The Music Diary Project

Morning!

I must admit I'm kind of interested - usually hang round ilb, read the music board with interest and I've heard a lot of great things through it, but tend not to contribute cos I feel a bit overawed by the analytical skills and knowledge on show. Feel with this project with its emphasis on mundane context it'd be a handy in for me to think about music writing, and also a useful way of working out what I feel about music again: my tastes have undergone a lot of changes in the past couple of years, for a start I listen to a LOT more stuff (partly ILX, partly things like spotify/having an iphone) and as a consequence my default critical stance tends to be 'I'm not really sure'.(Aside from long-held likes like The Fall). Consumption seems to have overridden taste, perhaps. Time to address that and I reckon this would be the perfect platform.

Hope this doesn't come across as hopelessly amateurish, but if you'll have me I guess I'm on board.

Everyone's welcome, especially if you think it's going to help you understand your relationship with music better. That's what it's about.

http://shaolin-directory.tumblr.com/post/2955855637/psa-the-music-diary-project

Looks interesting. May well be up for it.

yeah unless that week of april proves to be particularly hectic i can do this - last.fm will record what i listened to, all i'll have to do is record the wheres and whys

Bumpity, just to remind people.

http://sickmouthy.wordpress.com/musicdiaryproject/

Ages to go though. I shan't be doing this every day!

Keen.

A listening log for you to download and fill in - http://sickmouthy.com/2011/03/27/the-music-diary-project-listening-log/

Bump.

I'm in this! Non-professional writer myself, but I take this doesn't demand much prior experience (?) (I don't have a blog, as you mentioned in the post).

Have to ask, tho - any qualms against copying and pasting the log from my last.fm for this?

dug deeper and got my answer (yes). i'll submit my spreadsheet via here come the deadline.

Don't need to submit your spreadsheet; it's just an aid memoir. Publish the diary however you like as long as it's sharable.

When does this start again?

Next Monday; 4th April.

Count me in.

Bump again. This starts on Monday. Who's in?

I'll definitely try and do this Nick, great idea!

Really want to do this, but special circumstances next week make me wonder how much music I'll be listening to. I mean I know it's supposed to be a natural week, but this one is going to be abnormally problematic - this last week would have been perfect! Still want to do something tho, so will work out how best I can do it.

Starts tomorrow! Looks like, due to I'll health, I might have an odd week too. So be it!

got the week off work, so i don't have to track local radio bullshit!

But isn't that sort of stuff the most interesting in a way? The stuff you're exposed to on a day-to-day level when you're not actively selecting - the structures around us (from friends to shop staff to what's available on t' net) that result in the music we listen to? I guess that's what I'm most interested in this week anyway to try and find some sort of identity in this, the strands of musical consumption whose locus is me. Hem hem - possibly a bit pretentious I realise. Just limbering up.

I'm totally interested in the incidental stuff, shop music, radio, etc etc.

well i booked the week off before i noticed it was this, so that was by accident. tried going on the... eurgh... heart fm website to see if they had a master list or something but once i saw the face of keith chegwin. decided it wasn't worth it.

it may take the form of a Tweet or a Facebook status update every time you select a new song on your iPod

yeah if anyone does this i'm unfollowing you

(are we meant to update it daily or at the end of the week?)

(the spreadsheet doesn't work for me)

sort of worried about the dangers of overthinking and over-awareness of this too :/

um the week begins tomorrow not today, right?

It's a good idea. I'll try and remember as much as possible to make a decent job of it.

I'm in. Will be updating here.

I think I'll make a note of what I listen to each day and blog it each evening.

Will try doing a mixture of end-of-day round ups with some attempt to strike while the iron's hot through live updates as well, agree w' lex about the dangers of over-awareness doing this tho - and don't want to break natural flow of listening. wd've been perfect for say, taking a picture of the balalaika player on Trafalgar Square I passed the other night performing to no one tho. See how it goes. All here.

Doing this too, will be updating at the end of the day on my blog.

What you listening to?

stuff

>don't want to break natural flow of listening

This. Early days, but am being dragged out of the moment by needing to make a note of what's playing on my mp3 player; for spotify listening am relying on the last.fm scrobbling which should be easy.

fun though, and enthused to be scrupulous. I'm not counting anything that I skip or shuffle straight through, but am also not self-censoring so there will be Level 42 in here at times.

best so far today: "I Have the Moon, You Have the Internet" during the walking part of my commute where I cut through the old UMIST campus in Manchester, which I love.

You don't have to list every song; just "listening events" - "spent 2 hours listening to random playlist on my iPod" is as valid an entry as a discussion of an individual track and why you chose it.

oh fine, that's cool then. Should've paid more attention to the brief!

I've started logging, using Nick's spreadsheet. Will publish the logs as daily blog posts.

