just some music musings

[lirazel]

I was rocking out to Death Cab for Cutie the other day and realized that the only one of their albums I ever listen to is Plans. And I realized I have a pattern:

There are several bands whose albums were played a lot when I was in high school or college, that I associate with one specific time, and even though they loom large in my mind, I have never sought out the rest of that artist's music. It's like because the music was so ambient at that time, it was part of that moment, and not of me, so I don't need to listen to the rest of their stuff.

This is different than music I find on my own or through close friends--if I love a given album, I will seek out all of that artist's music and most of the time I love it all (or can learn to love it all if I listen to it enough lol!). So for instance, I have all of Loreena McKennitt's albums, all of Hozier's, all of Vienna Teng's, all of Carly Rae Jepsen's, all of the Civil Wars', almost all of Patty Griffin's, an obscene amount of Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell and Led Zeppelin, etc.

Since I've been out of school, I don't really hear many artists in the same way, absorbing them from the atmosphere around me. I don't listen to the radio, so I have no idea what's going on with music in the past 10+ years unless it's, like, as big as Beyonce or Taylor Swift, where you literally can't miss it.


Anyway, here are some musical groups whose I only listen to one album from:

High school:
Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World (2001)
Let Go - Avril Lavigne (2002)
Home - The Dixie Chicks (2002 - high school)
The All-American Rejects - The All-American Rejects (2002 - high school)

Undergrad:
Plans - Death Cab for Cutie (2005)
Say I Am You - The Weepies (2006)
Begin to Hope - Regina Spektor (2006)
Sigh No More - Mumford and Sons (2009)
The Family Jewels - Marina + the Diamonds and My Best Friend Is You - Kate Nash (2010 - the year after I graduated from undergrad but while I was still hanging out with my undergrad friends because we hadn't all left town yet)


And some compilation albums that also seem very of-their-time since I absorbed them because of their ubiquity:

Moulin Rouge soundtrack (2001)
Shrek soundtrack (2001)
A Walk to Remember soundtrack (2002)
Garden State soundtrack (2004)




And then, of course, there are the singles that were huge at a given time. Like, I can't think of high school without thinking of Outkast's "Hey Ya!" or of middle school without thinking of "My Heart Will Go On" or of elementary school without thinking of the Spice Girls or the Macarena.


But for music that I really love, it's timeless. Have I been listening to The Book of Secrets since, like, 2000? I sure have! And yet it doesn't seem to belong to that time at all--it's just one of my albums. Lorde's Melodrama doesn't evoke a time, it's just Melodrama!


I'm not sure how universal any of this is, so I would like to know how y'all experience the intersection of music and time and how you decide which artists to seek out more of and which to leave alone.

Comments

[dollsome]

The SHOCK that ran through me at the first line of this post, because I literally just minutes ago stopped listening to the Death Cab album Narrow Stairs for the first time probably since college after feeling a random whim to do so today. *Twilight Zone music*

I tend to lean more toward getting into an artist for a particular time and then kind of leaving them behind -- even for the ones that are my very favorites, I'm awful at staying on top of new albums. It's like my brain can only accept so much music or something. The only artist I've really kept track of in the past 10 years is TaySway and that's largely because it feels like it's ALWAYS her time and I want to understand all the memes, discourse, etc.!

[lirazel]

Hahaha, we're psychically linked!

The only artist I've really kept track of in the past 10 years is TaySway and that's largely because it feels like it's ALWAYS her time and I want to understand all the memes, discourse, etc.!

She is such a huge part of pop culture it's wild!

[annapeace]

I would say I'm sort of the same, although because of my tendency to hyperfixate I will listen to/buy albums from that artist up until that moment in time. Like when I became obsessed with Jimmy Eat World in college, I went and also got their older albums. So all of those songs are now vaguely in my "college years" category, even though many of the albums came out before then.

OH AND FANFICTION, so many songs/artists are linked directly to when I was deep into a certain fandom because I would always use song lyrics as fic titles sooooo Death Cab for Cutie is part of my "2004 Summer Olympics" era.

[lirazel]

Like when I became obsessed with Jimmy Eat World in college, I went and also got their older albums. So all of those songs are now vaguely in my "college years" category, even though many of the albums came out before then.

That makes sense! (Also, I'm tickled that we share a nostalgic affection for Jimmy Eat World. I still know every word of their 2001 album!)

OH AND FANFICTION, so many songs/artists are linked directly to when I was deep into a certain fandom because I would always use song lyrics as fic titles sooooo Death Cab for Cutie is part of my "2004 Summer Olympics" era.

I love this so much!!!

[annapeace]

That twangy, hoarse from crying style of singing just shoves me right back into my emo-kid 20s!

[lirazel]

I wasn't even an emo kid, but it feels VERY early 2000s to me!!!

[chestnut_pod]

I have a similar breakdown, though not with the same artists -- I really felt my "one step removed" generational break from you in this post, haha, where the artists named were what my brother and I thought were so cool because it was what our worldly older cousins would listen to (or because the All-American Rejects were the credits song to, of all things, the Bionicles movie).

For me, it's childhood albums which I find myself "stuck" in without necessarily moving beyond them. I listen to the Queen albums my family had, which didn't include Made in Heaven, for example, and I've never really tried MIH. Or, indeed, that specific All-American Rejects album. I'm sure they have others, but I don't even know what they are! I just know the one my brother got as his first-ever CD in elementary school.

I do have albums that are 100% "of their time" for me, but as long as I was a teenager or older when I found them, I do continue to explore that artist's catalog. Melodrama is like this for me. In fact, I almost can't listen to it because it's so deeply evocative of that period of my life, but I do listen to Lorde's other stuff which isn't so tightly tied to a particular time.

(And lastly, do try out Transatlanticism!! It's now an album you've heard of through a friend :D)

[lirazel]

I feel like the slightest of generation gaps are never so evident as they are with music. More so than movies or TV or anything else!

For me, it's childhood albums which I find myself "stuck" in without necessarily moving beyond them.

That makes sense to me!

I'm sure they have others, but I don't even know what they are! I just know the one my brother got as his first-ever CD in elementary school.

Haha, I love this!

Melodrama is like this for me. In fact, I almost can't listen to it because it's so deeply evocative of that period of my life, but I do listen to Lorde's other stuff which isn't so tightly tied to a particular time.

I get this.

(And lastly, do try out Transatlanticism!! It's now an album you've heard of through a friend :D)

Hee! Will do!

[annapeace]

Second Transatlanticism!

[theseatheseatheopensea]

the Spice Girls or the Macarena.

Iconic! XD (Do you still remember the Macarena dance? I totally do!)

[lirazel]

I am willing to bet that if the music came on, I would start doing it automatically!