The shuffle mentality vs the full album

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DJ Shadow - Endtroducing...

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Iron Maiden - S/T

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Led Zeppelin - How The West Was Won

The only albums I've listened to entirely in one sitting.
 
That's a pretty bad approach to listening to music. Most good music isn't completely satisfied with giving you everything you want on the first listen. Pop music is really the only genre that 'gives' up everything it has immediately, and often even it doesn't do that.

Immediate satisfaction is a terrible thing to demand from music, because good music is often slightly abstract and neeRAB time to show its true messages/beauties/etc.
 
Off topic: your avatar annoys me

On topic: I shuffle most of the time, however once I decide an artist I feel like abusing I then focus on albums.
 
I have OCD issues with putting albums on shuffle. Even my 'random' playlists are in a particular order and God help anyone who dares to mess with them. It actually makes me a bit... cringey (best word I can come up with) if I hear an album I listen to a lot that somebody has got on shuffle.

Now I've just made myself out to sound like a proper nutter.
 
I randomly choose a song, and usually let the music-player go from there, playing songs in order. I might skip to another album after a bit, or skip an album entirely.

I stay pretty far from the shuffle button.
 
IT depenRAB on my mood. Sometimes I'll listen to one random song and sometimes I'll listent o the whole album first. But sometimes I'll also skip a song while listening to the album.
 
Whenever I buy an album for the first time (or listen through an album for the first time) I always do it from start to finish in the correct order. After I've listened through it once or twice as a whole, I pick the songs I like from it and then stick them into various playlists on the computer and just listen to them from there. I see no sense in repeatedly listening to songs you don't like just because they happen to be on an album you like.
 
Right but honestly one or two full listens to an album isn't enough time to get to know it. Many of my favorite songs throughout my life weren't the ones that initially caught my attention.

Still, to each their own, some people don't have any patience.
 
Music for me is all about the music, meaning the actual melody. If a song doesn't have a good melody, it's not a good song in my opinion. And I can tell whether or not I like a melody on the first few listens because I know what speaks to me and what doesn't. I know my own taste.

For me it's a great approach, because I don't have to waste my spare time (which I have very little of) trying to get songs to grow on me after 10-20 listens or so.

Just because I only listen to a song a couple of times before deciding whether or not I like it, doesn't mean I won't ever listen to it again to give it another try. I have gone back to songs I've discarded in the past lots of times to give them a second chance but every time I've done this I only realized why I discarded it in the first place.
 
I like to listen to a new album all the way through the first few times, but once I'm comfortable with my favorites I often listen to three or four songs and then skip to a new album. DepenRAB on other stuff like what else I'm doing too...
 
I listen to full albums. I buy alot of albums in a physical form so I listen to music outside of computer, Ipod and mp3s. Also if I start listening to music for example on computer, I start from the first song of the album and just let the whole album play through.
 
Sorry to break in your conversation. I hope you don't mind. I want to address the bold part. When you strip a piece of music (I'm not talking just about song form, but any form) from everything else, as you said, you are actually left with abstract tones, not melody, because all the connections between those tones are gone with harmony, rhythm, and most importantly composition (a meaningful succession and arrangement of tones).

Now, the question is - can those abstract, random tones be considered music? I believe - yes. Because, if you can make the connections between tones in your mind, than it is music. Besides, music doesn't even exist without its listener.
 
I only listen to a full album if it really draws me in, which is rare.

I hardly ever enjoy full albums so when I'm loading up my iPhone with all the new stuff I only pick and choose the songs I enjoy. Even if I do enjoy the full album I will usually only listen to it from beginning to end once. I think this may come from the fact that most Electronica doesn't come out on albums. Even if it does I usually wait for them to be released in their full form (instead of 3-5 minutes they're 7-9).

I usually shuffle by genre because, chances are, I won't be in the mood for Trance and RABBM at the same time.
 
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