Taking A Break: Music Burnout / Overload

Also, how did it feel to be "out of the loop" insofar as new stuff was concerned?

are you 13?

There's been a couple of threads. I recently talked about this feeling in my Radiohead blog series, since I went through it -- here and here -- but to sum up, it was a feeling in my early thirties where I just wanted to downshift on a number of fronts and work through some tough thoughts in my head. The familiar meant far more at that time than the new.

If I was ever "in the loop," it's been 20 years! Once when I was unemployed and had no money for new music, I played every disc that I hadn't put on for a year or more. Some I hadn't listened to in over a decade. Prog! 70s singer-songwriters! Why do I still have this promo? It was a great archival dig.

I have NEVER felt like taking a break from listening altogether.

Sorry, I am 14 actually.

been there, done that

try quitting the mp3s

Thank you Alex, I searched for "music overload" and such but didn't think to search for burnout.

"...consuming new stuff..."

That's the way to put it - "consuming" as opposed to "enjoying". This year I've put my R&D activities into overdrive; I usually have a half dozen new albums waiting in the queue, many of them compilations. And that's just MP3s - new stuff and reissues continue unabated. It's both thrilling and exhausting to sort through it all.

Fortunately at this time of year things do slow down as new CD releases peter out and I've willfully stopped grabbing every blog posting that might interest me. While I'm not burned out on great music, I am burned out on the QUEST for great music. These days I'm content to go back to not only my favorites from this year but old favorites I haven't heard in a while.

Cycle of life, brother.

ha. i was about to say 'listen to some reggae' as i had a vague recollection of that being an answer i liked in an old thread - et voila ! alex has dug the thread out with that very advise.
i stand by that.
along with detroit styled techno as thats my current 'wiping the slate clean' music.

I go through this process daily, really. I listen to music all day at work, then get to a point where my ears/brain have had enough. I usually break for several hours and later at night put on ambient or drone.

I'm curious to the different variations of how we listen.

First, this site seems to favor people who are able to process a great quantity of music and who also manage to digest most of it. I've known plenty of collectors who never get around to listening to much of what they collect, or listen to it once and file it for the rainy day that never comes. But it seems like people here --even if they're constantly switching it up -- get a decent understanding of what they're listening to. (This could also mean the board is slanted younger, because for a myriad of reasons as we get older it seems harder to retain information. Why else can I still recount albums I listened to when I was 14 and haven't heard since while albums I enjoyed last week completely blank from my memory?)

I'm more likely to go through strong defined phases where listening to one artist for long periods of time reaps more rewards than chasing out a dozen obscure ones. Not that I'm not interested in checking out what's out there, but when it comes time to concentrate and listen closely I find myself drawn to a particular artist for a serious amount of time.

I also find that I listen to different music in different contexts. Car music isn't always home music and music with the lights out and headphones on is different from music listened to while typing. How many times have I thought something sounded great late at night and then put it on during the day and thought I must be completely fucked.

If only there was a way to know which albums I will NEVER listen to again and eliminate them from my collection today, it would make it so much easier to find the things that will remain relevant.

I once dumped a copy of Tim Buckley's Starsailor in a moment of haste and of course that turned out to be the hardest one to replace. Had it been any other Buckley I could've just picked it up again a few weeks later...figures, right?

I've known plenty of collectors who never get around to listening to much of what they collect, or listen to it once and file it for the rainy day that never comes. But it seems like people here --even if they're constantly switching it up -- get a decent understanding of what they're listening to.

could be ILMers are bluffing 'bout "understanding" everything they listen to. i know i do sometimes.

I'm sure we all bluff sometimes -- some better than others -- but maybe because I'm new and not wise to your nefarious ways it seems like the interest in checking out the music edges out the need to add to the numbers.

Wow, smurfherder pretty much sums it up.

I also find that I listen to different music in different contexts. Car music isn't always home music and music with the lights out and headphones on is different from music listened to while typing. How many times have I thought something sounded great late at night and then put it on during the day and thought I must be completely fucked.

Yes, and in my case this is starting to be a problem, as I can't really find any all-purpose music these days. I'll usually be looking for half an hour for what consider I'll consider the most "appropriate" music and then just give up and put iTunes on shuffle.

If only there was a way to know which albums I will NEVER listen to again and eliminate them from my collection today, it would make it so much easier to find the things that will remain relevant.

i learnt the hard way to never fall into this trap.
many years ago i thought i'd never want to listen to cabaret voltaire again. no idea what the fuck i was on at the time, but hey, i was pretty dam certain at the time, so i sold off my drinking gasoline double 12", along with a few other bits and pieces (23 skidoo !!).
to say i still wake up in a cold sweat over that day would be an understatement.
you have no idea as to how the mood will swing tomorrow making your head need to hear a certain long forgotten favourite.

also - totally agree re context and the relevant soundtrack.
an extended daily commute normally seems to require some form of upfront techno based music, whereas working from home on the late shift until the early hours, downtempo glitch electronic music is the main demand, that or some nice and easy dub.

There are albums in my collection that I will never ever listen to again, but usually they are of the type that no secondhand store will want either, not even for free, as they only take up space there without the slightest chance of ever having someone buy them.

Serves you right for buying britpop cds, Geir.

If only there was a way to know which albums I will NEVER listen to again and eliminate them from my collection today, it would make it so much easier to find the things that will remain relevant.

ah, the eternal struggle. i see 4 months' worth of music in my itunes library and think, surely, there must be a way to clear out at least a week's worth of this stuff, right? it's all tied to CDs, naturally. so i try to sell things i'm genuinely past wanting to hear again. about 5% of the time that comes back around to bite me in the ass...

typically after a weekend with my in-laws i want nothing but silence on the 2 1/2 hr ride home.

I found that listening to the sounds around you is very refreshing. Birds, wind, buses in the distance, etc. THAT RAW SHIT

So, I guess now it's my turn for this whole burnout/overload thing. I've just spent the last hour or so looking through my music collection for something to listen to, only to find that there's nothing I really want to listen to. So, I did what I usually do when this happens, check out lists of new releases, try to seek out something old that I haven't heard yet and... I just couldn't really be arsed.

I know precisely why this has happened. I've realised that for the last 22 years I've actually been listening to music when and wherever possible that it's got to the stage where I've reached burnout, and certainly over the last 12 years since music has become more and more available via digital/streaming etc. I've found myself increasingly listening to more music than ever before in some kind of intense competition with myself to hear as much as I possibly can to the point where the music is only having a fraction of the impact and I'm finding myself at a bit of a dead-end as to what to listen to next.

Fortunately, I know what I need to do. Looking over my music collection, I think I'm actually done with checking out "old" music. I guess it's just a case of taking a break and waiting for the urge to kick back in to hear something, and to take things a little easier and be a little less intense about it. Maybe just checking out new stuff from now on, but doing it at a pace where I'm enjoying the music instead of driving myself up the wall trying to listen to everything.

http://www.theonion.com/article/lifelong-love-affair-with-music-ends-at-age-35-1199

i always remember jaxon's post from his "jazz goes disco" bc i recognize my own listening habits in it:

i get really bored with certain genres and i start opening up to stuff i previously thought was crap.

Jazz in the late 70s / early 80s (jazz goes pop, jazz goes disco)

^ that thread illustrates my drift from thread 2006-2011 -- and much of my core tastes