What kind of music listener are you?

[ProgRocker53]

Obviously we all look for different things in music, as we can see by the discussion and debate over the new single "Never Walk Away."

That leads me to ask you all, what do YOU look for in your music, and how do you listen to it and appreciate it? Is it more of an artistic thing for you, or entertainment?

Myself:

I love punchy hooks, soaring melodies, kickin' guitar, and sing-along choruses. However, I get bored with a band easily if alot of their material is similar. I like AC/DC, Aerosmith, Kiss, and The Rolling Stones but can't listen to them for too long for that reason.

I love listening to things that challenge my thoughts, ideas, and tastes. Sometimes I look at a song as a story, or an album as a novel/movie, and look for a story or theme, and all kinds of hidden motifs and meanings. That's why I'm obsessed with alot of "Progressive" rock, because that type of music is more inclined to have these types of epic, building qualities and it's more "rewarding" of a listen, so to speak.

My favorite bands (Rush, Porcupine Tree, Journey, Dream Theater, Toto) all seem to reach a middle ground where the music and the meaning is often very developed and mature, while keeping the music entertaning and accessible. That's why I love them so much more than others.

I try to buy albums as much as possible while abstaining from compilations if at all possible. I love the thrill of crackin' open a brand new CD, viewing the artwork and pictures and lyrics, and listening to it uninterrupted several times, digesting every note, word, and tone within. Not only critically, but artistically as well... sometimes, to me, a badly-played song can be artistically superior to a perfectly-played song.... it's all about the presentation, uniqueness, emotion, vibe, and approach.

These days I listen to everything from A(sia) to Z(Z Top)... including alot of modern indie/alternative bands, some mainstream stuff, and even some rap. However, for some reason I always find myself drawn to melodic and progressive rock, because it's the music that's most likely to make me feel --- whether the music makes me feel raw, untamed emotion or if it makes me feel good and happy... these genres seem to provide it all for me!

HOWEVER, I seem to set high expectations for artists I truly enjoy because they typically have the "full package" of artistic credibility. That's why I may seem a bit too critical of Journey sometimes. They've been absoutely untouchable before and I know they have it in them to produce brilliant music. Let it be known though that this music is who I am, it's the soundtrack to my being... it's special to me. Every song by every artist I love.

Yes, even Open Arms.

[Angiekay]

While I love rock and everything energetic it brings to the table, for me there is nothing like a sultry, sexy, moody song. That is why I love the music of Robert Plant, Depeche Mode, The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, The Fixx, Chris Isaak, etc.

[Michigan Girl]

VOCALS...that touch my soul!!!

[epresley]

good melody, meaningful lyrics

[Spike]

I need something in the music that touches me. It needs to have passion, or soul. I'm not too hung up on genres, if something grabs me, then I will listen. Some songs will move me to tears (Queen's The Show Must Go On is one of them) and others will make me joyous. I need to feel the music, not just hear it.

Vocals are a huge part of it for me, I'd tend to find it harder to get into instrumental based music than vocally-based. Perhaps the vocals, for me, give the music a more 'human' dimension. It was certainly the vocals which pulled me into Journey, back in the day.

I can appreciate excellence and talent in music without actually enjoying it; more of an intellectual exercise. I admit I tend to feel this way about many guitarists. As long as they are competent, it doesn't really matter to me who is playing. Of course there are always exceptions and I have always felt that the combination of Schon and Perry succeeded in bringing out the best of both instruments.

As for melodic rock - I like Journey, some Foreigner, Toto and Boston, but the rest of it doesn't really distinguish itself to my ears. I'm sure there are brilliant tracks that I've missed, but one can't hear everything in a single lifetime!

Favorite bands and artists through the ages: lots, but let's include

The Beatles
The Beach Boys
The Byrds
Jackson Browne
Steely Dan
Journey
Crowded House
Sarah McLachlan
Billy Joel

These are the ones I come back to time and time again.

[conversationpc]

In this order...

