Invader
Ancient Mariner
Finding these forums and participating in the discussions has been an amazing eye opener for me. Here I have discovered dozens of like-minded individuals who treat music in exactly the same way as I do: with respect. In real life I have met so few people who are musically similar to myself that I can count them with one hand; this forums is full of them.
Before I begin this rant, I would like to point out that I am mainly discussing Finnish "teenager" musical culture. I do not have serious experience with adults, mainly because I don't really know well any adult that listens to metal. So just bear that in mind.
It frustrates me to see how music is basically raped by Finnish youth. For me the stereotypical finnish teenager is, music-wise, a faceless robot with an iPod crammed full of mislabelled downloaded MP3-files. He has all kinds of genres, ranging from disco to death metal. He has dozens', if not hundreds', of artists' music, and probably the only name of a musician of one of those bands that he knows is Ozzy Osbourne (not that he knows how to spell it). AC/DC is spelled ACDC, AC DC, AC-DC, AC.DC, ADCD, and probably the only band with no alternate spellings is dio (uncapitalised, of course). There are songs with the wrong artists labelled on them, and covers are never performed by who they are said to be performed. Song titles have mysteriously changed places. If you look at the album lists you'll find as many albums as songs. And of course he has never bought a CD from any of these artists.
I was exaggerating a bit there, but not that much, and many people are like that. Now, I'll also have to confess. That's pretty much exactly how I got into music, or more specifically metal (not quite so exaggerated though). That was about three years ago. I got loads of downloaded MP3 files from friends, some of them wrongly labelled and misspelled, with missing album/year/etc information, as well as downloading some of my own.
Now of course this all sounds very hypocritical. But that is not what I am now. Step by step I moved from arranging and labelling them properly, to downloading entire albums, to actually buying them. I still have downloaded music in abundance, but I have resolved to buy all of it legally. I'm currently working my way through it, since I obviously don't have the money to do it all at once. I'm trying to maintain a rate of at least one CD per month. Of the CDs that I do own, I have all of them copied into MP3 files on my iPod (I don't have anything against iPods by the way, though it may have sounded like it), complete with composers, years, cover art and even lyrics. I would say I have come a long way from how I started music, and look back with distaste. But still, I consider that the end justifies the means, because I might never have got into Maiden were it not for downloading.
Other people mostly think I'm stupid for actually buying albums; after all, why buy when you can download for free? This brings me to my second topic, namely loyalty. People say that Maiden fans are a very loyal bunch. From my experience, I would have to say the same. All the more faithful music listeners I know listen to Maiden. As for myself, I am fanatically loyal to Maiden. At times perhaps too loyal, at the expense of other great bands. Compared to the musically normal people of my age, this is quite unheard of. Not so long agone of my classmates, when scrolling through my iPod and checking my artists, exclaimed that "you have so little" (11 artists). Well, yes and no. I have around 600 songs (of which about a quarter is owned, so far). I tried to explain that a lot of that is Maiden, Metallica, Priest, AC/DC, and Iced Earth, but he pretty much looked down on me. My point is that loyalty for bands is very low, which also means that very few people buy albums.
And another nail into the coffin of music: how *much* people have of it. It's easy to get a lot when you get it for free. It is not uncommon for a person to have 1000 songs. I myself have around 600, but that includes many duplicates - live songs and the like (I have 8 versions of TNOTB!) simply for completeness. And even those 600 are quite much and I would like to know them better. Having too much just alienates you from your songs, unless you have accumulated those over a very long period of time. I can recognise at least the artist and usually the song for a large portion of my music, but that is rare among others. I know only a couple of people who know the lyrics of entire songs; the rare times the "average" person knows the lyrics of a song, it is either the chorus only or the song itself is horrendously overplayed (or is instrumental
). I consider lyrics an important part of songs, but the same cannot be said of most people I know.
Sorry for the negative tone and lengthy post, but I needed to let off some steam. If you're like the stereotype I talked about (not very common here, I would suppose), I hope you're not offended. I'm just very frustrated with the state the music culture and music business is going. But then again, I guess everyone has the right to listen to music how they want...
So, other people want to comment on their experiences, perhaps with different age groups and nationalities?
Before I begin this rant, I would like to point out that I am mainly discussing Finnish "teenager" musical culture. I do not have serious experience with adults, mainly because I don't really know well any adult that listens to metal. So just bear that in mind.
