My pal Tom Ewing yesterday put a call out on Twitter asking people what their favorite songs were, and how they’d first been exposed to said songs. People answered with songs ranging from “Tequila” to “Zero,” and from sources ranging from boyfriends to MBV. From that data–compiled over the course of a few hours–he extracted a few thoughts on what he called “Digitally Engaged Music Seekers,” and how they come to the music that they love:
1. Forget traditional broadcast media: it’s entertaining but it’s not a source of anything much - only two people mentioned radio or video channels.
2. Blogs are important, but so’s direct band/artist communication: I was surprised by how many people heard favourite tracks through direct digital connection with artists or labels - no intermediary required.
3. Word of mouth can be casual: music gets transmitted across pretty weak ties - guitar teachers and twitter friends as well as mates and boyfriends.
4. Serendipity matters: I get the feeling that most replies weren’t seeking out new music so much as putting themselves in the way of it and being alert and vaguely open to its possibility.
5. The Long Tail lives!: I am a pop fan and so I was expecting to see more records named which are hits or at least have some chance of it. Instead the bulk of them I’d never even heard of.
I would tend to agree with all of these–especially the point about serendipity, which I think has become less possible in the digital age as people close themselves off to music that they don’t already know or that hasn’t been recommended to them (whether by a friend or an online engine of some sort); the omnipresence of headphones helps, too, as walking down a street while listening to the sounds of cars going by and radios blaring from stores is a very different experience than one with headphones. Then again, my favorite song of this very second is one I inadvertently found while doing an iTunes search for a related track, so perhaps serendipity is there, it just requires a little more effort on the part of the listener.
Anyway, I don’t think he’d object to me using that term to describe all of you fine people, who are, after all, reading about music via a digital device, so let me throw the question out to you–what’s your favorite song of right now (don’t overthink, just whatever comes to your mind first), and where did you first hear it? And what do you think of Tom’s theories on how people discover music–do recommendations from artists matter that much? And is there still the potential for a serendipitous path to music in the cold, hard digital world?
The way we listen now [Freaky Trigger]
Until some other song manages to push it out, my favorite song of right now (and the past many months) is/has been “Oh My God”, and all credit goes to Paste. Had they not profiled Ida Maria many moons ago, I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to discover her greatness. Plus, I get it for just 50 cents an issue!
My favorite song right now is Furr, by Blitzen Trapper, which I heard first performed live on Sound Opinions- though I usually listen to that show on the the radio, I heard this on on podcast.
@thesemodernsocks: Second that, with the same Sound Opinions recommendation. Actually, the specific Blitzen Trapper song they turned me onto with that show was the Furr song “Black River Killer,” which I’ve got on top of my current-songs iPod playlist.
Basically, if you’re a guy, you find out about songs just because you’re cool like that.
If you’re a girl, you have to wait until a man tells you what to like or what’s good.
My favorite song of the moment is “Led to the Sea” by Jenny Owen Youngs. I found out about it from a blog post on her myspace page (which I look at EVERY SINGLE DAY).
1901 by Phoenix. Found out about song via word of mouf.
Cobra Starship’s “Pete Wentz is the Only Reason We’re Famous”, thanks to their MySpace. But I assume I first heard that they’d added it to MySpace via one of the band members Twitter accounts.
@MayhemintheHood: WTF?
Major Lazer’s “Hold the Line”, specifically the Ghilsain Poirier remix. Can’t remember how I found it — the Mad Decent webpage, maybe?
@slowburn: the ghislain remix is great, if you haven’t heard his soca soundsystem ep that the beat comes from you should really take a listen; it’s all crazy industrialized soca riddims with legit MCs.
my favorite song at the moment is probably “Wet Hair” by Japandroids, which i heard when my friend forwarded their album to a couple of weeks ago
@slowburn: Just being facetious.
The past few months, I’ve only been listening to stuff from around my high school days…just been in the mood for punk and 80’s hardcore, I guess.
IF I had to name one, it’d be Ida Maria “Oh My God”…which I didn’t hear until it was on this site.
The Climb. Don’t judge me. And I heard it while watching the Hannah Montana movie.
Maura mentioned MBV — they posted a video of Akron/Family playing “River” at Amoeba. It’s got such a wonderful guitar line and sound. I was waiting on their new album, but that song didn’t really stick until I saw the post up there about it.
I have two (really). Nina Sky’s On Some Bullshit, which I found randomly while doing a radio show about the history of female pop duos recently. And Asobi Seksu’s Me & Mary, which I found a couple of weeks ago while checking out the UK single release schedule.
@MayhemintheHood: Cool, just checking ;-)
I was in the habit of scrolling through Hype Machine every morning, which was how I discovered two favorites from last year: Rocca’s “Carrie-Anne” and the Shoes’ remix of Mystery Jets’ “Young Love” — that’s how I fell in love with Mystery Jets.
I love Blip.fm. Often I’ll let the live stream play and pick up on a few tracks — ditto the Blip links on Twitter. Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Hysteric” was discovered that way.
And blogs, like our dear Idolator.
I found Wavves “No Hope Kids” on The Fader a few months back. I got sent the promo for Nat “King” Cole’s “Lush Life” remix be Cee-lo by Giant Step. On iTunes now, btw. So so so good.