That's my plan.

Today = bugger loads of ambient as I work from home.

morning commute.

first entries are lol wrestler theme tunes.

This has gone pretty mental today.

Alist of blogs & tumblrs involved so far: http://sickmouthy.com/2011/04/04/musicdiaryproject-whos-taking-part/

Thanks for the list, nice to see.

i actually remembered to do this, though this might be my only sober night in of the week so god knows how it'll go in the next few days...

http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/4349201559/music-diary-project-4-4-11

I am doing this and I didn't make the list! shaolin-directory.tumblr.com - Was gonna update every morning after.

Wow, there's a surprising amount of tumblr's here (I clicked thru all of them due to boredom and general curiosity as to which of the "big 3" looked best: blogr, tumblr, wordpressr). and a typepad. and a..tumblr-like thing. and somebody's facebook, which i can't access.

which surprises me, as there's really not many wordpresses.

anyway.

i'll create whatever one by the end of the night. i've had various blogs but all the material is from freshman yr of college and fairly embarrassing, as expected.

tumblr is really shit, i use mine only occasionally and never enthusiastically

a lot of people seem to take their blogs fairly seriously, as if resumes (i know the last time p4k was hiring they asked for personal websites, not attachments). knowing that you're a music-critic, by having a tumblr does this provide some sort of connection as to you being more...um, hip?

hipness is only a concern to me as my train of thought is that if given two equally capable writers, a publication might more go for one "in the know".. and i think just having a new-school tumblr might serve some sort of minimal advantage to an old-school blogspot. or i guess i'm more trying to say that tumblr always struck me as the least professional of all the blogging formats.

i realize this is pretty irrelevant, we just don't have any real blogging threads here on ILM (I've looked)

blah, rereading my post even i am having a hard time figuring out what i'm trying to ask. i guess, as one of 9823702 aspiring music crits here, i'm wondering if i'd be taken more or less seriously had i submitted a tumblr to a publication than a blogspot. sort of like asking for advice on how to format a resume (times new roman or helvetica? etc)

Eid ma clack shaw.

And here's Day Six: http://troubleddiva.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/music-diary-project-%e2%80%93-day-six/

(Weekend listening differs from weekday listening in several ways, as today proved.)

Lying Around Listening To Music All Day Linked To Depression

yeah - i think it's troubling when music i usually enjoy i no longer can derive pleasure from. music acts as such a ~high~ for me... much more successful at completely transporting me into my own mind than any other medium (movies, books, videogames i guess). so when i'll listen to a song i usually find such solace in and that it does fuck-all for me but seem to obstruct me from hearing my environment does that sorta act as like the biological blue-screen of death: YOU ARE DEPRESSED

Saturday, confirming that weekend listening is very different to weekdays.

y'day http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/4489093353/music-diary-project-9-4-11

quite dull really, there's only so much you can say re: "i had to stay in all day and was grumpy about it and this is what i tried to work to"

it'll be a rinse and repeat for today too fml fml

mr. sick mouthy - what're your overall intentions w/ this project? are there any specific questions you aim to answer?

i'd like to know too, it's not been unenjoyable but i don't really know why anyone would be interested in my entries. i mean, it's all on last.fm anyway, anyone who cares can go there...?

Saturday's listening - http://sickmouthy.com/2011/04/10/saturdays-listening/

My motivations will be revealed when I write up my "conclusion" circa Monday / Tuesday.

It would be good if 'Generally, how much of your attention did you give to the music you listened to?' was separated out a bit more and gave options for occasionally, often etc. for each option. I put down 'Some of my attention' as an average but it's so dependant on what the other activity I was doing is that that doesn't really cover it.

Aye, I'd have liked to have gone into more detail, plus gone for demographic data, genre data, how many artists, how often each artist, etc etc etc, but you're limited to ten questions on Survey Monkey unless you pay for a pro account.

And here's Day Seven: http://troubleddiva.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/music-diary-project-%e2%80%93-day-seven/

last day: http://alexmacpherson.tumblr.com/post/4506762203/music-diary-project-10-4-11

enjoyed doing this in the week, hated doing it at the weekend (partly because i hated having to stay in and write all weekend) ("write") (AAARGH FUCKING CUNTING WRITING)

if anyone was remotely interested do let me know why btw, cuz i can't fathom it

actually any PRs lurking around should definitely be on it (though it hasn't been a promo-heavy week at all)

already not sure about what to tick for your survey nick - re: formats, i thought all the live music i'd seen this week would fall under "other" but i guess the DJs i saw would have been playing off CDs and/or vinyl a lot? so would that count? i didn't play any CDs or vinyl myself.

actually the next one is tough too, my listening set-up is a hi-fi system (separates) plugged into my laptop where my music files are so wtf do i tick?

aw poor journalist having to write, must be so hard for you

Filled out the survey. This was an interesting idea sick mouthy; I'm looking forward to your reactions/conclusions.

