Concentration vs. Diversification

[Guest Ohdistortedsmile1789]

Do you believe that it's better to concentrate on accumulating music from artists that you are enjoying, or to look into other, perhaps similar artists in order to diversify?

Example, I've been really into Waylon Jennings. I have three albums from him and I'm still digging the music quite a bit. Willie Nelson was a peer of his and another major artist. Would you pick up some more Waylon albums, or delve into Willie?

This example is current, but this conflict occurs all the time with me.

[frankwhite]

ALWAYS diversify. see when you concentrate you learn the intracacies of a certain thing, but when you diversify it opens your mind further with an entirely new format. once you got the grasp of one thing, a year or so later you'll venture back to it naturally, depending on how much you truly like it, y'know what i mean? if you dont naturally float back to it something in your kinetic inclinations is pulling you in the other direction. the more you diversify the more you see and it gives you a wider scope to say, y'know, more options to pick from. thats how i operate anyway. diversity is ALWAYS better, you can pick up on concentration later in life but while your young its cool to diversify because people who tend to lean towards concentration as the months and years go by you get entrenched in the snobbery of that genre (and each genre has its own) and it makes it harder to diversify when you're older. did you ever notice that? people who concentrate tend to get stuck in the rut of concentration whereas diversity is a beautiful thing because it gives you lots of little hints to expand on in the future. ALWAYS diversity. its always better to understand more, diversity makes a better person out of you, music is relative to cultures and ways of life and it expands your mind and understanding of the world and those around you imo.

Edited May 11, 2007 by frankwhite

[Guest Ohdistortedsmile1789]

ALWAYS diversify. see when you concentrate you learn the intracacies of a certain thing, but when you diversify it opens your mind further with an entirely new format. once you got the grasp of one thing, a year or so later you'll venture back to it naturally, depending on how much you truly like it, y'know what i mean? if you dont naturally float back to it something in your kinetic inclinations is pulling you in the other direction. the more you diversify the more you see and it gives you a wider scope to say, y'know, more options to pick from. thats how i operate anyway. diversity is ALWAYS better, you can pick up on concentration later in life but while your young its cool to diversify because people who tend to lean towards concentration as the months and years go by you get entrenched in the snobbery of that genre (and each genre has its own) and it makes it harder to diversify when you're older. did you ever notice that? people who concentrate tend to get stuck in the rut of concentration whereas diversity is a beautiful thing because it gives you lots of little hints to expand on in the future. ALWAYS diversity. its always better to understand more, diversity makes a better person out of you, music is relative to cultures and ways of life and it expands your mind and understanding of the world and those around you imo.

Good argument. Naturally, I have always tended to diversify. It's still an issue for me though.

[worldwideboss]

It really depends, at least I think there cannot be a definitive answer.

You see, there are artists whose albums are all very similar. If that was the case, then I would pick up an album by someone else and go back to the first artist some time after. However, if we talk about an artist that has covered a lot of ground, I would focus on exploring that person's discography.

In a sense, they are both diversifying, but the question of whether to buy something from the same artist or another stands still.

Edited May 12, 2007 by worldwideboss

[Guest Ohdistortedsmile1789]

It really depends, at least I think there cannot be a definitive answer.

You see, there are artists whose albums are all very similar. If that was the case, then I would pick up an album by someone else and go back to the first artist some time after. However, if we talk about an artist that has coveres a lot of ground, I would focus on exploring that person's discography.

In a sense, they are both diversifying, but the question of whether to buy something from the same artist or another stands still.

ie. Any additional David Bowie album would be an act of diversification.

Point well taken.

[Guest knerken]

Yeah, what the others said; Try to diversfy, and go back to an an artist after some time if it feels natural.

[darkstar_legend]

wheres the option for "i just listen to what sounds good"?

[frankwhite]

wheres the option for "i just listen to what sounds good"?

its a case of looking for more stuff that sounds good.

[artfromtex]

great topic.

since i first got into music i've gone "all in" on artists that i like. it started when i was four years old and Elvis died. my mom took me and my brother to the store and she bought every Elvis record they had. we even had some duplicates. she just walked up to the Elvis section and put every record in the cart. it was like $300 or more, and we're talking 1977. i've follwed in that pattern ever since. sometimes, i can't even buy just one cd of an artist. if i know i'm going to like somebody, or i already know i like them, i'll wait until i can buy that artists' entire discography at one time before i make a purchase. maybe that's a little OCD, i don't know. i don't do that with every band/artist, but the ones i really like i do that.

i've got nearly 1500 cd's by less than 300 artists. lately 've been buying some old blues and some old soul singles from iTunes. that's really been fun, because i'm geting so much different stuff. so i think i'm going to make an honest effort to be more diverse in my purchasing. i've always liked many different styles of music, i just haven't always purchased it. i've got a back-log of stuff i gotta get caught up on.

Edited May 11, 2007 by artfromtex

[frankwhite]

you have the coolest mom in the world dude :):) i do that OCD thing too, did it with the stones and zep.

Edited May 11, 2007 by frankwhite

[bax]

Excellent arguments on both sides. Please don't take this as a cop-out, but I would have to say a bit of both. An example for me would be Led Zeppelin. I got into them heavily at an early age and soon had bought all their albums. Then I started to wonder what was behind that sound-where did it come from? I started reading whatever I could dig up about them and soon realized that they had been primarily influenced by American blues artists-not only influenced but actually ripping them off to a certain degree. I got into Robert Johnson, but at the same time I was getting into other blues -influenced artists like Hendrix and also the bands that were influenced indirectly by the blues. It seemed with each artist I got into I found that not only did everything go back to the blues but that the blues could be traced back to its African roots.

As the years have passed I find myself going back and forth-I find an artist and get all OCD over them, but soon end up trying to figure out where they got their sound from. I am constantly discovering new music and learning about the craft of composing and arranging music. Where most people tend to stop looking for new music in their early 20's, I am on a constant search for something new-or old, however you choose to look at it.

[Dean-16]

im very open minded music wise

[inthisriver]

I guess I try to, or I want to be as diverse as possible. But I've only just begun...

[JAC185]

I try to diversify. But at the end of the day, i don't get any added satisfaction from listening to something outside of my usual range of music if i simply don't enjoy listening to it as much as i do my usual music.

So i try not to just make random jumps and think like 'today i'll try country', i follow patterns, kinda like bax said, when i got into Led Zep, i wondered where that sound came from, got into some blues and so on and thats how my collection developed.

Saying that, i'm only 16 and know there's a hell of a lot of albums i'll fall in love with i haven't even heard of yet.

[artfromtex]

ok, i picked these up this weekend:

The Best Of Foghat

Humble Pie Anthology

Grand Funk Railroad Collector's Series

Blackfoot Anthology

Georgia Satellites 1st album

Black Oak Arkansas Definitive Rock

[highvoltage]

Diversify, then concentrate on what you find appeals to you the most.

[Guest Ohdistortedsmile1789]

That's about what I've been doing High.

The Best Of Foghat

You are going to love Foghat, I'm sure you've heard "Slow Ride" and the like before but Rod Price is a better guitar player than most anyone knows.