It frustrates me to see how music is basically raped by Finnish youth. For me the stereotypical finnish teenager is, music-wise, a faceless robot with an iPod crammed full of mislabelled downloaded MP3-files. He has all kinds of genres, ranging from disco to death metal. He has dozens', if not hundreds', of artists' music, and probably the only name of a musician of one of those bands that he knows is Ozzy Osbourne (not that he knows how to spell it). AC/DC is spelled ACDC, AC DC, AC-DC, AC.DC, ADCD, and probably the only band with no alternate spellings is dio (uncapitalised, of course). There are songs with the wrong artists labelled on them, and covers are never performed by who they are said to be performed. Song titles have mysteriously changed places. If you look at the album lists you'll find as many albums as songs. And of course he has never bought a CD from any of these artists.
I was exaggerating a bit there, but not that much, and many people are like that. Now, I'll also have to confess. That's pretty much exactly how I got into music, or more specifically metal (not quite so exaggerated though). That was about three years ago. I got loads of downloaded MP3 files from friends, some of them wrongly labelled and misspelled, with missing album/year/etc information, as well as downloading some of my own.
Now of course this all sounds very hypocritical. But that is not what I am now. Step by step I moved from arranging and labelling them properly, to downloading entire albums, to actually buying them. I still have downloaded music in abundance, but I have resolved to buy all of it legally. I'm currently working my way through it, since I obviously don't have the money to do it all at once. I'm trying to maintain a rate of at least one CD per month. Of the CDs that I do own, I have all of them copied into MP3 files on my iPod (I don't have anything against iPods by the way, though it may have sounded like it), complete with composers, years, cover art and even lyrics. I would say I have come a long way from how I started music, and look back with distaste. But still, I consider that the end justifies the means, because I might never have got into Maiden were it not for downloading.
Other people mostly think I'm stupid for actually buying albums; after all, why buy when you can download for free? This brings me to my second topic, namely loyalty. People say that Maiden fans are a very loyal bunch. From my experience, I would have to say the same. All the more faithful music listeners I know listen to Maiden. As for myself, I am fanatically loyal to Maiden. At times perhaps too loyal, at the expense of other great bands. Compared to the musically normal people of my age, this is quite unheard of. Not so long agone of my classmates, when scrolling through my iPod and checking my artists, exclaimed that "you have so little" (11 artists). Well, yes and no. I have around 600 songs (of which about a quarter is owned, so far). I tried to explain that a lot of that is Maiden, Metallica, Priest, AC/DC, and Iced Earth, but he pretty much looked down on me. My point is that loyalty for bands is very low, which also means that very few people buy albums.
And another nail into the coffin of music: how *much* people have of it. It's easy to get a lot when you get it for free. It is not uncommon for a person to have 1000 songs. I myself have around 600, but that includes many duplicates - live songs and the like (I have 8 versions of TNOTB!) simply for completeness. And even those 600 are quite much and I would like to know them better. Having too much just alienates you from your songs, unless you have accumulated those over a very long period of time. I can recognise at least the artist and usually the song for a large portion of my music, but that is rare among others. I know only a couple of people who know the lyrics of entire songs; the rare times the "average" person knows the lyrics of a song, it is either the chorus only or the song itself is horrendously overplayed (or is instrumental
). I consider lyrics an important part of songs, but the same cannot be said of most people I know.Sorry for the negative tone and lengthy post, but I needed to let off some steam. If you're like the stereotype I talked about (not very common here, I would suppose), I hope you're not offended. I'm just very frustrated with the state the music culture and music business is going. But then again, I guess everyone has the right to listen to music how they want...
So, other people want to comment on their experiences, perhaps with different age groups and nationalities?
). Of those, I make sure all are labelled to the best of my ability (in terms of artist, album, title etc.), and I have a scant few single tracks from artists...those that I do have are ones I've been sent over MSN (Kreator, Bathory, Artillery etc.), and I have listened to them enough to know them.
At that time even I recognized it because I'd heard it so much hanging out with Eric.
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I *like* going to one of those shops w/ records & posters on the walls, having something to hold, look at & treasure. I'm 24y.o. next week, & I *love* vinyl. I don't care if somebody