What Kind of Listener are You?

Specifically, music listener.  If you want to find out what kind of listener you are socially, go pick up a magazine and take one of those quizzes.  Trying not to make this into a research paper format, I’ll break down the possibilities for measuring your music collection, which can help you in future music decisions, i.e. which albums to buy, radio station to listen to.  Obviously you already know what you like, but everyone has the opportunity of finding a new gem for their music collection that they never thought would be added.

The standard way of defining which kind of listener you are can be defined by the main genre you listen to.  But these days, people have used the term, “I listen to just about everything” and they use that very loosely.  Those people probably only listen to everything that’s on the radio, but I’ll bet they don’t have polka, techno or yodeling in their collection. But I think a better way, other than genres, is based upon the idea of time frames for each particular song, based on each unique music listener.  Still with me?  I’ll explain…

In general, the memory of songs bring back memories of a certain time, place or person.  If you hear a song that you haven’t heard in years, you think, “This song reminds me of…..”  But not every person who hears that song thinks of the same place, time or person as you do.  If you can find a pattern of these memories throughout your entire music collection, you are one step closer, “to the edge, and I’m about to break,” to defining what kind of listener you are. -Linkin Park lyric

There are three time frames that you can base a song off of: past, present and future.  First, and easiest, the past can define pretty much every song you have ever heard.  These songs remind you of the first time you heard it, what activities you were doing when it was popular, or who you met while that song was in your head.  And instead of explaining what each time frame means, I’ll explain them all and give you a full perspective at the end.

Second, and the next most popular, is the present.  These songs are not necessarily songs that you know you’ll be listening to 10 years from now.  They are purely “in the moment” songs that you enjoy, but have no meaning to effect your mood, friends, or life in general.  For the most part, people don’t own much of this music, for the point that they don’t care to listen to it later on in their lifetime.

And finally, how in the world do you listen to songs that remind you of the future?  You build a time machine out of a Delorean and check out your music collection while you’re in the future.  Just kidding, but the idea of that is actually simpler than you think.  These songs are meant for optimistic outlooks of any kind of future events or time frames.  They might remind you of the past and present, however, their most powerful meaning is in the idea for preparing you for a future moment.

Of course, some songs can have all three meanings, some just two, but there will always be a meaning on this premise to every one of your songs.  So now the breakdown.  What does the idea of this have to do with defining your musical interests?  But first, start off with sifting through your music collection to try and define what the overall result of your favorite songs are in terms of their time frame.

If you own a lot of classical songs that remind you of the past, you are the kind of person who likes to live through past experiences.  You may be looking to relive the time that these songs were cataloged in your mind.  There is a good chance that most of the music you hear today does not have much of an effect on your idea of “good music.”  You would rather put in your favorite record or album that you can relate to in whatever emotion you are looking towards feeling.  If you know someone like this or you are this person, look into expanding your music collection to bands or songs you listened to back when.  You are more likely to feel satisfied with music you once related to than trying to recreate the past.  “Hey, do you like A Flock of Seagulls?” -The Wedding Singer quote

If you do not own that much music, or you get all your songs from the radio, you are most likely a present music listener.  You like living in the moment and reliving memories as they happen without the idea of holding onto a song.  There’s a high chance that these songs will remind you of something in the years to come, however, you are more likely to be listening to brand new songs by that time and don’t have time for the oldies.

The most tricky and rare set of listeners are the ones who are in pursuit of songs that make them optimistic of the future.  These people are, obviously, optimistic, and are most likely to add more music to their collection than past and present listeners.  There is also a greater chance that songs from future listeners that, although, remind them of the past and present, can be looked upon as forward thinking ideas.

Now, it is true that every music listener can classify themselves in each of these time categories.  But the trick is to find out which time is most popular to your collection.  From that point, you can narrow down your new music searches to your most memorable style, genre or band based upon your time frame listening.

Rock, BC
P.S. If you’re wondering, I’m a future listener.  And clearly, if this was a research paper, I’d get an A.