Passion/emotion
Good songwriting
Interesting arrangements (that's why I love prog...I get bored with the whole 4/4 thing all the time and the same chord progressions)
Good instrumentation, i.e. skilled musicianship
Good vocals
Melody (doesn't HAVE to have a melody ala AC/DC or something like that but it helps)

[FishinMagician]

mostly guitar, lastly vocals

[jrnyman28]

It's gotta have good mojo....

[Ehwmatt]

Great melodies, great musicianship (not necessarily virtuosic all the time), and great songwriting. Melody and songwriting are crucial for me: I love guitars and I like heavier/hard rockin stuff, but I'm just not interested in listening to crap like Children of Bodom, for example. Laiho is an outstanding guitar player, but the overall music is crap. My tastes are pretty diverse overall and I don't want to sit here and list bands too much, but I love prog (Dream Theater, Porc Tree Yes etc), power pop (Badfinger, Raspberries Todd Rundgren etc etc) melodic rock (Journey, Leppard, Toto, Survivor etc etc) southern rock (Skynyrd Allman Bros etc) 90s pop (Gin Blossoms Vertical Horizon) guitar virtuosos (Eric Johnson Satch Yngwie etc) adult contemporary stuff (Ambrosia, David Pack, Christopher Cross).

The only genres I'm pretty close-minded about are hip hop and death metal/screamo/hardcore/thrash/math metal type music... that stuff is just garbage. Growling vocals throughout a whole song or songs that are so jumbled I can't even hear the chords ringing out (Dillinger Escape Plan type stuff) are just pointless in my mind... Opeth is about the only band that uses any growling that I can take, just because Mikael Akerfeldt is so tasteful about how to use them.

[majik]

Hey Progrocker53, I really enjoyed reading that, great thread. I agree 100% with your comments. There is so much enjoyment to be had from music on a multitude of levels. Being a muso myself offers another listening pleasure to the mix but the temptation is to be a bit to critical because you "feel' so much more could be done at times,.. of which I'm guilty. Musos have to be pushed to break point before their creative juices really flow otherwise its easy to write by the numbers. Whats wrong with expecting better from the bands we know have that within.
I digress man, like I said "good one " cheers

[Gin and Tonic Sky]

Interesting topic ProgRock

I listen to hair metal/ melodic rock, garage rock, classic rock. When not listening to one of those genres, I usually have my head stuck in opera.

Opera is easy-forefulness of the human voice as an instrument- and they way a whole piece of art is wrapped around it. Love the "belle canto" of a Bellini or the force of Verdi.

As far as the other genre's hard to pinpoint - probably best to comment on the artists who I own absolutely everything they'e done, as I guess that indicative of what I look for. There are only two:

Journey- Mostly, I just like the way it sounds. It is as Jonathan Cain said "A party band". And I dont usually listen to music because I want to slit my wrists or feel bad. Journey's like clean crisp beer from a micorbrewerey. Refreshing, but unpretentions down to earth . They keep it real- doesnt move me but enteratains me. And Ive got lucky with a woman or two when the stuffs playing!

Alice Cooper- I expect every album to be carefully produced with a concept clever mix of - satire, humour, theology, maturity, moralization, with a bit of mindless fun in there as well. I also expect him to always have at his side a group of musicisians who have done/or are about to do well on their own.
I know when I pick up the album Im going all of the above, but its probably not going to sound anything like the last for our five albums which came out.
If Journey's a clean beer, the coop is a double malt Highlands whiskey where you drink it, think about it try to pinpoint which distillery it come from

[Eric]

Positive, soaring, guitar solo....driving...full of energy

[Art Vandelay]

Is there a reason why my reply got deleted? Did I offend?

[(Crazy)Dulce Lady]

shred

[Art Vandelay]

Nevermind - apparently old and new versions of this thread have been appearing.

My reply was up again last night, and again is missing.

Poor Andrew and these server issues. Hang in there, bud!