You are most certainly correct, dear Bruno. I’ve been “into” music for about 5 years, that’s when I stumbled in on my brothers CD collection and began to listen to his stuff. Before that, I wasn’t really into it. But I really liked this - I was listening to albums in their full forms and it was great. Mainly, I listen to an album, without skipping a song or a single song on it. The first 3-5 listens are really important I find, that if you’re in a bad mood during those first few listens, you aren’t going to listen to the thing again. Happened to me for Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsies, his best selling album. Screwed me over, it’s supposed to be really good. Also, first few listens I decide if I want to keep listening to it. If it gets a good rating on wikipedia, like by music guide or something, and I still don’t like it, I’ll listen to it about 5 more times, and if I don’t like it, I can (justifiably) put it away and come back to it later when I wanna listen to it some other time. Most of the time, I don’t like all of the songs on the album initially, but over time I get to like it a lot.
Usually I listen to the music to enjoy myself, so I don’t pay too much attention to lyrics, and just allow myself to think when listening to it. Makes for a good backdrop as well, if I’m doing something else. If I’m really into the album, and I really like it, I’ll start listening to the lyrics a lot closer to see if I can find something in it more that I can get out of it that I haven’t gotten already. That’s usually around 30-40 listens. By then, if an album is unoriginal or typical of the artist, or if it has little depth to its lyrics that I do pay attention, I probably won’t give it too much attention and stop listening to it. Most albums I won’t listen to more than 25 times.
Now, this will come off as really anal, but I’ve established a bunch of rules for myself that I for the most part abide by, that I’ve found to be what works best so I get the best possible experience when I listen to music.
- Never do more than one album by an artist at a time. (This is VERY important, it’s easy to get tired of a band if too much is taken on at once. This is how I killed Bob Marley and Led Zeppelin for myself, I just never listen to them anymore because I was doing 4 of them at a time. Plus, artists where I didn’t do too many at once, I can go again if they’re really good, listen and enjoy it, where I can’t really do that with Led Zeppelin or Bob Marley any more).
- Double Albums: Only do one disc at a time.
- Never skip a song on an album (unless it’s irritating, like Mother on Synchronicity, even though I actually like the song now).
- After 30-40 listens, you may listen to single songs off of an album, though it’s still frowned upon.
- Don’t do Captain Beefheart albums.
- Patience with new albums.
- Don’t listen to the same album more than once per day. Makes you get tired of it really quick.
- Don’t do too many albums at one period. (A good number I’ve found to be was about 4-5 max)
- Some albums/artists are better in certain seasons, for instance, Bruce Springsteen in the summer, and Bob Dylan in late fall/winter. Enjoy them in their right seasons, for the most part.
- Only branch out to new genres a little at a time. Easy to get exhausted from too much new stuff at once.
- Later on, after 20 listens, don’t force an album too often. A little is fine, but not too much. Makes you get tired of it fast.
There, that’s the foundation I’ve layed for myself. It really works well I find. At times it can be damned irritating, but it’s very rewarding overall. I was going to leave it at 10, as in, the 10 Commandments, but meh, 11 isn’t bad either.