The Death Of Music Via The Shuffle?
Crave has an interesting mini-essay about the shuffle feature on MP3 players and the potential of a backlash. In it, the author discusses the heralded "death of albums" due not only to the shuffle feature, but also online music retailers selling one song at a time, which, to the penny-pinchers or the particular, may result in only the best tracks being downloaded and not the entire work.
The backlash comes from completely random (natch) songs playing and thereby annoying listeners and causing them to become more finicky with their selections. The example of a hair salon pumping Alicia Keyes along with thrash metal is a good one, and leads to answers from you, dear readers.
I, for one, craft intricate playlists, much like mix tapes from yesteryear, and, if said playlists are long enough, put on the shuffle songs feature. Otherwise I rarely mix my entire music collection up all at once.
Do you ever use the shuffle feature or does it piss you off too much? Are you sick of hearing an ear-quaking White Stripes song followed by some 80's Madonna, and having the mix-up make no sense?
NeonMadman
Posted to Miscellany on 2 June 2008
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: ipod shuffle, music
Yeah gone are the days of albums, but once in a awhile I will splurge on a good listening album.
I never touch the Shuffle feature. I will download my music from iTunes, and set them up in 'themed' play lists. I'll even go so far as to make sure that the songs will transition well, with the right amount of pause between them.
Quite the opposite for me. Maybe I'm a psycho. I have a massive music collection and though I do sometimes use theme playlists or party mixes or whatever - mostly I just exclude holiday music and set it to shuffle. I love hearing random alt-pop next to death metal followed by classical. It keeps things interesting. :)
I make playlists and then shuffle (w/in the playlists). Some playlists are all my music minus the ones that don't sound good together. Some are 4 star +. then 3 star +. then a few genre playlists. Then by artists (all their work).
I don't think albums are anywhere near dead. I love slipping into an album now and again. It's a treat, an experience. Plus there's no other way to hear "Ziggy Stardust" or "The Downward Spiral," both being theme albums.
I'm with enrique. I have very specific genres and playlists set up and I shuffle within them, sometimes I mix it up, sometimes not. But I rarely listen to a full album start to finish.
My bf, on the other hand, is old-skool. He goes to the record store (yes, records. Vinyl. LP's) buy cd's, and listens to them front to back repeatedly. I gave him an iPod, and he has no desire to hear the songs mixed together. Even songs from different albums by the same artist.
I'm like hypp's bf. I love albums. There just isn't any other way to get to the root of what an artist is trying to say than to take in the whole experience. Sometimes, they aren't trying to say a thing, and that's where people should buy singles, but most times, albums are thematic, whether it be by style, structure, "concept," energy, whatnot. That's how I enjoy listening to music.
I buy probably 5-10 cd's a month and listen to them end-to-end, and if they are good, I'll keep listening, if not, I just forget them. The singles to me aren't worth the effort if the album isn't good.
I'm like m3ch4h0m0. I listen to full shuffle mode almost all the time. Some J-Pop, followed by alt-rock, followed by R&B. It's all good.
Probably the only time I listen to full albums is right after initial purchase or maybe in the car during a road trip.