Do you have a favorite band? A group that stands above the rest, whose discography you know backward and forward, and who you never miss when they're in town? The absolute ne plus ultra of your musical tastes, top of the list, best there ever is, was or will be? If you're like me, the answer is probably "No." And while a dozen music critics just gasped and clutched their pearls, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.
It's undeniable that the music industry, as it's been trending for the last couple decades, is not designed to create favorite bands. Where once albums were the primary vehicle of the medium, they've long since been supplanted by singles, and that, along with the single-song purchasing schema of vendors like iTunes and the rise of playlists created with MP3s and streaming music sites, has essentially turned music into an a la carte medium - the listener gets to pick and chose what they want to hear and when they want to hear. There are some obvious positives and negatives to this, but judgement-free, one of the clear results is the breakdown of band-based obsession, of having every record and LP an artist ever put out. Why bother wading through that slight trough on their fourth studio album, where tracks 5, 6, and 7 just get weird, when you can just make a playlist with all your favorite songs, hits and deep cuts alike? And once everything's divorced of its original context, how can you sit there and claim to love a certain act, when you don't listen to half of their output?
And yet despite what could almost be called an inherent bias against the whole concept of favorite artists, we also live in an era where the creation of arbitrary rankings may be more popular than it's ever been. As it stands, this post is already veering a bit too much into 'old-man-ranting-about-kids-today' territory, so I'm not going to go off on listicles, but suffice to say: people like making arbitrary lists, and the internet is a REALLY good place to publish said arbitrary lists. With all this information flying around, and with world-spanning public discussions now not only possible but routine, it's almost a natural impulse to start creating ordered lists of things. It's a way of self-definition, of saying here's what I do and do not value. But it's also a way to start conversations, to open up a debate about why you ranked someone so high, why you like this band over that band. And perhaps more than the ranking itself, that conversation is key.
See, at the beginning of this article, I was basically lying. I said I didn't have a favorite band, and while in the strictest possible terms I consider that true, I've also directly contradicted it. Often, on this very blog. I'm far to fond of calling things, "One of my favorite <bands/songs/games/movies/tv shows/comics>." I do have favorites, and moreover, I do have bands that I know backwards and forwards. Bands that I will always see live. The Hold Steady, the artists behind this week's song? You better believe they're one of those bands.
But I wouldn't call them my favorite, just like I don't think I'd call any band my absolute, end-all-be-all no-reservations favorite. Music, and life in general, is far more complicated than that. It depends on my mood, on what I'm going through that day and what I need to hear. It depends on what I listened to yesterday, and what I plan on listening to tomorrow. More than anything else, it's a conversation, and not a list - and it's a conversation that I love to have. I honestly can't imagine anything more boring than having a single favorite band, than knowing that no matter what comes along you'll never like anything more than what you have in front of you right now.
But frankly, I'm probably over-thinking all this. The Hold Steady is brilliant and Craig Finn might be the best lyricist working today. It's nice to think about how you 'rank' everything, but sometimes it's nice to just sit back and listen to the music. Take some time to do that today.
It's undeniable that the music industry, as it's been trending for the last couple decades, is not designed to create favorite bands. Where once albums were the primary vehicle of the medium, they've long since been supplanted by singles, and that, along with the single-song purchasing schema of vendors like iTunes and the rise of playlists created with MP3s and streaming music sites, has essentially turned music into an a la carte medium - the listener gets to pick and chose what they want to hear and when they want to hear. There are some obvious positives and negatives to this, but judgement-free, one of the clear results is the breakdown of band-based obsession, of having every record and LP an artist ever put out. Why bother wading through that slight trough on their fourth studio album, where tracks 5, 6, and 7 just get weird, when you can just make a playlist with all your favorite songs, hits and deep cuts alike? And once everything's divorced of its original context, how can you sit there and claim to love a certain act, when you don't listen to half of their output?
And yet despite what could almost be called an inherent bias against the whole concept of favorite artists, we also live in an era where the creation of arbitrary rankings may be more popular than it's ever been. As it stands, this post is already veering a bit too much into 'old-man-ranting-about-kids-today' territory, so I'm not going to go off on listicles, but suffice to say: people like making arbitrary lists, and the internet is a REALLY good place to publish said arbitrary lists. With all this information flying around, and with world-spanning public discussions now not only possible but routine, it's almost a natural impulse to start creating ordered lists of things. It's a way of self-definition, of saying here's what I do and do not value. But it's also a way to start conversations, to open up a debate about why you ranked someone so high, why you like this band over that band. And perhaps more than the ranking itself, that conversation is key.
See, at the beginning of this article, I was basically lying. I said I didn't have a favorite band, and while in the strictest possible terms I consider that true, I've also directly contradicted it. Often, on this very blog. I'm far to fond of calling things, "One of my favorite <bands/songs/games/movies/tv shows/comics>." I do have favorites, and moreover, I do have bands that I know backwards and forwards. Bands that I will always see live. The Hold Steady, the artists behind this week's song? You better believe they're one of those bands.
But I wouldn't call them my favorite, just like I don't think I'd call any band my absolute, end-all-be-all no-reservations favorite. Music, and life in general, is far more complicated than that. It depends on my mood, on what I'm going through that day and what I need to hear. It depends on what I listened to yesterday, and what I plan on listening to tomorrow. More than anything else, it's a conversation, and not a list - and it's a conversation that I love to have. I honestly can't imagine anything more boring than having a single favorite band, than knowing that no matter what comes along you'll never like anything more than what you have in front of you right now.
But frankly, I'm probably over-thinking all this. The Hold Steady is brilliant and Craig Finn might be the best lyricist working today. It's nice to think about how you 'rank' everything, but sometimes it's nice to just sit back and listen to the music. Take some time to do that today.
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