Falling in love with music

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Is a record you love on first listen necessarily more shallow and of lesser quality than a record you have to warm up with, you have to force yourself to listen to in the beginning to appreciate?

I am not sure about the answer. There is a tendency in me which dismisses music which is easy to like like chart music as artistically inferior to music which is harder to get into. At the same time I am almost 100% sure that music which I instantly like is music which I will also instantly (after few listens) dislike. Easy getting in means also easy getting out.

Music which takes its time to sink in seems to me music which also settles in more permanently. The relation is deeper than to superficial chart pop. The investment of listening to music which wasn't amazing in the beginning pays off later. Falling in love slowly means falling in love more intensely. Or is this theory too simple to be true? (complete post with example)

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 20:13 (twenty-one years ago) link

but what about superficial chart pop that grows more resonant with time? Not everything that means a lot to you will sound like "aht" the first time you hear it. The handclaps might be what grabbed your ear but the lyrics may matter more later, ya know?

Plus sometimes when I think I'm getting into an album slowly, I worry that what I'm really doing is forcing myself to listen to an album everybody else likes because of its acclaim rather than because "I'm slowly getting into it."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 1 April 2003 20:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

Your last sentence is interesting, Anthony. You are right. Often getting slowly into music is influenced by outer circumstances. There is an element of forcing myself to like certain music you don't get straight away.

This also is true for bands/artists I have loved in the past. Even if I don't like their new album I will listen to it more (to like it eventually) than to a newcomer band or even a band I used to dislike before.

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 02:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

Sorry, I wanted to write:

"There is an element of forcing myself to like certain music I don't get straight away."

― alex in mainhattan (alex63), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 02:47 (twenty-one years ago) link

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