EDIT: whoops, this was already posted here -- sorry BorgoPo, I relied on the hubski url filter to my detriment.
hubski metalheads, I'd tag you if I knew who I was talking to. I'm not one myself but I definitely identify with the below. You?
- While this abundance has fulfilled my metal dreams, it has been accompanied by a strange sense of deflation. To some extent this is because dreams fulfilled are almost always disappointing. There are also good reasons why abundance does not necessarily satisfy. The ease of finding what was once obscure takes away the pleasures of anticipation, of discovery, of searching things out. The fact that metal music is no longer found exclusively in physical media removes much of that precious ‘aura’1 that can accompany physical art objects. Demo tapes were exciting and mysterious objects because one had to ‘work’ to track them down. In the 1990s, I remember hearing rumours that there was a Pakistani metal band who had released a demo, something that seemed impossibly obscure and exotic at the time. I tried and failed to track down their tape, but I did track down others from faraway metal lands like the Phillipines and Peru and there was always a delightful frisson when tapes from distant lands finally arrived in the mail. Today, there isn’t much frisson to googling something and finding it. Stripped of the aura, rare and obscure metal recordings become much more mundane.
It's not just metal but all music. The digital revolution is universally deflating the sense of wonder and accomplishment that comes from obtaining a new album. Nothing's forcing you to squeeze the maximum appreciation out of that new album you just got because there's another one a few clicks away. You also get overloaded by the music. Take one band and you can probably find several more that sound like it. The mystique is a bit lost then. There are benefits though. There's a lot more crosstalk between genres and a lot of new cool sounds are coming out of it.
Great point. Still very depressing, I have to force myself to relisten to old albums to get to know them instead of moving on to the next thing.There are benefits though. There's a lot more crosstalk between genres and a lot of new cool sounds are coming out of it.
Why is it depressing? It's the same thing we've always had to do to really study an album. Listen to it over and over again. I spent months on Be'lakor's second album before moving on to their first and third for example. Even though I have to control myself, I love that I can and want to do this. Always there are more albums downloaded and waiting for me to listen to. I don't let this bother me, it actually excites me that my sea of metal never ends.
I'm sitting on a list of at least 450 albums, waiting for the next what.cd freeleech. That's fucking overwhelming, and it'll probably be twice that big by this time next year. It's depressing that I can't spend the time that each of these LPs deserves -- but extremely exciting as well. Music never ends.Always there are more albums downloaded and waiting for me to listen to. I don't let this bother me, it actually excites me that my sea of metal never ends.
Man, I recently booted my ex-gf from my house. She had soooo much shit--clothes, records, general junk. It used to drive me up the fucking wall. Now that she's gone, my place is empty and peaceful and clean as a whistle. I love it. To me, more stuff is a cause for great stress, and it gives me anxiety. Minimalism is way undervalued, IMO.Lol it's funny how having more stuff can cause so much unsatisfaction and depression.
That's not really unique to metal. There are no undergrounds anymore, except maybe in Frank Zappa's sense. I don't really miss them. There was some pride in how obscure metal and most electronic music used to be, because as he says you were one of a few, but it was pretty lonely unless you happened to live in the right city. It doesn't lessen my enjoyment of the things I like that others like them too, and it's fun to meet fellow travelers.
There are definitely hard-to-find albums, especially since so many mp3 blogs have died and all the good torrent sites are private, but it's no longer hard to find out that, say, Black Metal or Power Electronics exist, nor to explore them and their history.
You didn't/forgot to link to the original article: http://souciant.com/2013/11/too-much-metal/