music you or anyone else listens to is absolutely dwarved by what you don't listen to. There are vast amounts of music being released, plenty of it great, that never gets talked about or shared here or anywhere else.

So "keeping up" is entirely illusory. And even the most self-consciously wide-ranging of listeners are limited by their routes of discovery, whether that's ILM or Pitchfork or streaming services or crate digging or anything else. Some of the people who make the least effort to "keep up" in the traditional sense have the most interesting and often the most rewarding music habits, people can spend entire years down the rabbit hole of one genre.

This is all true but I think a lot of music (and movies and literature and etc.) enthusiasts engage in some suspension of disbelief about it - that old Lester Bangs story about dreaming of a bunker with every album ever released.

xpost all true. my main point again was about ILM and what gets discussed or covered - BTS was really just an example. there's plenty of bland music that gets attention around here, like there's multiple ed sheeran threads and not all of them are dunking on him lol.

It's virtually impossible to ignore Ed Sheeran in fairness, he gets everywhere.

In 2011 I spent the year listening to as much new music as I possibly could, didn't know about ILM at the time so went between music blogs / review sites, hypemachine and release lists, in the end came out with a list which had some crossover with EOY lists, but had loads more weird electronic music of various sorts.

Re: boy bands, I don't think ILM has ever really engaged with the phenomenon.

― Siegbran, Friday, July 3, 2020 10:39 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Have you guys seen the 1975 thread?!

*ducks*

xp Like this was in my top 5 out of the 20,000 or so tracks I listened to and it never got so much as a mention on ILM as far as I can tell from searching, and not sure why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZlzIsfE--g

xpost speaking of bland

*ducks too*

:D

*ducks*

that old Lester Bangs story about dreaming of a bunker with every album ever released.

Lol right now we're all essentially living in bunkers with every album ever released! Though sadly I think I've been listening to music *less* the last few months, because my entire family is at home and I prefer the stereo to headphones. There is some stuff they'll tolerate but I know there's a ton of stuff they'd gong after a minute. They did all seem to like the Jessie Ware when I had it on at dinner the other night, Pet Shop Boys on random last night was well received. But there was something accessible/popular I can't remember I had on where one of them came in right at an uncharacteristically loud part and told me to turn it off or way down, and rather than remind them it was something they liked I just turned it off.

Oh, and re: Tik Tok, I refuse to engage with something that cuts attention spans even shorter, but my daughter was driving with me and I think Coldplay's "Clocks" came on the radio, and I said, oh, this is a nice song, and she said she was a fan. I asked her how she knew it and she said people do Tik Tok's to the intro. Actually, even funnier, the next day she was trying to remember what song it was, and we had both forgotten (I literally just remembered right now), so she was racking her brain for what she heard and kept running down the litany of wrong-path classic rock acts. "Was it Led Zeppelin? Was it the Eagles"? Etc. (None of which she likes unless it was covered on "Glee" or appeared in a movie or something, some other context.)

You may like (even love!) a song/album for a few months, but idk if it's worth it if it's not something you'll remember or can be bothered seeking out again five years down the road.

If it gave you enjoyment for any amount of time, it's worth it imo. It's preferable that it give you endless enjoyment but let's not get greedy.

Same thing with movies innit. There's some movies I enjoyed watching but don't ever want to see again, forgot what happened in them, etc. Totally worth seeing tho. Then there's the personal pantheon that I know I'll watch many times again.

my main point was that even on a forum as expansive and diverse as ILM, there are massive blindspots, and i'm sure there's lots of other genres/subgenres that we're ignoring.

― Roz

Absolutely, there is way to much music out there to even attempt to discuss all of it among a fairly small group of ILM regulars. There's no discussions on aggrotech, calypso or Turkish chartpop. I don't really dislike K-pop, or pop from anywhere else for that matter, but I'm not sure if I have much useful to say about it - I mean the last cheap-and-cheerful throwaway pop music I really loved was italo disco.

It's virtually impossible to ignore Ed Sheeran in fairness, he gets everywhere.

It's really not. I have never heard a whole Ed Sheeran song. (I have never heard a whole Beyoncé song.)

