How Do You Listen to New Music?

Question

And when I say "new", it can be new as in- *current* Or recorded in 1976, but new to *you*.

The last 2 weeks, I've been on here asking for suggestions & compiled a list (feel free to add to it, btw)

With me, if I'm not 'grabbed' by the song in the 1st 1- 1:30 (or by the time the chorus comes along the 2nd time) its over. I try at least 2 songs & I Wiki'/ allmusic for band info'. (Amazing what those sites classify as punk/post punk, metal, btw!) They have to sound different & catchy in SOME way, before I take notice & wanna hear more.

Here's bands I ended up liking:

A7X- I was worried when I picked up on a hint of pop punk vocals, but the music was def' heavier w/ thrash leanings. Good to hear solos! Though they can do w/o the silly make up.

Ok Go- Great treadmill vid! Sounded closer to 70s powerpop. Liked their sense of humor!

Powerman 5000- Different vocals! yay! Sort of an electronic feel. Dude vaguely reminded me of Billy Idol visually & vocally.

tbc...

Powerman 3000- They have potential for me getting more into em.

& here's what's left on my To Listen To list:

-Escape the Fate
-Socialburn
-Disturbed
-Breaking Benjam
-Lostprophets
-Scary Kids Scaring Kids
-Eleventy Seven
-Alexisonfire
-Dropkick Murphys
-Story of the Year
-Bullet For My Valentine
-Spitalfield
-Jack's Mannequin
-Bad Religion
-Aiden
-Eisley
-Circa Survive
-From First To Last
-Thousand Foot Krutch
-Army of Anyone
-Sparta
-Orson
-Mobile
-Hedley
-Thursday
-New London Fire
-Marianas Trench
-Sugarcult
-The Walkmen
Buckcherry
The Datsuns

heya sarah, snow day for me! :)

Before Youtube, (which wasn't long ago), we hadda "borrow cds" or go by word or mouth. lol! That or ask friends for mix cds/ tapes.

Not how do you *Find* new music. How do you *listen* to it?

rukrym- I think it mighta been YOU who rec' the Datsuns to me! :)

Rckets- You suggested Powerman to me. :)

Wasn't impressed by Breaking Ben'. Sounded too much like many other bands out now.

See, now The Datsuns grabbed me! Good, no theatrics hard rock. Good meaty riffs. I already know they're a band for me.

Answer 1

Fun question Fonz and welcome to the wonderful world of Powerman 5000. They're a fantastic group that hasn't had a lot of real good luck in terms of timing. Of course by virtue of being the younger brother of one Rob Zombie, that has a way of automatically making you awesome.

For all forms of new music, it's either satellite or Internet radio. Used to subscribe to a few magazines like Outburn and Alt Press at one time or another but got kind of tired of them.

Answer 2

A lot of the time when I'm listening to something new, I'll give the song a good chance to see if I like it, but I'll rarely listen to the whole thing if it doesn't grab my attention by about the 1:30 to 2:00 mark. Very often though, I can tell whether I'll like a song or not after about 20 seconds. If on the other hand, it's a new album by a band I already listen to, I find the best setting for listening to the whole thing is in the car, and just listen to it all straight through without skipping or repeating any tracks. It gives me a good idea of what the album's like overall.

I second whoever recommended The Datsuns, their self-titled debut is really good. And can I also recommend JJ72. I don't know if you'd like most of their body of work, but they have a few songs you might like. Here's my favourite (just ignore the interview bit in the middle);
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM7snrAvoCU

Edit:
Oh, well in that case I definitely second it :)

Answer 3

For me, the general process starts with needing 2 unconnected recommendations (recently most commonly a combination of the iTunes Just For You list and seeing someone whose tastes I generally agree with on here saying they're good). Then comes the two track (usually at least one deep cut) test. If it passes, then I'll try a record or at least add them to the mental list. There was a while there where I would just go with one recommendation and go straight to the two tracks, but my iTunes bill was getting too high to justify doing it that way so I have to be a bit more selective now.

You might like Apollo Sunshine, I'm not sure (and I'd hate to steer you wrong), but you might. I could see it. They're interesting (and if you do check them out be wary of track 1, "Flip" on the self titled. It's all right and the beginning of the song is pretty cool, but it isn't very representative).

Also, I'm not sure if you've heard the first Frank Black and the Catholics record (self titled). It's a pretty awesome, more straight up rock record, but it still wreaks of Frank Black's awesome stench.

