An interesting thing happened to me the other day. I realized I have too much music. My 120GB Zune currently tells me I have 14,888 songs on it. Now there are a few 'test' albums on there, but, yeah, that's most of my music collection. It's too much.
Music downloading, oddly enough, has caused me to realize that in several ways...and it has also provided the solution. Gotta love that.
The easy availability of free downloads from places like Amazon via samplers has made it a lot easier than it used to be to track down music. The stuff I listen to most (using the broadest term, let's call it 'metal') just isn't on the radio. Short of borrowing tapes (and later, CDs) from friends, there were few ways to discover new music. For a while MTV played some in the middle of the night. For a while a local radio station had a metal show late at night on I think it was Saturday nights. For a while I got some magazines that reviewed good music. But it was NOT easy to track down good stuff that appealed to me.
Then the internet finally started to realize it's potential in this area. Band sites with free samples and even streaming albums. Videos on youtube. Song samples on Amazon and similar sites. Album review site after album review site. Whole blogs devoted to exposing new (and old!) metal. Sweet.
Except a funny thing happened. I had my Zune playing on random and a couple of really awesome songs played by and I was blown away. And I realized it had been ages since I'd heard those songs. And that made me very, very sad.
After thinking on it a bit I realize what had happened - I had gotten caught up in a lot of good or pretty good music as a response to being unable to find great new music that I would love. And I'm not talking about new bands, I'm talking about bands I like a lot.
Back in the day when my music collection fit into a couple of vinyl LP racks and a couple of cassette holders, it was easy to just listen to a whole album and sort of get into it all, or at least tolerate the sub-par stuff. Not worth it to fast forward the tape (too far...back too far...too far...back too far...dammit forgot it and now the whole side rewound...) or risk scratching the vinyl to move the needle. So I got into the mindset that if I liked a band a lot or an album a lot I had to listen to the whole thing. In many cases that translated to CDs and when I ripped my collection to my Zune I ripped the whole CDs. Even the stuff I didn't like. Even the whole CD that I bought because I liked 1 or 2 songs.
14,888 songs.
So I decided to listen a little more closely to stuff I was 'test driving' to see if I wanted to buy it or buy more. And you know what? Most of it is getting deleted. Even from bands I like, even from bands I like a LOT. I do not need every deep B-side cut Iron Maiden ever recorded. When you get right down to it, I'd rather hear something amazing come up in a shuffle like "The Tremor" by Nightrage than "Mission from 'arry".
I have been just deleting stuff left and right (Ok, it's been a little slow, old habits are hard to break) to let the really good stuff breathe. Interludes, lame instrumentals, weak filler tracks. Gone. Gone. C-ya.
But there's another side to this coin. The beauty of sampling stuff* is that I have been buying tracks from Amazon** left and right by bands that I do not want an album by! I used to buy singles here and there - 45s and cassingles and a few CD singles - but not a lot. To me it is great to be able to buy a track I like. I am finding that there are some songs out there that I love, but I just don't want to shell out even $6.99 for a download of the MP3 album***. Take, for example, a recent find. I was checking out some Axel Rudi Pell. I just can't get into it. The music's good, the singer's good. In another day and age I'd have bought something by him. Now? M'eh. But this one song, "Tear Down the Walls", just blew me away. I love it. $0.99 and it's mine. Awesome. Now I can buy one hit wonders and stuff like this one, where I can hear the band is good, I just can't get into them beyond this song.
So as I listen to music now, which is about 6-8 hours per day most days, I find myself 'unliking' songs here and there and then occasionally I go through and purge those songs out, slowly whittling down the list, leaving me with what I hope is a tighter collection of stuff I like. It's a good feeling. And it's getting easier - like the crusty old junker on American Pickers that sells that first piece and then lets more go, it's getting easier. "Quest for Fire", we come for you! We come for you!
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* People that like pop and adult contemporary and even country can put on the radio and be exposed to new music they like. As I said before, there is no straightforward way for a metalhead to get the same exposure nowadays - at least once you're out of school.
** I do surveys on the internet, preferring ones that, if they don't pay cash, pay out in Amazon gift certificates or downloads from some other site, so I don't usually 'pay' for them with money out of my pocket, but do pay for them legitimately as earned rewards.
*** As they say, if I like it, I buy it, and strongly urge you to do the same. These guys and gals are doing this for a living, but let's just say that I'm thrilled I can send their share of 99 cents their way instead of $15 for a whole CD when it makes sense.
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