Where do you get new music from?

Cafe Society
1

A friend was over the other night, and the stereo was on. Currently in the CD player: [ul]
[li]Momo Wandel Soumah, Matchowe – Senegalese sax player with a voice like a cross between Louis Armstrong and Tom Waits[/li][li]Either/Orchestra, Afro-Cubism – contemporary big-band jazz, this album with a heavy Latin influence[/li][li]Caetano Veloso, A Foreign Sound – the man usually described as “The Bob Dylan of Brazil,” in terms of his lefty politics and profound influence over the last 40 years or so – but he’s got a tenor you want to grab a handful of and rub all over your body. His first all-English album, a quirky collection of standards, plus songs by Nirvana, David Byrne, and, yes, Dylan[/li][li]David Byrne, Grown Backwards – his latest[/li][li]Prince, Musicology – his latest[/li][/ul]

My friend wanted to know – where do you come up with this stuff from, since you don’t listen to the radio?

And my answer was … uh…

Soumah I encountered on a 2-disk compilation set called “Desert Blues II,” of African musicians from around the Sahara. I got that album, I think, based on an Amazon recommendation.

Either/Orchestra – read a review, somewhere. Don’t know where, since I didn’t clip the review, just wrote down the name of the album, and ordered it a few months later. I do buy stuff based on reviews, sometimes – one of the rock critics for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Tom Moon, has taste very similar to mine, so I’ve gotten some outstanding stuff based on his recommendations – but he reviews rock, not jazz. I do read some reviews in Entertainment Weekly, but haven’t bonded with a particular reviewer in quite that way.

Caetano Veloso – first encountered a few years based on a mix CD from an online pal who shares my love of world music. She said, you like African and Caribbean? Check out Brazilian! (And a bunch of other stuff as well. I ended up going in a few directions from that CD.) This album got good reviews, and I’ve been digging it majorly.

David Byrne – I’ve loved him for 20 years – the Heads ARE the soundtrack of the '80s – and this got good reviews. A couple of killer tracks, the rest is okay.

Prince – again, I’ve loved him for 20 years. He’s so freakin’ prolific, though, that I can’t pretend to have followed his career totally closely. This album was hailed as “a return to the old Prince” – and I’m reminded of why I don’t listen to oldies. As I grow and change, so does my taste in music. I don’t hate it, but it’s going to end up in the library pretty soon, rarely to re-emerge.

So – the current collection is unusual in being new releases of favorite artists. I’m trying to figure out where I do come up with this stuff from:

[ul]
[li]Reviews, either from a trusted reviewer (Tom Moon), or, occasionally, some random reviewer (ended up with an Arto Lindsay album I lvoe based on the latter)[/li][li]Recommendations from a friend who likes the same sort of stuff (the problem, of course, is that my taste is pretty quirky – no one really listens to the same stuff I do)[/li][li]Catalogue descriptions – I get emails from a world music guy (dealer), and, believe it or not, I’ve gotten a couple of totally killer albums from Daedalus (remainder catalogue)[/li][li]AMG descriptions of artists I’m curious about – the problem is, of course, it’s not at all clear who’s making those picks – I’m often left thinking, “they liked this album better than that one?”[/li][li]Amazon recommendations. The more I buy through there, the better their recommendations are. I’m a little freaked by the big-brotherness of it, but hell, for good tunes, go ahead and stick your probe in my brain.[/li][/ul]

Where do you get your new music from?

2

A few places:

I pick up albums and comps at the library of people i haven’t heard.

My friends often make me mix tapes or reccomend things

iTunes

3

I download a lot of music (not condoning, just saying), so I get turned on to a lot of new bands that I otherwise wouldn’t hear.

Also, I have a lot of musiclly inclined friends so I get to go to lots of live music with local bands.

(and before anyone starts complaining, I have one of the largest CD collections of anyone I know, and my music budget went UP in 2003)

4

The radio (though I don’t listen to it much anymore—or at all—since Hooterville pretty much lost its Classical station).

Since I collect film music (and have since I was 14) I simply pay attention to the score of whatever movie I’m watching. If I like the music, I check out the composer and buy whatever else they’ve got. Some people don’t understand this—they look at the title of the film scores that I’m buying and say, “Why do you have the soundtracks for Looney Tunes: Back in Action, Damnation Alley and The Illustrated Man? You’ve never even seen these movies!” Well, all those scores have a common denominator: Jerry Goldsmith, the composer. I buy anything he does, without worrying about seeing the movie, or caring whether the movie is any good or not. I find new compsers to admire all the time, simply by paying attention to who is scoring the movies that I watch.

I have a few favorites in the more popular music genre, like Peter Gabriel or Sting. I generally buy whatever they’ve got and am never disappointed. Also, recently I bought some iTunes of songs sung in Spanish (read a thread here recommending some artists) and am enjoying listening to those. Previews on iTunes gave me enough information to make some good purchases.

Believe it or not. my parents have been, and remain, a big influence on my musical choices. They introduced my sisters and me to Classical when we were very young, and that influence has stuck with us—we’re all big fans. I can’t go wrong if I buy a CD of something that was one of my dad’s particular favorites, and my mom has just gotten me more interested in Scarlatti. When he was alive, my dad would give me music for Christmas and introduce me to new composers and pieces that way. It was one of his greatest pleasures—introducing his kids to new composers and musical works.

5

I find that it’s a little tricky for me since the “genre” I’m mainly interested in is contemporary classical music and that gets very little media coverage. So here’s what I do:

Despite not being a student, I attend many of the meetings and concerts of the local university’s music composition department. I’m also subscribed to their email list. Aside from being able to hear new works by the professors (and, less importantly, the students), this helps me keep up with the overall new music scene.

Again, taking advantage of the university, I read newsletters and trade magazines put out by composers and new music groups.

I lurk on several classical music newgroups. Decent way to get information.

And I read surveys of 20th/21st century music. Most of these books just talk about people that I already know about, but every now and then a new name pops up.

I will also on occasion listen to the local classical radio station- but it’s a pretty poor source as they usually just program older (mostly 19th century) works.