You know those weeks where nothing seems to go right? I just had one.
But in other news, today’s idea for blog entry came from a conversation among me, Flamboyant Gaga Fanboy (who went to both Lady Gaga’s Melbourne shows), and Top 40 Girl:
Top 40 Girl: What was the highlight of the show?
Flamboyant Gaga Fanboy: Definitely “So Happy I Could Die”.
Me: Really? [as I learnt when I saw The Decemberists, show highlights can come from unexpected songs, but I was still incredulous, because it's a pretty crappy song. But then again, most Lady Gaga songs are!]
Top 40 Girl: I don’t know that song.
Me: How do I know it and you don’t?
Flamboyant Gaga Fanboy: How do you know it?
My point is that people don’t listen to entire albums anymore, and it’s sad. What with the rise of the iTunes Store and peer-to-peer software, people mainly just listen to lead singles, which are really not always the best songs of the album. Albums should be listened to in full!
But anyway, I have sort of a reputation for listening to obscure music. In fact, Lady Gaga is the only thing I know about Top 40-type music. It’s hard not to know her music. Here’s an example conversation:
Friend: You know that “Sexy Bitch” song?
Me: No.
Friend: Oh…
I often listen to gapless albums, and concept albums; songs from which are not exactly meant to be listened to out of context. I do it anyway, but perhaps it’s another reason I find it disappointing that people aren’t listening to entire albums…
Focus Questions: What about you? Do you listen to entire albums, or just a few songs?
I almost always listen to full albums. I can replace full albums with playlists, but even then I don’t shuffle through the songs, I listen to the playlist in the order I set for it.
Not that I always used to listen to things like that. Probably in the last year or so I made the transition from being a shufflaholic to a full album devotee.
Okay, and I do occasionally put Rhythmbox or iTunes on shuffle (or make use of the “Queue” feature in Rhythmbox to list random songs), and I do have plenty of singles and the like on my computer. I just listen to full albums more often! (Although I must admit, I do not have any full albums by Lady Gaga.)
I very rarely buy single songs. If it’s a top 40 song that I find catchy, sure – but in general, I like to get the full album. I put my iTunes on shuffle most of the time, though.
There are a few albums that I always listen to fully… so if iTunes plays a song from one of those albums, I’ll just skip it, or play the album.
It depends. If I like one song from an album, I’ll usually go and give the entire album a listen. I rarely *love* entire albums though, with the exception of gapless albums, which are awesome.
Haha, Gaga. I don’t get why people don’t buy albums. I mean, how satisfying could a single possibly be? Silly people. I love albums though, I got through phases where I’d listen to one album for ages and then get sick of it and then move on, until I’m back to the same phase.
I wish Backstreet Boys had two shows; I would’ve gone to both, lmao.
I’m weird too in that a lot of my favourite songs aren’t singles! When I get music, I usually take the entire album as opposed to a specific song. There are some artists (Seabear, Sea Wolf, the Sounds) who make albums where I can’t pinpoint a specific song that I love, and then there are artists who I love because of a specific song.
I’m all about the singles
I rarely listen to albums in an entirety unless I’m commuting to work and listening to an album on my iPod.
If I listen to a single that I like, I’ll check out the album to see if there’s anything else by the artist that catches my ear. A lot of my favourite songs tend to not be singles, as a result
Of course, there are also artists who are one-hit wonders, and I end up deleting most of the album…
Trust me, you’re better off for not knowing that Sexy Bitch song.