Giving new albums a chance, How Do You pass Judgement??
 

Since most everyone here seems to be a music lover, I was wondering, how often do you usually listen to a new album or artist before passing judgement on them?
Most of the people I know decide immediately whether or not they like an artist, which often repulses them from the likes of more experimental artists like Radiohead and older music from people like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Duane Allman.
Because of this, most of them are trapped in the realms of Jack Johnson and John Mayer.

I try to be a little more open minded, giving artists at least a week of listen and albums at least 4 playthroughs before deciding whether I love them or they don't suit my tastes. But I feel like maybe this is preventing me from discovering more artists, and making music feel more laborous than enjoyable.


I just want to know, what is the best way to go about discovering new musics??

I use the itunes store a lot to just preview an artists work. They have a pretty comprehensive inventory and most of the time I can tell with a 30 sec. soundbite or two whether or not I'm gona' like them.
I use you tube too, but basically my general rule is if I can think of at least 3 bands/artists that sound very similar I'm pretty much not interested.

Usually I make a decision based on a couple of songs but my first impressions have been wrong so many times by now that I'm seriously reconsidering that policy. But on the other hand, there are just so many albums out there right now that I have very little patience to spend more time with a new album if there isn't at least something that intrigues me about it.

I have to admit that I have come close to posting a similar question to Music Banter members.

I am amazed at the amount of new music that I see everyone claim to have listened to and then claim that it is Great/Poor and then seemingly make this decision on limited listens. If I dismissed everything I listened to on one to two listens I would be passing by everything.

I have found that the albums that grab you by the balls initially generally have limited staying power where as the growers have a life.
So in the end I play most things a minimum of 3/4 times to give it a chance, if it grabs me, say the odd song really stands out, I keep playing and tend to find that the albums are very good usually. In fact not too much offends me with this system. No matter who the artiste most of the time I get to appreciate what is presented. There are of course exceptions that I don't like but they are few.

If I get a new album, I rarely listen to it close to when I download it... Normally its just hanging around for a fe wweeks when I decide to give it a whirl... I will generally know if I love an album straight away but there have been plenty of great-good albums where on first listen I couldn't stand, but then a few months later I 'rediscover' that I love it.

If I hate something I have downloaded I pretty much delete it from my comp simply so it never graces my ears again.

That's pretty much how it works for me too.

But I never do this. I've owned albums that have taken literally years for me to get into. Knowing that, I hang onto albums indefinitely. Without a doubt there are some albums that I don't like right now that will suddenly start appealing to me in five years or so.

2 listens is the average for me, if i'm still unsure but there's something there that keeps me interested then it gets a few more because i assume it's a grower. I very rarely delete anything, only if it's been on my computer for years without me even thinking about touching it.

thanks for the replies
=)


there are just soooo many albums to listen to, I feel so behind and don't know how to go about it.
I read some people's comments and they talk about all of the artists on RS's top 100 and how they should be ranked and all, when I haven't even heard of most of them.

I want to listen to all of them, but want to be able to appreciate them at the same time. Seem like it'll take forever...

well, I've got a good 50 years to buckle down. maybe it'll be easier after med school
haha

I usually give something a listen to twice, unless it really doesn't agree with me. However I do not delete anything I download now, I just make sure to never actively put it on. I backup everything I've got onto a 500 GB external harddrive, slowly I'm creating an achieve.

I have a really OCD thing about having single songs or less than 3/4 of an albums songs. I either have to delete what i have or get the rest of the album