I find a lot of my music at Turntable Lab. Yes, the Internets! I do hear a decent amount of stuff on the radio, too, though. That old FM relic. Funk Flex was playing the new Redman/Method Man joint the other night, “Ayo”. Pretty tasty. Especially since I thought I never wanted to hear Method Man rap ever again. Cool soul sample.
Anyone with a car still flips through the FM from time to time.
Ida Maria, “I like you better when you’re naked.” I heard it on the (gasp!) radio. I’m not actually a luddite, I first listened to “Oh My God” because of this site, but I’ve been listening to Indie 101.5 a lot since I discovered it a couple weeks ago. It’s a pretty cool station if you’re in the Denver area, although the signal is a bit weak.
I have a friend who sent me a youtube clip of Tokyo Police Club’s Citizens of Tomorrow. It’s on fairly heavy rotation in my iPod right now.
health’s “die slow,” thanks to pfork’s “track reviews” section. i can’t get that song outta my head. i also think serendipity plays a huge role in music discovery. also, sometimes i feel like there’s some secret society who are turning me into a fan of certain bands, right before they, or someone they’re affiliated with, release a record.
one particular memory of this happening comes to mind. i always liked soundgarden, but i never really listened to much beyond [i]superunknown[/i]. once that door opened though, audioslave were conveniently releasing a record within a month or two…
oops wrong code. you get the idea.
@walkmasterflex: Thanks for the suggestion. This is probably how I’ll find my NEW favorite song.
Current fave is probably Placebo’s cover of “Running Up That Hill,” which a friend sent to me. We tend to trade tracks back and forth with our fiction writing, whatever feels right for a particular piece.
Also up there are Lykke Li’s “I’m Good, I’m Gone” which I’m a tad embarrassed to say I only sought out after the American Idol cover of it (and its appearance on ABC’s Unusuals as well).
My favorite song at the moment is “A song to sing when I’m lonely” by John Frusciante. I was looking through my ipod and came upon all of his albums, and I randomly picked on the album I like the least (songwriting is good, I just don’t like the production), and I choose the song title that I thought had the cheesiest title. I clicked play and was blown away, the song fucking rocks!
This is how I “retry” albums that I previously have not liked. But I tend to find music serendipitously. Today for example, I was listening to a song by the Hot Snakes on youtube and I wondered what the frontman’s new band was, so i did a quick google search, found it, and started to check it out (it’s good). The band name is Obits btw…
@Vulture.Protein: Before “The Merger”, I had heard Lykke Li on XMU, and that was where I heard most of my singles of now.
Since around then, however, I’m actually busy working, and I depend on this blog, Obscure Sound, Stereogum, and pitchfork.tv to show me what’s up. And all credit goes to Idolator for their coverage of Gaslight Anthem, as ‘59 sound is my favorite song of now (and it convinced me to listen to Springsteen again!)
I dunno if I have one favorite song right now. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Beyonce’s “Radio” which I came across poking through a shared iTunes library of someone else in my dorm (I probably never would’ve bothered with an album track of hers otherwise).
I’ve also been playing too much of The Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me” because my friends and I got drunk while watching “Adventures In Babysitting” the other weekend. (I first heard that song when I was around 9ish, when they were showing that same movie on TV.)
Most of my favorite songs of certain moments come either from friends giving me mp3 links (”OMG you have to listen to this it’s AWESOME”) or places like Idolator. Or they’re new songs from acts I already know/love. And every now and then (read: more often than I care to admit), it’s some big inescapable hit that drags me in.
Mine would be “In For The Kill (Lifelike Remix)” because a coworker sent it to me (and we are in the music biz). And “Stuck On Repeat” from Little Boots is a close second ever since I saw her sing it live at SXSW. It’s so much more Grand & Sweeping live.
The new Basement Jaxx, “Raindrops”, courtesy of Pitchfork, who usually deliver for me.
@romastrega: My favorite song right now is actually one of La Roux’s too- not “In for the Kill”, though, but “Bulletproof.” I hate to say it, but the half of the Internet that hates her has made me like her more than I probably otherwise would. It’s contrarianism at its stupidest and worst, but I hear a good song where everyone else hears blips and shouting. If it weren’t for the sympathy factor I would say my favorite song right now is Anthonio’s “Annie.”
Little Boots makes me a bit “:(” as the album sounds to my ears like it is going to be a huge mess. But “Stuck” is still brillllllll.
Not ashamed to say that I’ve had “Knock You Down,” (Keri Hilson, Ne-Yo & Fishsticks) on heavy rotation the last week or two. Which I first heard/saw here.
I agree with all the Blitzen Trapper love atop the comments as well.
Man, Blitzen Trapper is not my thing at all. Every time I gave Furr a spin I thought to myself, “Why am I not just listening to Wings instead?” And then I’d put on a Wings record.
That said, feel free to try and convince me to enter their catalog via a different point of entry.
@Maura: My band played a show with Blitzen Trapper when they were called Garmonbozia. Their first album was pretty good. They kinda lost me after that, but I haven’t heard the new album yet.
I gotta echo the ‘1901′ love up top. That and ‘Girlfriend’ from the same album. Although I keep waiting for a big rousing chorus on that song and then it ends. It’s like an itch I can’t scratch.
Probably “You! Me! Dancing!” by Los Campesinos! which I discovered from either MTV2 Subterranean or MTVu.
If I say I was randomly searching on Youtube for an AMV about a Japanese cartoon and that was when I found my favorite song (This Ain’t a Scene…), would you believe me? It’s true. XD
Serendipity for me all the way! :P