Answer 4

Well, on rare occasions I'll hear something on the radio in my mum's car, and decide to look into it.

Mostly, I look deeper into bands I already have {good old internet research!}, and find their influences.
Or I've heard *of* a band, and something will remind me of that, so I go looking for songs. Like mt first forays into English Folk ~ I'd heard one or two songs by various bands, and borrowed my Uncle's compelation album. Then Smiley reminded me about Sandy Denny, and I'm currently selecting tracks.

My Blackmore's Night obsession came about because two of their covers are illustrated by an artist I like. Then I listened to some samples on WMP and Amazon, saw they had covered one of my fav songs, and decided to buy all 7 of their albums! And from that {and a couple of recommendations from Darth!}, I've bought 4 Rainbow albums ~ but not had a chance to listen yet ~ and had another listen to Deep Purple {to think, I would never have known about 'Child In Time' were it not for the BN cover!}.

And I've had some good recommendations from people here, such as Vinegar Joe, and Stone the Crows, and a bit more Pink Floyd!

So, there are 10 CDs waiting to be listened to, plus the various compilations that have been waiting 6 months!


To preview music, I mostly listen to samples on MSN Music, or 7digital, and once or twice on Amazon {they don't have the option for most of what I'm interested in}.

Answer 5

Normally, there are 2 ways I find music.

The radio...every weekday in Buffalo, the station plays an hour of all-request rock songs...unlike other stations, the bands range from a rare Pearl Jam/RATM track, to something that spells holy crap like Dream Theater or Skindred. If I hear something kickass during that hour, I normally go the next day onto youtube and look up some of the vids before acquiring the album.

The other way...last.fm. I often listen to radio stations there to pick up different music. It also gives me the chance to hear other tracks from artists that never comes on mainstream radio so I can hear their style. I often buy (or illegally download) the albums that I end up liking.


Bands I've picked up include Disturbed, Alice In Chains, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, Muse, and A Perfect Circle

Answer 6

Yeah some but mostly metal and hardcore,but you could try
Five Finger Death Punch
Down
Superjoint Ritual
COC
Municiple Waste
Early Man
Artemis Pyledriver
Zeke
High On Fire
The Dillinger Escape Plan
Brand New Sin
Fireball Ministry
Scum Of The Earth
they have alot of old sounds mixed with new I think you'll like them,see what you think

Answer 7

Whenever I buy a new cd I listen to it at least 3 times in a row before I decide if I like it or not. It's amazing the amount of times that I've played a cd once and hated it, but after playing a few times I've actually grown to like it.
I won't buy a cd unless I've heard a few songs off it that I like.
I'll have to do what Sarah does and start listening on Youtube (something I haven't done).

Answer 8

For me, it takes much longer for me to get into a band. I usually go onto youtube (what did we ever do without youtube?) and listen to maybe about 5 songs (all the way through) and I listen muliple times because there are bands that grab me immediately and wonderful (Beulah, Supergrass, the 88) but some of my favorite bands took me a while to like (Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd) and if a band is out of my general genre of taste (Opeth is slightly death metal) it might even take me longer to like.
Ha.. I love Ok Go... they're just so upbeat.

EDIT: My list is really long too..... I have no idea how I'm going to get though all of it.....

EDIT: SNOW DAY!!! I had to go to school in the rain/snow!

Answer 9

Bad Religion is good. If you like old school punk, check out 80-85. Dropkick Murphys were fantastic on the Do or Die album, but I could never really get behind the new vocalist (Al Barr), his voice isn't as good as Mike McColgan.

As far as bringing something unique to music, check out:
Gogol Bordello (gypsy/east Europe traditional sounds mixed with rock/punk)
and
The Legendary Shack Shakers (bluegrass/americana meets blues punk/rock)

As far as listening, it's either live or from start to finish on one of the CDs (unless the music actually makes me physically uncomfortable....like Joan Jett).

Answer 10

I swear by "Amazon recomends for you".

I'll listen to the samples on the Amazon page, and if it has potential, I hit up myspace or youtube for full length songs.

Once I actually have a CD in my hands, I listen to it once or twice while having my nightly after work adult beverages. Then it goes into the CD changer in the car. If I'm not singing along with at least half the songs on the disc after the 3rd listen, it goes to eBay with the songs that I do lke getting ripped and going on the iPod.






NP: "New York New York" - Ryan Adams