A professional listener
It has always been my dream to get paid to listen to music, and, bully for me, it's come true and I love it. My biggest worry has been that going to concerts, and the like, would start to seem like work, but fortunately that hasn't happened.
There are, however, some unforeseen downsides to my job. One of the more annoying things is whenever I meet new people and tell them what I do, their first question is always, "So what's new? What should I be listening too?"
I hate this question.
First off, I don't know you, I don't know what you like.
But secondly, it takes me a really long time to integrate new music into my regular rotation. Yeah, I can tell you who the latest flash in the pan is, and which style from the '80s they're copying, but finding really good new music takes some time and reflection.
It's basically a process of osmosis, for me. Now there is the rare album that I'll put on and immediately love, but usually it works like this. I'll start hearing about a band — from blogs, magazines, publicists, friends, or because they're playing in town and I put them in the listings — and maybe download a track or load up their CD (from my stack of promos). Then, I forget about it. I'll remember the band next time I read about them, or they play in town, or their music comes up randomly on my iPod. And maybe they stick in my mind a little more, or maybe they don't. And this process repeats itself until I either say, "Yuck, what are these guys doing on my playlist?" or "Hey, these guys are pretty good." If the latter, the band is absorbed into my mental collection of "music I've always liked." So I never actually feel like I'm listening to new music. Of course I've adopted new favorite groups over time (otherwise my musical development would have stopped with The Beatles, which was the only music I listened to in 7th and 8th grade). But my answer to the above question is always, pretty much word for word, "Oh, I don't know. I haven't really heard anything that impressed me lately."
I'll share a secret with you after the jump.
-- Emily Hulme, www.amNY.com
I don't like Arcade Fire. It's not a popular opinion among rock snobs (or David Bowie, who loves the group), but I'm supposed to be cool enough not to care what other rock snobs think (although I do care desperately what David Bowie thinks).
The way I discovered this is that I did the forget-remember-forget-remember thing for a little over a year now (since "Funeral" came out in September 2004), and I got no reaction. I even tried to give the album a concentrated listen more than once. But, to this day, I cannot really remember what they sound like. To me, that's worse than soliciting a negative response. So I am admitting defeat, and just accepting the fact that Arcade Fire means nothing to me. Please don't hate me David Bowie.