I have no idea what Ed Sheeran sounds like.

I would be up for a calypso thread (though I know it's basically heritage music now)

Ed Sheeran doesn't sound at all distinctive, you have probably heard him and not realised.

BTS was really just an example. there's plenty of bland music that gets attention around here, like there's multiple ed sheeran threads and not all of them are dunking on him lol.

We also have a 1D thread. I think all of the examples Siegbran gave were pre-ILx so not sure how we would have had contemporary threads on them...

I don't mind BTS but don't find them that exciting, and definitely have a tendency to fall into the 'girl groups or GTFO' k-pop bracket. Big exception would have been when EXO went epic ('Mama', 'Wolf' etc), but that's soooooo long ago now.

do we have a "newly released albums i'm listening to this week" thread? just speaking pragmatically as someone who does like to keep up (probably have heard ~300 new albums so far this year) it's a pain to check a dozen different places online to find out what's out and an active thread where ilxors just post the brand new releases they're checking out would be useful for this purpose.

just smoothly blend a "whatever new music you are listening to" post into one of the politics threads imo

do we have a "newly released albums i'm listening to this week" thread?

Not quite the same thing, but we do have a Rolling Favorite Tracks + Albums 2020 thread, and it doesn't get bumped as often as it should imo (I, too, am guilty of this).

that thread is super useful, yes, shout out to ulysses for putting in some work there in 2020

another "never heard Ed Sheeran" person here btw

I *think* I've heard one song by him. Certainly only one song that I'd recognize by name.

I went from buying 400+ non-current-release albums a year and maybe 10 current-release albums from 2000-2015, to by now buying 200-300+ current release albums per year the last few, and honestly, it's wonderful to be overwhelmed by how much excellent new music there is. For me, most of that excellent music is being made by Black artists (mostly) pushing the boundaries of or completely obliterating genre. Obviously even buying hundreds of records a year, you'll "miss" tons of great music--but so what? That's what the rest of your life is for, to "discover" it later. I'm just trying to enjoy the pleasure of getting to hear all this happen in more or less real time, and it's a deeply necessary antidote to the hope-sucking nature of so much of the current era, outside of realms of human creativity.

The pan/sans/anti-genre music made by Black artists the last half decade should be revered, like mid-80s "house," 78-82 "post-punk," 80s-90s "golden age" hip-hop...

But perversely, it'll probably take a catch-all term for geeks to latch on...https://t.co/BjUjExA7jp pic.twitter.com/uVAWILskoz

— Musicophilia (@musicophiliamix) July 3, 2020

On 7/3 all $ spent at @Bandcamp goes to artists/labels, and @MikeSchpitz and I will buy you (2) digital albums by of your choice by Black artists!

Just retweet w/ a link to a favorite album by a Black artist.

Goal is 78 albums! 6/5+6/19, we bought 132 albums--keep it going! pic.twitter.com/FxNrWj7DYu

— Musicophilia (@musicophiliamix) July 2, 2020

this is the only ed sheeran song you really need to know imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yN1JBYTtF8

and thanks for the love.

here's my ongoing 2020 keepers playlist; not everything I hear is on spotify but most of it is: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0kXJmmQP3udiqToIDPQvZp

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-41-most-anticipated-albums-of-fall-2020-cardi-b-sufjan-phoenix-2-chainz-and-more/

41!

I don't think I've ever listened to 41 albums released in a single year (let alone a single season) within that calendar year. Maybe in 1998 when I lived with a guy who would compulsively buy music, like weekly trips to the record store, coming back with a stack of 10.

I don't think I've ever listened to 41 albums released in a single year

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/030/710/dd0.png

all that but no Arch Garrison or Hen Ogledd

Actress, Autechre, Deftones and Pallbearer are the only ones I care about.

counted 20 that i will likely play through at least once, maybe 10 that i'm genuinely looking forward to

(actress, autechre, black thought, blackpink, cardi, G garzon-Montano, Juicy, Kylie, Lattimore, Mountain Goats, yg)

pom, I don't understand that image

I think the Tim Heidecker album might be kinda good

I read the Quietus and Resident Advisor and follow labels and groups on bandcamp, and everyone around me thinks I'm incredibly well-informed about music. A little perplexing to me that anyone feels pressure to keep up in this day and age rather than just follow their impulse and ears, but I also don't write about this stuff professionally any longer.

