It's a hard road. I was a college radio MD for 4 years and listened to roughly 150-200 records a week for that entire period. I can remember the first time I heard certain records: Ani DiFranco's 'Dilate' & Fiona Apple's 'Tidal' & Bjork's 'Homogenic' especially. I rarely missed the hits-my friends thought I had 'the ear' but I was really just lucky. This was obviously way before music blogs and the hype machine that surrounds indie music got really going. I would be intimidated to go into the music biz now w/ so many voices leading the sheep to the record stores but back then we had to make our own decisions-like back when radio DJ's actually made those choices. So, my advice to you is learn how to make your own decisions.
Sometimes songs have legs and you can listen to them for months and other times you just don't get it for a while. Music is all relative. That's why we, as critics, never say a band sucks we just tell you why they really aren't that good. Anyone can hear a crap song and connect it with a moment in their life and the two become intertwined...all the best for you if that's the case; indeed, it still happens to the most jaded of people.
FYI. I can tell you through experience that bands who experiment in genre-mixing generally do not last very long. So, there's a bout a 75% chance that all those Vampire Weekend fans are going to feel like asses this time next year. Just my 2 cents on them...
Reviews
Mike Mess said on May 5, 2008:
It's a hard road. I was a college radio MD for 4 years and listened to roughly 150-200 records a week for that entire period. I can remember the first time I heard certain records: Ani DiFranco's 'Dilate' & Fiona Apple's 'Tidal' & Bjork's 'Homogenic' especially. I rarely missed the hits-my friends thought I had 'the ear' but I was really just lucky. This was obviously way before music blogs and the hype machine that surrounds indie music got really going. I would be intimidated to go into the music biz now w/ so many voices leading the sheep to the record stores but back then we had to make our own decisions-like back when radio DJ's actually made those choices. So, my advice to you is learn how to make your own decisions.
Sometimes songs have legs and you can listen to them for months and other times you just don't get it for a while. Music is all relative. That's why we, as critics, never say a band sucks we just tell you why they really aren't that good. Anyone can hear a crap song and connect it with a moment in their life and the two become intertwined...all the best for you if that's the case; indeed, it still happens to the most jaded of people.
FYI. I can tell you through experience that bands who experiment in genre-mixing generally do not last very long. So, there's a bout a 75% chance that all those Vampire Weekend fans are going to feel like asses this time next year. Just my 2 cents on them...