So, how do you listen to it? Do you only listen to individual songs on the album, or do you listen to the whole album from start to finish?

What about when you get a new album? Do you look for intros that most interest you, then listen to that song before you find another, or do you listen to the album from start to end?

This is just something that interests me, so I'm curious to see how people listen to their music.

I listen to the whole album.

Never will I select songs.

It depends. When I'm on the computer I listen to songs at random that are on my harddrive, but other than that I listen to albums from start to finish in my stereo.

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A new album I will listen from start to finish. Other times it totally depends on the quality of the album, whether it's actually worth listening to it all...but usually it isn't.

I thought this was about "what media outlet do you use to listen to music"...

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Myself, I try not to buy CD's that suck, thus avoiding those problems.

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Here's a somewhat related question. When you buy a new CD, how long does it generally take for you to - and this is probably the only way I can explain it, weak as it may be - "appreciate" it? In other words, how long does it take before you feel satisfied with the cd, that you've listened to everything it has to offer, where you can recognize each song as seperate from another, each with its own values and intricacies, etc.

It may seem strange why I'm asking all these questions, but I find that recently, I've hit a lull in my listening. Nothing really interests me, and I find that I can't savor any of the music I listen to. I spend one week listening to one cd, then toss it back into my case, never intending on listening to it again. So I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong here.

it all depends really. some shit i can immediately appreciate..other stuff has to grow on me (dissection - reinkaos), and yet others i just never like.

same with new cds...sometimes i listen to the whole thing right through..others i skip around and listen to songs with more appealing intros. ha sometimes i've even skipped to songs because of the title of the song...doesn't always pan out though.

at home am all over the place..sometimes i'll just start playing a song at the top of the list of that particular band then let it all play through until theres nothing more from them..other times i'll just listen to a song or two. depends on my mood or if i had part of a song stuck in my head, or who knows what. i listen to it all as randomly as the music i have is random.

edit..maybe you need a bit more variety in what you listen to..or maybe you are just growing out of metal? who knows.

When I'm on the computer it can be any random artist/songs etc, something to have on whilst I work. If I'm listening to a new album I put it on at the start and work my way through it. More often I'll kick back with a beer or cup of tea and peruse the booklet artwork or lyrics.
Sometimes I may just put one song on to listen to just because I want to hear it or I may have forgotten how it goes.

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Pretty much Grafcore has summed up my feeling about new CD's. I remember that I listened to Dechristianize on repeat for the entire shift I was working at the factory the day I bought it. Others, like IX Equillibrium I listened to once and never got it out again for weeks only to realize I loved the album.

As for a lull, I've been there and in my case it's something that didn't last. I think it might've been related to not being satisfied with anything at the time though, so music was just a symptom of my problem.

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That's what I love so much about buying albums. The pictures, lyrics, thankslists etc. make the buying such a thing of anticipation and it's too bad that shit's eroding.

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Stoned

Cheers to you dude! That's a perfect answer. Almost as good as the "naked" I was gonna post.

I've got tons of music. All sorts. Some I've had, but didn't like, and revisited, and now I do. Some I thought was great, and think it's crap, but I'll hang onto it incase the wave hits me again. I like the artwork and reading the info on the covers.
It's kind neat when the pizza delivery guy leaves and you can pull out an old cd and show hubby what he looked like a few years ago. I did that last night with a singer from walpurgis' old band. You can't do that with an mp3.

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If new albums start out shitty and boring, I skip through to find good intro's. I like listened to new albums all the way through so that I can determine which ones are good and which ones suck. I like playing my favorite songs and the good songs off many albums. I dont listen to many shitty albums though with like 1 or 2 good songs because to me, an album isn't good unless all the songs are at least a 7 out of 10.

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Eh, even my non-metal favorites like The Clash and Bob Marley aren't cutting it right now. So I don't think it's that.



Maybe. I do feel rather apathetic to alot of things nowadays, but that's never manifested itself in my music before.


If I had to guess, I'd say that I'm overlistening to my music. According to my last.fm (I'm pretty sure most people know what it is, but for those who don't, it's a service that catalogues what you listen to per week), I have around 300 Suffocation listens since last Sunday. And probably like 150 since this past Sunday (three days time).

That tends to be my problem. Like I mentioned before, the way I listen to music is sort of a gluttony, which is probably the reason for my current dissatisfaction with it.

I like to be standing on my head. Its the only method I use for listening to music.

