jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-08-08 05:51 pm
Entry tags:

Where did the "far too much music" stuff go?

I made another journal for the notes I'm making while listening to the NME 500 best albums. I would imagine that it's a minority interest read, but it's to be found at [personal profile] fartoomuchmusic.
jbanana: Badly drawn banana (Default)
2020-07-06 07:28 pm

Thinking about far too much music

There's an NME list of the best 500 albums. Obviously there's a lot of stuff on there I've never heard. So it occurred to me that I could listen to all of them. Today I started at number 500 with Stankonia by OutKast.

There's a lot of problems with this while idea. I won't see this through to the end (which, spoiler alert, is The Queen is Dead by The Smiths). I would have to listen to things I know I don't like (for example, I can tolerate but am unlikely to enjoy Bob Dylan; I can't stick Bruce Springsteen - both of them are on there). I have to overcome prejudices (which started right at the beginning - Outkast have funk elements that I'm enjoying, but hip-hop elements that I'm managing to sit through).

If were to listen for 8 hours a day, assuming 45 minutes per album, I could be done in about a month and a half. Why not play along at home?

Hmm, hip-hop. There are two things that bother me. Testosterone-fueled self aggrandisement, anger and mysogyny aren't something I want to hear. Outkast were asking me repeatedly if I "want to hear about the gangsta shit?" No, not much, and stop calling women bitches. I accept that this is me manifesting white privilege and having less to be angry about, but realising that doesn't make it enjoyable. The other thing is that I want rappers to stop rapping and sing. That's why the more funk parts of this album work for me. But then I suppose it wouldn't be hip-hop, would it?

If this ridiculous music experiment carries on for long, I'll be able to explain why I don't like a whole lot of other things too. The music industry must be trembling.

Edit: I'm moving these to [personal profile] fartoomuchmusic