Do you listen to individual tracks?

[02audionoob]

I've always been the type to just put on an LP or CD and let it play. I start at the beginning and let it play to the end, unless I'm interrupted or finished listening. However, it seems like many people talk about compilations, CDs with only a few good tracks, etc. For me, a few bad tracks ruin an entire album for me. I listen to the whole thing. A CD at my house can get shelved indefinitely for a particularly annoying song. Even when I listening to Rhapsody, I start an album at the beginning and let it run.

So what's the general preference here...albums or individual tracks?

[Feanor]

I've always been the type to just put on an LP or CD and let it play. I start at the beginning and let it play to the end, unless I'm interrupted or finished listening. However, it seems like many people talk about compilations, CDs with only a few good tracks, etc. For me, a few bad tracks ruin an entire album for me. I listen to the whole thing. A CD at my house can get shelved indefinitely for a particularly annoying song. Even when I listening to Rhapsody, I start an album at the beginning and let it run.

So what's the general preference here...albums or individual tracks?

I listen to individual classical compositions that are most often 3 - 5 tracks. I don't usually listen to a whole CD unless its comprised of a single compostion.

Then again I very rarely listen to actual CDs. Nowadays it's computer files almost exclusively.

[Mr Peabody]

Like you I prefer to put an album on, kick back and listen, but, if it's a CD, I will hit the "skip" if it's a bad enough song. Playing LP laziness makes me a bit more tolerant but I won't let myself be tortured if it's bad, I will get up and search for the next decent tune. This is mostly for newer albums, all my old stuff I know pretty well and gravitate toward the best ones. Unfortunately, it's rare to get an entire album that's good enough not to skip a track. I can really see why mp3 or at least some type of storage device is popular. I don't think it's mp3 that's really killing CD, I think it's just the lack of quality of music any more. Gone are the days where a record company can put out an album with one hit song or video and sell the whole album. Now people can cherry pick what they want, just like back in the day of 45's.

[Chris Friedrick]

test this is a test

[Auricauricle]

Unless the opener is really notable or is relevant, I will sometimes skip it to make the listening less predictable. Somehow the first track gets me primed for the following tracks, spoiling some of the fun....

[Hyfi]

Depends on the disk. Dark Side, Trick of the Tail, Foxtrot and so on I would listen to straight through as they tell a complete story. Most disks I program or shuffle and skip. I enjoy listening to the more than 300 comps I received over the years because of the variety they contain. I also like single performer comps that simulate a best of.

I also will play one or two songs on a disk and switch to another. Getting up to do this does not bother me so much since I have to get up to adjust the volume all the time....not just one knob but a knob for each channel. I have not had a remote controlled pre amp for more than 10 years.

[02audionoob]

I'm such an album listener that I don't even care for Best Of releases, unless they're the only material from that artist I have.

[JoeE SP9]

It depends on the album. Some get played from start to finish, on others I may play only one selection. CD's make it easy to select or skip a given selection. One of those laser TT's would let me easily do the same thing with LP's. Hmmmm!

[3db]

I tend to listen to the whole CD or LP in its entirety. I do have some compilation CDs that I make for long car drives however.

[emesbee]

Most of the time I will play specific tracks from a number of CDs, so I keep changing the CD. Its not often that I will play a CD from start to finish without skipping tracks.

[Ajani]

I listen to a wide range of music... and many of my albums kinda suck.. I bought them for specific tracks...

So depending on whether the entire album is good or just certain tracks (and my mood at the time) determines how I listen...

Note: I suspect people who use Vinyl are more likely to listen to whole albums due the hassle of track changes..

[Doc Sage]

I am of the thought that this is a generation thing. I am in my fifty and was raise in the LP era. Unless I was to record individual tracks on tape, playing a complete side of an LP was the norm.

Today, we have Ipods, I tune, computer recorded CD's, etc and the process of choosing this and that tune is a very simple task. Even the old CD playing devise offer this option. The new generation have little time to listen to a "bad" track and it is deleted at a light touch of a finger.

To the artist and musician this must be a frustrating issue. They worked hard to record a celection of songs that work well together and, when listen out of context, loose its meaning.

Doc Sage

[luvtolisten]

I'm over 50 too, but I'm mostly a track guy. Maybe if LP's(pop/rock/country) were as good as they were back then, I wouldn't be so much a track guy. I know I'm showing my age, but I remember 45's that had a hit song on each side. I think a lot of new pop/rock/country has a lot more "filler" these days. Or I'm just an old geezer. Damn kids anyway!

[02audionoob]

I think I'm of the opinion there's just as much good music out there today as in the good ol' days. I suspect I've just forgotten about the bad albums from way back when and I remember the good ones...and have held onto them. In recent memory, I've come across new albums that are among my favorites of all time...and have never thought that was unusual.

I agree with the premise that the LP may have trained us old farts to listen to the whole album, since it isn't so convenient to skip songs, but I've had a programmable CD player since the 1980s and I still don't skip around after all these years. Come to think of it, I think maybe I'm just regimented - a rule follower. Not only do I listen to the entire album, I almost always listen to Side 1 first, then Side 2.

Interestingly enough...or not...I dragged out 'Til Tuesday Voices Carry (the album) the other day and found that although I hadn't listened to it in 10 years or more I still knew which song meant "Voices Carry" (the song) was next.

[emesbee]

There is a lot of good music out there today, but you have to go searching for it.