Oh sorry, rob, it's a dumb meme:

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/awkward-look-monkey-puppet

What I meant by it is that I'm ashamed of the ridiculous amounts of new music I listen to in a given year so reading that sentence was kind of awkward on my end, i.e. 'best to pretend this isn't me'.

I will also say that I just don't give a shit about much pop music, it's just not where my head nor heart have been at for years.

I don't think I've ever listened to 41 albums released in a single year (let alone a single season) within that calendar year.

Professional obligation forces me to listen to ~25 new albums a month. 90% of those (at a minimum) are jazz titles, though. Re the Pitchfork list, I will listen to Autechre and maybe Deftones and maybe Pallbearer but none of the rest of that stuff has any relevance to my life. Which doesn't make it good or bad, just Not For Me.

xp
ah got it, and no need to feel shame--I probably do listen to more than 41 album's worth (~50 min.) of music in a year, but not all in album form (and when I had an office job I listened to way more than that, but that was when I was a lot less invested in current music).

anyway, I was more just struck by how the number was both arbitrary and high, like I wonder if their analytics show that 41 brings in more clicks than a round number

They could have removed the PE album (is anyone really anticipating that?), and made it an even 40.

both the new PE singles are very good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQvDRe79F8k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNUl8bAKdi4

Where’s the upcoming Afropop list ? and the reggaeton one? Not that I am up to date on what has come out already this year.

Wizkid is perpetually upcoming

^ that was me being sarcastic/bitter/frustrated: Wizkid has been dangling his Made In Lagos project in front of us for at least three years now. I suspect he has several discarded finished versions in his vault. I’m secretly hoping (still!) for Oct 1, Nigeria’s Independence Day.

To further answer (part of) your question:
On the Nigerian side of things, there have been recent releases by Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Fireboy DML, Adekunle Gold, Patoranking and Kizz Daniel. Niniola will have an album out soon (that’s something to be excited about!), and so might Davido.

As for South Africa, Sun-El Musician has promised a new album in (Southern Hemisphere) “spring”, and Kabza De Small will undoubtedly drop (yet) another album, with or without DJ Maphorisa. I’m also looking forward to De Mthuda’s new album.

But there will be much more than just these obviously.

This is absolutely the first year I can remember where not only did I struggle to keep up with music, but I totally forgot about albums I liked from bands that I love. For example, I totally forgot that X released a good record this year. Or, the Dua/Jessie/Roisin glossy nu-disco trio, for example, all albums I really enjoyed and enjoy listening to yet keep forgetting to play. Or Fiona Apple and Kathleen Edwards, two artists I love that released great new comebacks that I love that I just keep forgetting to play. Looking over year-end lists, there is just so much I haven't heard or even heard of, and of the stuff I have heard it's just downright impossible for me to keep straight in my brain, let alone fore of mind. So much music!

Weirdly, I wonder if this has been inadvertently pandemic related. My family is around all the time, but I'm a speaker guy, not a headphone guy, and just haven't been free to blast stuff on the stereo when the mood strikes. Hmm ...

i've struggled a bit too tbh. combination of (1) leaving my desk job means i spent far less time sitting in front of a computer and reading reviews and mailing list emails and ilx or whatever when i should've been working, (2) being at home means i'm more inclined to listen to the records and cds i already own rather than scouting for new stuff on spotify or bandcamp, and (3) too much other crazy shit going on to worry about it all that much

I binged even more than usual on new releases this year and I kind of regret it. I should probably stop trying to understand what the fuss is all about when it comes to genres I *know* I don't care for at least 95% of the time. I think part of the reason I do that is because just having so much as a vague sense of what other people are into makes me feel less alienated (except it also has the exact opposite effect, concomitantly).

Took me 9 months to realize I could secretly listen to music on zoom calls

— vijay iyer (@vijayiyer) December 15, 2020