Help me....

[alia612]

I know lots of you are R.E.M. fans, and I'm hoping maybe you can help me with this...

You see, I'd really like to be an R.E.M. fan. I own Document, Reckoning, Fables of the Reconstruction, Life's Rich Pageant, Green, Out Of Time, Automatic For The People and Monster.

I listen to them all the time, and try to catch their TV appearances whenever possible.

However, I can't really seem to get into anything other than Automatic For The People.

What am I doing wrong?

 

[IWasBored]

you can't do anything 'wrong' when it comes to listening to music. it's all based on personal preference, either you like it or you don't. you can't force yourself to become a fan of any band. i've tried, it doesn't work. sometimes albums grow on you after a few listens, but if you're listening to something and you find that you really just can't get into it, you can do one of two things:

a) put it aside, making the assumption that some day you may want to come back to it

or

b) move on. don't waste precious listening time on a band that you're really not into.

 

[yeblik]

you can't do anything 'wrong' when it comes to listening to music. it's all based on personal preference, either you like it or you don't. you can't force yourself to become a fan of any band. i've tried, it doesn't work. sometimes albums grow on you after a few listens, but if you're listening to something and you find that you really just can't get into it, you can do one of two things:

a) put it aside, making the assumption that some day you may want to come back to it

or

b) move on. don't waste precious listening time on a band that you're really not into.

I agree totally. If you don't like it, you don't like it. Trust your own taste, don't worry about what or who you should like. I like what I like and don't much care what anyone else thinks. If you aren't into something, move on to something else. You'll be much happier. May I suggest a certain Sydney based band.....? Ooops, sorry! Just got a little overzealous there. Nevermind me.

 

[BAW]

Yup..what everyone else said...you can't force it.

Try as I might, just could not get into Radiohead...I almost felt like something was wrong with me because I was "supposed" to like them. I ended up taking their CD's out of my case and didn't bother with them for the past 6 months or so.

A few weeks ago, I decided to give them another try and all of the sudden, I "get" it and I finally see what everyone was raving about. I guess I just wasn't ready to like them before.

 

[elevatedmole]

Ditto to what BAW said. This has happened to me countless of times.. Beck's Mutations was one of them. (If you haven't figured it out already, I consider Beck to be my second favourite after U2 -- I REALLY love his music.) I liked it okay, but it didn't grip me and I didn't have any wish to hear it again after one listen. That was sometimes last fall (almost a year ago.. yikes). Around March I finally realized how great it is and now it's one of my very favourites. It's probably not a masterpiece, but it's excellent.

Same thing with the White Stripes.. in June 2002 I could only get into a few songs on White Blood Cells and finally shelved it. Until Elephant came out in April, and I listened to them both, and realized what a great band they are.

I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea.

edit: I thought it might be worth mentioning that I own several REM albums and I have owned them since early 2002. Still haven't gripped me yet either. I really like *some* songs, but I still haven't had much of a need to go and listen to their albums very often. Waiting for the right time, I guess.

 

[Laura M]

To be a fan of a band doesnt mean you have to like everything they do.

You can like a band not watch all their tv appearances, not own all their albums, not have every magazine they ever feature in and not like all their cd's

 

[IWasBored]

To be a fan of a band doesnt mean you have to like everything they do.

You can like a band not watch all their tv appearances, not own all their albums, not have every magazine they ever feature in and not like all their cd's

another good point.

 

[alia612]

Aaah, thank you.