Buying CDs as gifts for people that they didn't specifically ask for

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

What do you all think? Have you ever gotten a CD (or tape, record, etc.) as a gift that you hadn't specifically asked for, and yet you really were glad you got it? How well can a person really diagnose another person's taste? Is it an exciting adventure in empathetic music appreciation, or just a narcissistic exercise in imposing one's taste on another person?

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 19 December 2003 04:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Music for a 10 yr old nephew

What do 19-year-olds like?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 December 2003 04:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks for the links, Alex. I missed those the first time around. Basically, they are reinforcing the suspicion I already had, which is that it's best to just burn a CD-R or a mix for someone if you want to introduce them to some new music, and save gifts for stuff that you have very good reason to believe they're going to want.

― o. nate (onate), Friday, 19 December 2003 04:50 (twenty-two years ago)

looking through the pile of stuff you're unlikely to listen to again for gifts cos you're broke..c/d?

― gaz (gaz), Friday, 19 December 2003 04:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's fine if they've actively expressed interest, but basically forcing your tastes on someone (which, mind you, is pretty much precisely what I did with my nephew) is generally a poor way to go. That said, he did quite enjoy the Green Day disc and the Clash disc (he voiced no opinion, worryingly, on the Killing Joke disc....perhaps he knows better than to dare speak ill of the Joke to his swivel-eyed uncle). For X-mas, he asked for more music. When I asked by whom, he offered: "stuff you think I'd like." So there's my permission.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 19 December 2003 05:27 (twenty-two years ago)

That's a very sweet follow-up Alex.

Classic, I think. I am utterly confident that I can change people's lives simply by giving them a CD.

I love giving a person a CD, and exclaiming that he or she is now the luckiest person alive. I am the sage who passed on this plastic epiphany, so be very thankful.

I am then aghast when she isn't completely blown away. Or worse yet, when she loves the CD, but doesn't acknowledge what an amazing person I am for having given it to her.

― Debito (Debito), Friday, 19 December 2003 06:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic, I hope. I just bought my mom a France Gall CD today. Previous things she's liked: Belle & Sebastian, Magnetic Fields, Pogues, Beautiful South.

― spittle (spittle), Friday, 19 December 2003 08:37 (twenty-two years ago)

(For a while there, my whole family was on a steady B&S diet -- me, my little brother (who mostly only likes Trent Reznor and Eminem), mom & dad, my brother-in-law. the only holdout was my sister, who called them "the Queer Brothers," despite my insistence that there were no brothers in the band.)

― spittle (spittle), Friday, 19 December 2003 08:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Provided you know them well enough to be able to guess with what they'll like and know they haven't already got it with reasonable certainty: classic.

All the guys in the last band I was in all used to get together before xmas every year and everyone would give everyone else the CD that they most felt that other person should have bought during the last 12 months but hadn't - I got several great albums that I probably wouldn't otherwise have bought that way.

Also, several unsuspecting people are going to be getting the Punk Aid "Ere's Your Xmas" single from me this year, on the basis that: it's a great song; it's obviously xmas themed but with a suitably irreverent, subversive twist; at 2-3 quid each they're not much more expensive than a decent card; they're sack loads more fun than any boring old card; all the recipients will instantly identify them as having come from me (I'm probably the only - and most definitely the saddest - punk obsessed old git any of my mates know); even if the ungrateful bastards chuck the sodding things away unplayed, most of the money will have gone to a good cause. So I reckon that's classic too.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 19 December 2003 09:47 (twenty-two years ago)

it depends. i mean if its someone i really really love and they got it for me and was all excited and it was duff - its a classic/dud - i'll never sell it because it was a gift but at the same time it does ruin the anal continuity of the collection.

― griffin doome, Friday, 19 December 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic. I would always prefer somebody to have gone out and guessed what I'd like rather than have to be told. That said if somebody guessed I'd like Crunk And Disorderly I would be particularly happy.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 19 December 2003 09:50 (twenty-two years ago)

My brother and I do this a lot. We both have pretty similar tastes so it works pretty well. Through him I have recently received CDs by Oxes and Andrew WK (Which I NEVER would have bought but which is actually quite cool, in a crappy sort of way)

― neil simpson (neil simpson), Friday, 19 December 2003 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I did this for my brother about six years ago - this is after years of buying him specifically what he (and his first wife) wanted; I got him the second Laika LP (but not just that). He's never made any reference to it. I haven't spoken to him for about 18 months.

Er, maybe Dud, then.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.

Buying CDs as gifts for people that they didn't specifically ask for - C or D?