rlr (05/28/82)
I've noticed something rather interesting in looking at the three latest surveys on the net (favorite records, movies, science fiction literature). While the tastes of movie-lovers and sf-lovers seem to be pretty well clustered (a significant number of titles appear on a significant number of lists), this was not true of the record lists. What I was wondering was: does this reflect a wider variety of tastes among music lovers, or does it mean that only the more eccentric/eclectic music lovers care enough about music to respond to such a survey? I don't remember seeing "Rumours" by Fleetwood Mac, or Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits on any lists, yet these are (why, tell me why?????) extremely popular records, at lesat (that's *least*) in terms of airplay and sales. There are obviously many more styles of music, each with unique (though not necessarily non-intersecting... that doesn't make sense) sets of "fans", than there are unique styles of movie-making and/or science fiction writing (that appeal to distinct groups of significant numbers). But I mass, popular music, see the function of their music as something in the background, not something to take seriously. Everyone I know that I can safely put into this category fails to recognize any of the music he/she listens to, and cannot remember what they had been listening to recently? Comments? Rich Rosen pyuxjj!rlr
rlr (05/28/82)
By the way, did anyone actually compile the results of the records survey to see if there was some sort of consensus???
wm (05/28/82)
Well, I happen to like fleetwood mac, and other popular artists, but to me, the purpose of the survey was not to find out what records sell well, but to get turned on to some groups that I may not have given a listen to. Since returning to grad school, I find myself spending more time at the used/cutout section of my local record stores and it helps to find out what may be worth $2 before you plop it down. If there are any other groups out there that frequent the used/cutout bins and are worth buying, please, tell me about them. My favorite example of a group like this is CAN. Are there any other CAN FANS out there?
rlr (06/01/82)
I wasn't implying that records that sell well are better (God forbid), but
somehow there should be a correlation between the number of people buying a
record and the number of people who LIKE it. Apparently not, judging by the
survey. Apparently, many people buy records the way TV execs think most people
watch television---buying the Least Objectionable Record and sort of plopping
it on the turntable for background noise. Thus there may be millions of
copies of Rumours floating out there that have never actually been LISTENED to.
Just sifted into the brain and out again.
With this in mind I can see why people are worried about subliminal messages
hidden in record albums. I'm sure that this sort of listening pattern is not
only true for those listen to MOR like Fleetwood Mac/Eagles multi-platinum
albums; it is probably also true for heavy metal geezers, folk rockers,
disco lovers, etc. (Probably a lot less true for classical music lovers,
but who knows?) If people just put records on their turntables without really
LISTENING to them, who knows what sorts of messages might be successfully
inserted into them ("Buy more AC/DC albums", "Drive fast cars", "Worship
Satan", "Ronald Reagan is a good president...") It just boggles the mind!!!!!
Rich Rosen pyuxjj!rlr
(Can you find the hidden message in this article?)