Reading some of these is kind of interesting, in a non-stalker-way. It's like a more intimate version of last.fm scrobbling.

http://mookieproof.tumblr.com/post/4514714040/musicdiaryproject-thursday-to-sunday

if anyone was remotely interested do let me know why btw, cuz i can't fathom it

I found them interesting, Lex! Just as a glimpse into someone else's listening habits. It gave me... I dunno... a bit more context, I suppose. I liked the way that you played favourite new tracks several times in a day; I used to do that a lot, but almost never these days, not sure why.

Here are my week's entries: http://abegrand.pitas.com/

All done:

http://runningthevoodoodown.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-music-diary.html

I was trying to post the contents of a spotify playlist, but the best I managed was a bunch of url links, not good.

it'd be fun to have a "day in the life of ______" for some of these

I liked the way that you played favourite new tracks several times in a day; I used to do that a lot, but almost never these days, not sure why.

it was quite a low week for that tbh! didn't have a great deal of time for it as was either running around town or listening to music for work for much of it. this is an example of how obsessive i can get about favourite new tracks: http://www.last.fm/user/lexpretend/library/music/Ciara/_/Wants+For+Dinner

Thinking on, Fridays journey also had: Leon Kings' that one w/sexonfire and that one that starts Boomwoobwooobwoob...

Journey back (sunday) had: Badly Drawn Boy's "what I'm thinking", Crystal Castles 2, PlanB, ummm...that's it.

62 people have taken the survey. I'm gonna write up my conclusion today.

Just been linked to some Mexican blogs that took part, writing in Spanish. Haven't a fucking clue what they said.

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/04/12/what-was-the-musicdiaryproject-for/

haha never mind me from over the weekend, i was just really grumpy what with my mountain of work etc, which made thinking about the whys and wheres of what i listened to more annoying than usual cuz it was just a bit dull. i enjoyed it during my (unusually varied) week!

I spend £10 on an album, that an artist may have sweated blood to produce, and then I pay it scant attention while I chop onions, or edit photos, or drive to the shops, or… If I love music so much, doesn’t it deserve a little more than that?

i'd flip this - i listen to music when i'm travelling or working out or internetting or tidying my room, and it's actually the latter activities i'm paying scant attention to - i rarely listen exclusively to music, but it takes something i really need to concentrate on to divert my attention away from it to the extent you imply.

which may explain a lot, from my dislike of cooking to my ability to get lost 5 minutes from my own house :/

also i was way more interested in the specifics what people listened to - but then i already think about how i listen to music a lot of the time already. i was interested to see how people chose to soundtrack similar activities to mine, like travelling and just wandering around getting lunch, and how that compared with what i'd chosen.

i'm also surprised to see that so few (anyone?) were as affected by the weather as i am!

Had an interesting conversation with my boss, who took part, and used to be a music editor at The Big Issue, and he was really intrigued by how I deliberately picked ambient music to work to for its utility and purpose; I do definitely have a mental checklist of albums (and a pretty extensive playlist on the iPod) that I know wont distract me but will fill space and comfort me.

But yeah, I do cook to music, and wonder what activity I'm paying attention to; and the answer is both neither and both.

Who's up for this again?

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/03/05/music-diary-2012/

this'd be neat, as my music listening habits have entirely changed. i've pretty much abandoned last.fm (last log-in: nov. 2011) and lately have found that walking around w/ headphones has really been counterproductive to how sociable a person i am, so i've quit that (bus-riding, bike-riding, skateboarding = yes.... don't fault my logic, i know i don't have any)

Starting to properly think about this now.

http://sickmouthy.com/music-diary-2012/

Due to getting caught up with buying a house and being visited by the queen and working in cornwall and stuff, this didn't get started last monday. So we're doing it from bank holiday monday, instead.

http://sickmouthy.com/music-diary-2012/

If I weren't doing Then Play Long (and resting a lot because of, um, medical orders) then this would be a good idea. Otherwise I can guarantee you that if it covered tomorrow, my contribution would be a scruffy single sheet of paper with closely-written, largely indecipherable shorthand which I then have to turn into a cogent blog post. Since my wife and I both listen to TPL albums and her thoughts and insights contribute hugely to the final blog product, then I have to scribble these down as soon as she thinks of them.

In truth this would also be the case next Saturday, except knowing what the album is, I expect I will need more than just the one sheet of paper.

Do it anyway Marcello!

Just list everything you listen to for the week, even if a big chunk is for TPL.

Bump.

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/05/07/musicdiary2012-beastie-boys-hot-sauce-committee-part-2/

Tweeting my diary this year.

Last day today.

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/05/13/mass-observation-diary-12-05-2012/