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I have all my albums on one playlist, so it tends to go from Led Zep to Cannibal Corpse to Hawkwind to Rompeprop etc... It's pretty cool

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When I buy a new album I come home and sit it down and listen to it from front to back with HEADPHONES [the only way to truly enjoy and experience the full sonic experience imo] The band made te record in that order with that appearence so they obviously want you to listen in that order and experience everything in that way.

RE appreciating it - Sometimes I never feel as though I've listened to a CD enough and some cd's offer me something new upon every single listen even after years of owning them... but on a regular basis it normally takes me about 2 weeks to get over the hype of a record... there are some records i listen to literalyl every night without fail and thats not because i deliberately wanna make a point of that its becase i just want to hear the music because there is some that i 'appreciate' so much

RE not interested in music: this happens to me very very often and i find it terribly hard to find new bands because my tastes are very elitist. this is probably why ill listen to for example blink 182 and something like fleshgrind in one sitting - hyperactive tastes in music.

There's an edit button that you could have used to put all three of those post whore posts into the same one, incase you didn't know.


Good speakers can also do the job for truly enjoying a new album. Well very good speakers I sound say. Studio quality. Could even sound better than it actually is.

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HAHA

You are so right, so few words express so much. Music is even better when you are not sober.

this is a fairly good thread i think.

I generally listen to both albums and songs. On average probably by songs.

But i'm the kind of person that really doesn't listen or turn onmusic for background noise, or to keep me company. Music to me is too... intense and the music i listen to and what i attempt to gain from it requires too much attention to turn it on not to do anything but listen to music.

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With new albums, most of the time I listen to the whole thing. The music itself obviously affects how many listens it takes to appreciate/memorise an album, but sometimes I have found I 'know' an album after 5/6 times through. The rest of the time I tend to listen to about a third of an album, move on and then return to the other thirds a few days later.

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definitely i feel very much the same way. I try not to judge a cd till i've heard it enough to pick out each song and things i like (by remembering).

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i am very much of a song picker. so much so, that it has taken me around six months, before, to hear every song on a cd i really liked. i cant explain how that happened. i think its because if i even think of another band's song, i feel the need to stop whats on, and put on what i thought about. as dumb as it may sound, its kind of cool doing this, because then i get surprised by new tracks, weeks down the road . this is especially likely when i make orders of over 3 cds. i have a hard time picking what to play, and when i do, i usually will think of one of the others.

Hidrio: nice avatar. ive only heard a little bit from that album, long ago. i looked up their stuff, and decided to buy something. i couldnt decide which album, so i bought the dvd, about 5 minutes ago. is that the best one? and how does it compare to ethereal tomb?

Depends on how im feeling 80% I will listen to whole albums or large portions of albums. This isn't fucking pop music, this is story, idea and atmosphere conveyance. An album to suit what I feel like.

Occasionally, like last night, when i'm feeling on edge or compulsive, i'll skip around aimlessly.




I feel that you never can get absolutely everything out of an album. No matter how bland an album becomes, you can't memorize every single digital 'pit' on the cd. You can get close, but they'll be times, when I'll have a different mindscape, and hear more which I never noticed properly before.

My most listened to album is definantly Focus - Cynic. This album used to be played daily. I don't listen as much anymore, but the other day I was listening and heard another melody I hadn't heard before . Related: First time I listened to this album I hated it. Few days later, gave it another try (as I bought it after only reading about it), and well, the rest is history.

I have the first two albums and their EP, but I've heard four previews of Ethereal Tomb on last.fm and I prefer their older stuff.

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I think this is one of the... hidden surprises about music that even sometimes unintentionally exist. Its one of those things that bring new light on oldies or personal classics. Lately alot of those things are small things like use of drums in certain parts, or like small bass riffs.

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I always listen to the full album start to finish. I only ever skip a track if it's one of those "atmospheric" static noises they usually put on before a hidden track.
It takes me a few listens before I get into an album. I remember being tatally bored with the Morningrise album the first time I heard it, but after more listens it became one of my all time favourites.

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If the albums has got any songs that I recognize or have heard before, I usually listen to them first. If not, I usually listen to all the shit as long as it's nice to listen to.

It depends on the album really. But mostly its 50/50 between choosing songs and listening to whole albums.

From first to end, except on the computer, I shuffle.

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i will put it on my ipod then i will select a song at random and listen to it (with headphones) because i rarely like a cd

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I listen with my ears. Cunts.

That was low. And for you, especially low.

A dumb question deserves as dumb an answer as I can come up with.

I try to listen to the album and when I'm done I'll just keep listening to the songs I like. Not alot of albums where EVERY song has got me going.

