Listening to new music

When you listen to new bands or musicians you are not only listening to their music.

You are supporting them, hoping they are significant in the music scene in the future. It is not the same to listen to artists who already have one album out because you know that these new artists still have to develop their sound and that it will evolve. It is something that you just know! Maybe unconsciously, though. You hope this change is positive and if they fail it is worse than if an old band fails, because at least an old band has already put something out (at least one album!), But if a new band or musician fails… it’s devastating. All that support seems to have been useless.

Listening to new bands or musicians is something different. It’s listening to their pure sound, without being influenced by studio production or the music industry. It’s just music. It is a sound that they will never have again. It is gold. Being beginners in doing music is something fun; they aren’t thinking of their audience or of how many albums they will sell or how they will play the songs on the tour; they are just thinking about the music. Their aim is music and nothing more. 

The connection between a new artist and the listener is different. To know that your opinion means something to the musician and that recommending their music to your friends or people you know is for them something very helpful, feels good. You feel that you are contributing to their music; that you aren’t just a listener but that your support is important for the them and will probably help them to be someone in their future.

I don’t care if I then feel devastated, I like listening to new music and I will do my best to make other people listen to the new music I like. And I hope that in some years I can proudly happy say: “hey, that band that everyone now is praising, I’ve been listening to them since they release their first Ep on their bandcamp!” 

This was written while thinking about Afro Darlings, Animal Astronauts, Joanna Gruesome, Sun Stains, Fantasy Rainbow, Indian Islands.