Why not just turn it off? (Taking it to the VURD)

[featherynscale]

I could, of course, just turn the radio off. The downside to abstaining, though, is that I would lose what little exposure to new music it grants me. I have a reasonably large and diverse music collection now, and I think I could listen to only what I currently have for a very long time without getting completely bored with it. BUT: failing to incorporate new bands into the realm of things you like is a sure cause/indicator of old fogeyhood, and I am not interested in going there, particularly.

I have Pandora, which is somewhat helpful. I have had last.fm recommended to me (I'm not using it because it's not compatible with the music player I prefer to use at home, and because it's a download, which is sort of crass at the office). I have at least 101 flavors of internet radio (which is not as bad as local radio by a long shot). And, of course, I have you guys, and many of you are much better connected to music than I am. (sepiachord, for example, is rapidly ascending to the personal lord and saviour category.)

So tell me, Vast Unpaid Research Department, what are you listening to that's worth listening to? What other resources are you using to bring new music to your ears? Who's your favorite band these days?

Comments

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I'm awfully fond of Putumayo's world music series, great way to find new artists.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I enjoy that sort of thing quite a bit. I find it a lot easier to enjoy music when I can't understand the words. So much of popular music is just insipid. I mean, it's possible that the lyrics are also insipid in world music, but if they're insipid in Swahili or Hungarian or Mandarin Chinese, I'm never going to know, and I can still enjoy the sound.

[tryst-inn.livejournal.com]

I agree with you whole-heartedly.

I used to adore Kalinikov's work, until some idiot translated it into English: "The trees denuded, the snow is on the ground. The lovers who walked these garden lanes now lie below the ice".

Yikes.

[zylch.livejournal.com]

This is how I can stand to listen to Anna Vissi. I'm abolutely positive that most of her lyrics are crap (based on the few words of modern Greek I understand, at least one of them goes "I want you, you want me, I want you a lot, you want me [word I don't know]." But the music itself is fun in a Eastern Pop sort of way, and definitely a welcome break from stuff like Backstreet Boys.