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i like pandora but they don't have much.

usually whenever i listen i try to listen completelu throughout and album

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It wasn't a dumb question. It was meant with the intention of improving my own listening habits. I didn't post for the sake of posting, as you did.

PST is gonna get you on the wording of the thread here.

It wasn't that dumb of a question. It certainly beats threads that have been beaten to hell 80 times.

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dont try to make sense of his ramblings.

I posted to make fun of you. Posting just to post would have been rambling off all the intimate details of my music listening habits for no reason other than that I was asked. If you honestly believe the rest of what you said, then what you need help with aren't your listening habits - which, incidentally, aren't going to be affected significantly by the answers you'll get to the question you asked. All your thread will do is let people add another number to the count next to their name while leaving you to do whatever you liked doing anyway - since whether or not I like listening to an album straight through or not will, and should, have no effect on whether or not you do - which is why the question was stupid.

Of course, you weren't trying to 'improve your listening habits' until I said your question was dumb, so no worries there.

Should also note that this isn't a new topic either. It's a forum. Nearly every topic will be repeated. Learn to live with it.

L-I-V-I-N

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Not really, Paco. Posting to "make fun of me" is an example of posting for the pure sake of posting by ignoring the topic of the thread. Although, I think that a brilliant response such as "I listen with my ears. Cunts." really speaks more volumes towards your triteness than my ineptitude. "Rambling off all the intimate details" of your music listening habits, however, would've actually been relevant to the subject at hand, and I would've enjoyed reading it, rather than having to dignify your petty comment with a response.

Also, I specified in post 6 my intentions for posting the topic. Way before your comment. Go look it up.

As for the responses to my thread not affecting my listening habits, that's a rather haughty and presumptuous post on your part. Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise, because chances are you made that post as you make most of yours, by typing with your pinky finger raised high in the air. Based on the responses I've gotten from the thread, I've started listening to albums in their entirety, from beginning to end. I don't yet enjoy this as much as track-by-track listening, probably because I'm still acclimating to this process, but at least I'm prolonging the longevity of my music.

So, you're wrong on all accounts. Of course, you might respond with some delicately worded prose in order to justify yourself, but it'll just be more of the same self-righteous nonsense you always inundate the forum with.

A topic like this is an excuse for people to post nonsense to inflate their post count whatever your claim to the contrary, so your using adherence to the topic isn't very strong. That said, I answered the question posed in the thread title, so I'm not sure why you'd say my post wasn't on topic.

Not my fault if you can't understand very, very simple irony, even when an obvious indicator is included.

Your intentions as stated in post 6 are different than the ones I quoted, so, once again, no problem there.

You're 'prolonging the longevity' of your music, are you? You're not enjoying doing things a different way and think that's proof that I'm wrong in saying that your old preferences will stick despite other people like, do you? You think this thread made you realize that it's possible to listen to an album straight through, do you? You think that the two non-metal bands you can mention being Bob Marley and The Clash somehow shows that you've explored outside of metal, and therefore the problem is not that you need to expand your horizons because listening to a handful of things over and over, in any combination, gets dull, but rather that you need to shuffle the order, do you?

We can keep this up forever, but you'll have to do better if you want me to stay interested.

It's really retarded to start arguing over the internet. Just outta point that out. You guys need to drink it off.

To stick to the thread topic, I am actually a song picker. When I just buy an album, I'll listen to maybe thirty seconds of all the songs, and when I find a song that's really amazing from start to finish, I put it on repeat. Then maybe a few days later, I'll find some other songs on the album that I really like. Then after maybe a week of having the cd, I'll listen to the whole thing from start to finish.
It seems to me, my listening habits are not as normal as I thought they were. Most people here seem to listen to the whole thing at once.
Also, some cds, I can't listen to from start to finish (Mayhem- De Mysteriis. Attila drives me crazy).

If its fast, brutal, interesting, and at times experimental, I will not skip any songs.

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NO YOU ARE!

But how would you find a song that's amazing from start to finish if you're just listening to 30 seconds of it?


Overall, very odd.

you fuckhead, if a song was amazing from start to finish, the first 30 seconds would be amazing loool

i love you

True, but how would you know the finish was?

I love you, but Balrog suxorz.

say it to my face, bitch!

well she said that she listens to 30 sex of each song until she finds one from start to finish which would mean that the 30 sex rule would go out the window if said 30 sex rocked her world.

Indeed it would. Wow it's a girl?

edit: lol just read sig. (Or did I subliminally view it before hence the likeness of my comment to the comment in the sig??? *x-files theme*)

i only assume so