Once in a while, I visit “new” music from the ’60s and ’70s, exploring something that I’ve neglected or never fully explored. Often, when I do this, I’m immeasurably surprised at what I’m hearing. This gives me license to run through an accumulated catalog at very close intervals. That’s a good and bad thing.
The good is simple. That means instantaneous access to a potentially large catalog, especially rewarding if you like what you’re hearing. You get to follow the band or artist through various levels of maturation (or decline) in rapid succession.
The bad is infinitely unsatisfying. Yes, you get to explore a band’s back catalog quickly. But it’s like watching your life unfold in hours rather than the real time that it actually did. This unfortunately steals the flavor of the band’s entire work.
Normally, with music you acquire, you’re given the gift of enjoyment. You listen, and immerse in the tracks you find immediately to your liking. After a while, you begin to pay closer attention to the songs that you passed over for the time being. Soon after, an opinion begins to form and you’re able to make an assessment of the album, especially if it’s a band you’ve followed. It has grown with you, good or bad.
However, finding something beautiful from your favored generation is an unmatched experience. Given limited funds when you’re younger and the fact that you HAD to do other things than listen to music (like schooling, eating, and sleeping – who made these rules up?), listening and acquiring music was a challenge, one that I, personally gave my best efforts to. But with an attention span, and some efforts, you can reopen a door from the past, step in, and find grand “new” bands and artists to become fans of.
A perfect example of this, for me, is Greenslade. A year or so back, I decided to pay closer attention to a band that I had seen, heard a little of, but never explored. I dived in, became a fan. Currently, I’ve picked up on HP Lovecraft, a band I paid little attention to in the past. We’ll see where that goes.
How fast you walk through that corridor of time is, of course, up to you. Real gold is found along those walkways, and so you should take your shoes off. Just explore the “new” old classics that you haven’t before.
You can call it a holy experience if you want.
Interesting. I find my biggest challenge now is having the time to devote to listening to music even though I have the funds to do so. Conversely, when I was younger I had more time to listen to music and a shortage of funds. Funny how a lot of things in life work that way.
I have done what you are describing (exploring a band’s entire output quickly) numerous times. The results are mixed.