Speaking as an old fart myself (does 53 qualify?), I certainly haven't been trained to only listen to whole albums. I skip around a lot.

[bubslewis]

There is a lot of good music out there today, but you have to go searching for it.

Speaking as an old fart myself (does 53 qualify?), I certainly haven't been trained to only listen to whole albums. I skip around a lot.

EMESBEE,

I, too, suspect there is some good music out there still. My difficulty comes in knowing where to look for it. Every once in a while I'll accidentally come across something I like. I recently download an I-Tunes song by "The Kooks" (It actually fronts a Micholob Ultra commercial). Now these guys don't look any older than 18 or 19, but I like the song (Shine On).

Now I'm seven years older than you are, so my music listening days go all the way back to the late 50's. In your opinion, what or where or how is the easiest (or best) way that you search?

Bill

[Feanor]

EMESBEE,

I, too, suspect there is some good music out there still. My difficulty comes in knowing where to look for it. Every once in a while I'll accidentally come across something I like. I recently download an I-Tunes song by "The Kooks" (It actually fronts a Micholob Ultra commercial). Now these guys don't look any older than 18 or 19, but I like the song (Shine On).

Now I'm seven years older than you are, so my music listening days go all the way back to the late 50's. In your opinion, what or where or how is the easiest (or best) way that you search?

Bill

And I, bubs, am four years older than you. I find plenty of good music.

Searching for good music? See under my signature.

[02audionoob]

I've found that subscribing to Rhapsody has exposed me to many artists that I would've never found, otherwise. There's a link on each artist's page to play that artist's channel. It plays one of their songs and then plays one by a similar artist and goes on for quite some time doing that.

[pixelthis]

This brings up something that is related in a way.
All of the "higher end" CD players are single slot devices.
If you are going to change discs quite a bit you have to get up every time.
I havent found enough of a difference to justify the inconvienence,
so I use a changer, a much ostracised 300 disc unit.
BUT THE SOUND IS FINE TO ME, and with shuffle you never have to hear the same thing twice, and your favorite disc is a pushbutton away, and CD TEXT tells you what you're listening to.
If you have a single disc tray it would be a good thing for you to listen to albums
"all the way through"

[Mr Peabody]

I don't do this much any more but I have found artists on the satelite/cable music stations, the artist/song info shows on the screen. Similar to the Rapsity thing via a different avenue. I also like to browse Amazon and click the samples, if it brings up a new window to play all samples at the bottom there will be other recommended albums to click on. Of course, there's usually good leads around the forums here.

[ninjashoes]

yup depends on the album, some really are that good where you wanna listen to every song in order.

one good example is Daughter Darling...so relaxing and every song is good

[Auricauricle]

I'm with Hy on this one; if I don't like a particular track, I skip it. With the Tercet CD player, it's a bad news good news sort of thing: Bad news: I don't have the remote control; good news: several CD's can be preprogrammed, so that when I change the disc, the memory will remember the disc and play the selected tracks. Pretty handy. Haven't tried it out yet, but seems like a pretty good deal, technologically speakin' that is....

[bubslewis]

[QUOTE=pixelthis]This brings up something that is related in a way.
All of the "higher end" CD players are single slot devices.
If you are going to change discs quite a bit you have to get up every time.
I havent found enough of a difference to justify the inconvienence,
so I use a changer, a much ostracised 300 disc unit.
BUT THE SOUND IS FINE TO ME, and with shuffle you never have to hear the same thing twice, and your favorite disc is a pushbutton away, and CD TEXT tells you what you're listening to.
If you have a single disc tray it would be a good thing for you to listen to albums
"all the way through"[/QUOTE]

I defenitely lean towards individual tracks, especially for rock/alternatuve genres (classical I tend to listen to the whole recording but I have limited experience and material). This is why I haven't quite caved in and bought a real good single disc player. What I often do is to upload individual tracks from various discs onto I tunes, and then burn them to a disc. The burning question here is how much quality I am sacrificing by doing this. I just use whatever software/hardware is in the computer.

Also, very nice list from Feanor for classical beginners. I guess there are a few old rockers out there that finally realized there is lots of beautiful classical music out there to be had also.

tx,
Bill.

[pixelthis]

[QUOTE=pixelthis]This brings up something that is related in a way.
All of the "higher end" CD players are single slot devices.
If you are going to change discs quite a bit you have to get up every time.
I havent found enough of a difference to justify the inconvienence,
so I use a changer, a much ostracised 300 disc unit.
BUT THE SOUND IS FINE TO ME, and with shuffle you never have to hear the same thing twice, and your favorite disc is a pushbutton away, and CD TEXT tells you what you're listening to.
If you have a single disc tray it would be a good thing for you to listen to albums
"all the way through"[/QUOTE]

I defenitely lean towards individual tracks, especially for rock/alternatuve genres (classical I tend to listen to the whole recording but I have limited experience and material). This is why I haven't quite caved in and bought a real good single disc player. What I often do is to upload individual tracks from various discs onto I tunes, and then burn them to a disc. The burning question here is how much quality I am sacrificing by doing this. I just use whatever software/hardware is in the computer.

Also, very nice list from Feanor for classical beginners. I guess there are a few old rockers out there that finally realized there is lots of beautiful classical music out there to be had also.

tx,
Bill.

Just use the highest res.
HDTRACKS has a lot of lossless stuff and players too.
Highly reccomended
http://www.hdtracks.com/