How do you want it? How do you feel?

[EyeSeeCold]

How do you listen to music, for example: satellite, AM/FM, aux, stream? It is casual background noise, the cherry on top that compliments an occasion, or your life's soundtrack? Do you see the increasingly digital future of music as a threat to these values?


Alternatively:
Now that there are so many subgenres, and since globalization has connected most of the world, is there any room left for new styles? Are regional sounds dead? What is the future of music?

 

[Auburn]

How do you listen to music

Spoiler

Laying cozily on my bed or chair with earphones on. I don't like to broadcast my sounds, and I get self-conscious and turn it down or off if someone else is in the room. Music is a very personal thing for me.

Do you see the increasingly digital future of music as a threat to these values?

I am quite taken back by the immense volume of high quality music which globalization has brought into light; so many artists now able to manifest their genuis without the bottlenecks of big label companies. It's phenomenal.

I don't know how the monetized music "industry" will react in years to come, but I don't see music itself as suffering. In fact, there are more sources of inspiration now than ever, and more flavors slowly budding into the collective palate.

It is casual background noise, the cherry on top that compliments an occasion, or your life's soundtrack?

Chillstep's my general background music nowadays, with some movie soundtracks like Amelie or The Fountain thrown in. I'm quite chaotic in my music taste and not at all organized; I follow no rules and am quite ignorant to the names or artists to a lot of what I listen to.... <.<

 

[Hadoblado]

I listen to music through headphones either via computer or phone. I have a smallish music library (I really don't know what the scale is, some people seem to attach their ego to their library size, but I feel without this source of comparison my library is pretty sufficient). If I don't have the music I want to listen to, I stream it.

I would like to share my music with people, but it's very rare I find anyone that I both get along with and share musical interests with. (Picky about both people and music).

Music is very personal for me, and strongly linked to my mood (bidirectionally).

I think (guess) that globalisation initially has had a positive impact on what music is produced, but that over time the benefits will be less and less, while music gets more homogeneous. Great things can come from musical hybridisation, but it's not creating anything genuinely new.

 

[J-man]

iPod or iTunes. Preferably with headphones. It's like bringing something beautiful directly into that private space of the mind, your world, to just live with you there. It's a part of you. I wouldn't want my thoughts broadcast to the people around me and I don't want my music broadcast to them either.

It's never background noise; if I'm reading or whatever the music will just make me waste my time/energy.

I like live versions, movie/anime/game soundtracks, pop, underground stuff, it's all good.

I'm not worried about the future of music. People will keep making awesome music. I'm expecting very good things.

 

[nanook]

I find it hard to discover music that i like, so i go for months of not having anything new to listen to and i avoid most subjectively old music. It's been very silent since 2015.

Music is often like movies to me, entertainment from a variety of genres for a variety of moods. Diving into strange worlds like sci-fi or history.

Often its like dressing up as someone else for carnival (die antwoord), or at least holding on to upbeat or loving emotions (dresden dolls, robyn, the xx, tori amos), sometimes its background for tripping (soriah feat ashkelon, angelite), sometimes it's to process authentic sad or angry or desperate emotions (emptyself, moddi).

It's rarely a reaffirmation of a particular identity, as it used to be when i was younger and into a particular genre like punk and it's almost never random background noise for my computer activity.

I mostly listen while going for a walk, commuting on the bike. I also listen to satsang and podcasts about subjects.

 

[Happy]

I use Spotify, but I don't listen to music often as I once did. I find it to be more of a distraction than anything. Hmm - this has got me wondering if this is due to my abstinence from regular drug use. Regardless, I prefer podcasts to music these days.

However, my music knowledge is still pretty good despite the lack of it in my life. For instance, I got the above 2pac reference and got the song stuck in my head before I even opened the thread

In response to the other questions, I don't believe that digital music poses a threat to the value of music, just as the electric guitar didn't threaten the values of music but opened new roads for exploration.

I think traditionally regional styles are fading, but I don't see them as dying. I expect they will be reinvented and some semblance of them will still live on.

I think the biggest threats to music are the 'music industry' and 'fame'. Especially fame.

Also I'm sick of hearing the sleazy filth that is 21st century pop music. And worse, being subjected to it when I enter any given retail outlet.

Okay I'd better stop before this turns into a full blown rant...

 

[Minuend]

Usually youtube recommending music based on what I like. It's rare I find new music I like, which sucks. I love music I like, but it's rare I find anything new. I can't listen to stuff I don't like for long, that's tiring.

Digital future doesn't change anything in the mucis itself. All that matters is whether I'll come across what I like. Music doesn't have any particular values for me, as values and music rarely lineup for me.... musically. I don't really experience feels and music line up in a way I identify with to a large degree, so for me they are less important. I look for rhythm and feel I like. They will never be 100% what I feel so...

New styles are unimportant, the importance lies in the ability to translate modern feels into music. That will always feel new if done correctly. It's the same with any story. The story itself is unimportant, the way it's presented is everything