söndag 2 Maj 2010, 18:30
Looking through my ever-growing pile of unlistened CDs (unlistened does not mean that I never put it on, it just means that I haven’t yet had the opportunity to really listen to it all the way through a few times), I asked myself whether it would be possible to pinpoint exactly what makes me want to buy a CD. The point being here that most of the time I only get to love CDs after having bought them already and most of those CDs I eventually end up liking. Of course the fact that I obsessively collect all available records of the artists I like helps. This means that the question is reduced to the following: how do I discover new artists? And which means have provided me reliably with the artists I’d surely love? Decisive for what category to put an artist in is not how I first heard their song but what got me hooked (I’m only including artists I’m still hooked on as of today but since I can’t remember ever having gotten tired of an artist, this is a given).
For ever and for always
There are some artists whose music came to me as a child and will always stay with me no matter what. My mom used to have quite a few LPs, yet I only ever listened to two of them: Janis Joplin’s Antology and a recording of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story. I must have been about five or six years old at the time. Shortly thereafter, my mother was given a mixtape of Kate Bush songs for her listening pleasure. I must have overheard it, was hooked immediately, and annexed the tape (I even still listen to it from time to time; the dust and noises let me relive memories long thought forgotten). Kate Bush has remained my favourite artist since. I absolutely love her music which has been guiding me for so many years of my life. A fourth artist I remember from my (later) childhood is Sinéad O'Connor: her album “Universal Mother” came out when I was nine and my mother’s boyfriend at the time got it and it, too, became one of my most cherished music artifacts.
Most favourite of the bunch: Kate Bush, of course
My rating of this channel: The music’s great but the variety is limited: ★★★★☆
Radio & MTV
I remember countless nights of listening to the charts as a tween. This was at a time when my music taste was the most mainstream. Later, this line of music discovery shifted to MTV and still persists today in the form of some TV shows I still watch and some music-related radio podcasts I still listen to. Artists discovered this way include the Spice Girls, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Jan Delay, Céline Dion, Anastacia, Sugababes, The Cranberries, Shania Twain, Tracy Chapman, Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
Most favourite of the bunch: Undecided because the reach is so far
My rating of this channel: Great variety of artists, little variety of sound: ★★★☆☆
Artists that are common knowledge and I happen to like them
- The Beatles
- ABBA (this is actually another one for the first category but I never really, really liked them until I got to some of the lesser-known songs)
- Bob Dylan
Seen live
I don’t usually go to concerts where I don’t know what to expect. But there are still three possible circumstances that could cause this to occur:
- A friend drags me with them
- The concert is part of a festival with a mixed line-up
- The artist is the supporting act
I happen to have an example for each of those cases:
- Nellie McKay (Case 3)
- Alanis Morissette (Case 2)
- Sohodolls (Case 1, where the friend was actually my father)
Best live discovery: Alanis Morissette
Rating: ★★★★☆
Artists suggested to me by the local record store
Unfortunately, Rock On closed its doors for good last October but I will always remember how they got to know my music taste in a matter of weeks… Artists discovered there include:
Where Róisín is of course my most cherished discovery of all
Overall rating: ★★★★☆
iTunes
Sometimes I browse the iTunes store and discover great stuff that way. Only downside is that once I started a music collection by an artist digitally, I can’t continue it physically because that would (by some psychological condition) violate my principle of the order of things… case in point: I don’t have any of these artists physically in my record collection.
Best of iTunes: Amy Macdonald
Rating: some crummy boundaries prevent me from getting all I want but the quality of service is excellent: ★★★☆☆
Last.fm
Discoveries on last.fm are not what you think they’d be: iamstevienicks3 gave me a shout asking “AND you also like Celine and ABBA!!! Have u tried any Stevie Nicks? I am sure you would love her :-)”. And he was right, I did love her! Once I posted a journal entry named “Great albums of 2007” where hdsander posted a comment reading: “Nice list! I found albums to agree to, some to look at and some I would not mention, but I could not find Brandi Carlile - The Story ;)”… And whoops now, there she is now in my library, never again to be forgotten. Lastly: Lene Lovich. I took a more active approach there and asked my last.fm neighbours who listened to her to recommend her to me and they did.
