HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

In a similar vein to the ongoing OCD thread ...

I am an obsessive music listener. I love it and can't get enough of it BUT what I do get enough of is a certain style/artist/genre.

Let me elaborate.

My music tastes are cyclical - I suddenly develop an overwhelming urge to listen to THAT artist or THIS genre. A phase that usually lasts about a month or two, then my mood/taste/attention switches to something totally different.

Looking back on my CD purchases since last August my focus has been on :

Joy Division / New Order
Efterklang
Yes / Asia
Evanescence
The Church
ELP
Steve Reich
Max Richter / Olafur Arnalds
Tangerine Dream / Gert Emmens

(Another OCD thing - I keep a list of all the albums I buy)

My listening preferences do have a lot to do with my state of being. When times are hard and I am not happy with things in general then I tend to gravitate towards Classical music (soothes the soul, that sort of thing), when I am creative and mentally positive then a lot of synthesizer/electronic music gets played.

And there is a cycle of a couple of years where I shift from EM to Classical to Jazz to Pop/Rock to Prog to God-knows-what and then on and on.

Am I mad or what ?

Nah your not mad. Music suits a mood.

I have not analysed my own listening habits so can't really say much apart from Friday night is Disco or funk night. Jazz on a weekend, Rock, pop and electronic through the week.

Same with me. It changes with my mood. At the moment more rock and punk (last album I bought was Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü).

You are not mad. What I listen to depends a lot on my mood, but the spectrum is not all that wide. Heavy rock and prog dominate, but it does get wider. Have had far more time to listen since retiring two years ago, less than a year after discovering NVA and having seriously good sounding hifi. Streaming has broadened my horizons a lot and I am into quite a number of bands who have emerged in the past twenty years. Quite a few are coming to Cardiff in the Autumn as well as old favourites. Will be going to a lot of gigs.

Hannes-Gregor wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:32 am Same with me. It changes with my mood. At the moment more rock and punk (last album I bought was Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü).

LOVE THAT!

Zen Arcade is a monument of Intense, passionate power.

Funnily enough I had Husker Du earmarked for a revisit soon.

Fretless wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:40 am

Hannes-Gregor wrote: ↑Fri Aug 09, 2019 10:32 am Same with me. It changes with my mood. At the moment more rock and punk (last album I bought was Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü).

LOVE THAT!

Zen Arcade is a monument of Intense, passionate power.

Funnily enough I had Husker Du earmarked for a revisit soon.

Enjoy it, it's fine!

Yes, your mad, who keeps a list of music purchases?

It would be mad if you kept a list of music you listen - day by day hour by hour - other wise it just looks like retired accountant hobby ...

I used to keep a list, split between vinyl, tape and CD, but it got ridicuously long. Gave it up around fifteen years ago.

Comes from a time when money was (very) tight and I allowed myself a strict monthly music budget.

Now it's a habit and is fun to track my tastes and interests through the years.

I also keep a tab of which artists I have bought the most albums - this year, so far, it's ELP.