Best on last.fm: Stevie Nicks, with Brandi Carlile being a close second
Rating: not many but all top shots: ★★★★☆
Ectoguide
A web site with the complete title “the ectophile’s guide to good music” is a collection of artist that could be of interest to anyone who likes Happy Rhodes’ music. The most effective source of new discoveries:
- Veda Hille
- Emily Bezar
- Jane Siberry
- Lou Rhodes
- Jewel
- Charlotte Martin
- Laurie Anderson
- Ani DiFranco
- Terami Hirsch
- Vienna Teng
- Joanna Newsom
Ectobest: Laurie Anderson, Ani DiFranco, Joanna Newsom, Jewel (sorry, can’t decide)
Rating: fabulous: ★★★★★
Artists who draw comparisons to Kate Bush
Most of them I discovered on Kate-Bush web sites, through web searches or by accident in other media articles.
Most Kate-like: Happy Rhodes
Rating: limited, but great: ★★★★☆
Specifically: the Kate Bush Google Alert
Best here: Bat For Lashes
Rating: many journalist seem to connect all sorts of music to Kate… so there are lots of false positives here: ★★★☆☆
Artists who draw comparisons to Tori Amos
Sometimes sounds exactly like Tori: Charlotte Martin
Suggested by family members
Best: Björk
Rating: sometimes wonky, mostly cool, often quite good: ★★★☆☆
Suggested by friends
- Radiohead
- Sally Oldfield
- Tanya Donelly
- The Cardigans
- k.d. lang
- Diana Krall
- CocoRosie
- Maria Taylor
- Imogen Heap
Best: Sally Oldfield
Rating: sometimes wonky, mostly cool, often quite good: ★★★★☆
Got to know in school
(Suggested by a teacher, not a classmate)
Best: Cyndi Lauper
Rating: ★★★★☆
Off compilations
- Marianne Faithfull (Paul Simon Songbook)
- Sting (Two Rooms)
- Joe Cocker (Two Rooms)
- George Michael (Two Rooms)
- Joni Mitchell (Love… Actually OST)
Best: Sting, followed by Joni Mitchell
Rating: does not often yield good results: ★★☆☆☆
Because some artist I liked did a cover of their song
- Leonard Cohen (Joan Baez covered “Famous Blue Raincoat”)
- Ismaël Lô (Marianne Faithfull covered “La Femme Sans Haine (Toutes Les Femmes)”)
- Cher (Sophie Ellis-Bextor covered “Take Me Home”)
- Peter Gabriel (Happy Rhodes covered “Here Comes The Flood”)
- David Bowie (Happy Rhodes covered “Ashes To Ashes”)
- Joe Jackson (Tori Amos covered “Real Men”)
Best: Leonard Cohens
Rating: funny way but most are lucky guesses: ★★★☆☆
Because they did a cover of a song I liked
- Tori Amos (covered Leonard Cohens “Famous Blue Raincoat”; yes, really, that’s how I first got in touch with her music, not the “obvious” Kate-Bush-comparison)
- Julie Felix (covered Simon & Garfunkel’s version of “El Cóndor Pasa”)
- Julie Covington (covered Kate Bush’s “The Kick Inside”)
- Roberta Flack (covered Janis Ian’s Jesse, which I happened to know because of Joan Baez’s cover)
Best: Tori Amos
Rating: apart from Tori not a big yield: ★★☆☆☆
Because one of their song’s titles contained the name of an artist I liked
Solo stuff by bands I liked
Best: Siobhan Donaghy
Rating: strangely few…: ★★☆☆☆
Bands of people whose solo stuff I liked
- The Sugarcubes (via Björk)
- Azure Ray (via Maria Taylor)
- Moloko (via Róisín Murphy)
- Fleetwood Mac (via Stevie Nicks)
Best: The Sugarcubes, closely followed by Moloko
Rating: mostly great: ★★★★☆