It appears we've all grown up and gotten lives. The funny thing is that I still listen to a lot of music. Why isn't Obner still essential reading?

i haven't listened to shit this year. listening to all my old compilations and more or less old stuff.

plenty of time to listen to music, not much time to talk about listening to it.

Still listen to a huge amount of new music. Still write a lot about it. Just not here.

This is sort of an interesting dilemma we've reached--I still listen to and discuss music a lot, just not really here as much.

Mostly though I'm just not in an office or working at home most days, but I do still check in every day.

As to OPA, the board has always been what you make of it: If there's a lack of content, you have only yourself to blame as much as your fellow boarders. That being said, your "Rolling Best of..." threads are one of the best and most useful resources on the board so there's that.

BTW Rads, I vote "Yes" on the new Blasters--I didn't even realize it was out, but I like it.

Ha ha ha, "I just popped in to post for the first time in 3 years to say 'how come no one posts anymore?'"

Perfect.

I'm fucking busy and this is about priority number 63

yea, bastard - it dies because people like you are too busy to contribute.

so anyway, what have you been listening to?

Lately I've been obsessed with the Nude Beach album. A fun listen. As is the Allah-Las album. Highly recommended if you like the Strange Boys.

i'm devoting my time to more mature things like hipinion.

hipinion is better

still here but i got shy.

I decided my time was better spent listening to music as opposed to posting pictures about it.

Plus, I'm not as obsessed with finding the latest and greatest anymore.

Yeah we've all gotten old and have less time. I still think the real murderer of music discussion is filesharing. You used to have to decide how you were going to spend your music budget and convince people to spend money on something you liked which facilitated real discussion. Now few people are going to spend money on music (at least without hearing it first) and the discussion becomes the equivalent of

THIS GOOG

POST LINK PLS

HERE

THANKS

End of discussion

which isn't all that interesting. And for people who don't really feel like uploading stuff or saying no to requests, it becomes easier to even keep their "THIS GOOG" to themselves. I come here out of habit, boredom and liking a bunch of posters. It's not really for music discussion anymore. If I get turned on to one or two things a year, all the better. I don't expect it that much anymore though.

I think you raise an interesting point. I do think filesharing plays a part in the malaise, but speaking more generally, to me it's more that we are completely overloaded with all media, at this point. Any TV show, any movie, any album, any series of youtube videos, any book ever in print - it's all available these days, instantly. There's not enough time to read/watch/listen to/consume/digest everything, let alone talk about it. A lot of friends of mine are plowing through seasons of television as their primary social activity because it's cheap/fun and there's so much good tv out there. They're also going out to shows and movies less (and consuming less live sports).

Personally speaking, it's been a while since I've been excited about music, but every once in a while I'll hear a song that piques my interest and I'll get back into listening to more stuff again. I think finding that song that inspires you to go out and look into more stuff is the hard thing.

Hey! It's Matt!!!

I largely agree with this - I also think that most people have a fairly set budget that they can spend on entertainment (whether this is a conscious budget is another discussion). As more media has become available for purchase, people have shifted that budget to different areas. They have also shifted a portion of that budget into the costs for the hardware to play this media.

Facebook/Social media + sharing music/opinions with people who actually like each other = obsolete Obner.

This economy has pretty much killed my music buying. Hell, we haven't had a raise in six years. I still come to post about other things, but most of my music discussion is confined to inside my own head, sadly.

to actually reflect my current interests, i should really join a message board for podcasts and parenting tips.

Living alone has really killed my music budget, and since I'm not seeking it out to buy anymore, I just find myself rediscovering what I already have. There are a few exceptions, but I end up putting a lot less energy in music (coming around to downloading pretty slowly). I always relied on the board for new music, anyway, I was never a major contributor in that regard /shock/.

I'm still here pretty much every day, though.

It cuts both ways. There's truth to the argument that we're oversatured with choices and maybe people who try to hear everything move on so fast to the new next thing that they don't develop the same passion for specific albums. That said, the shear breadth of options competing for our attention would suggest that our time is valuable even if dl's don't cost anything and that we'd still need a filter (that you'd think discussion might provide) as much as ever.

i pretty much quit downloading things because i never get to that stuff. i will probably hear about 30-40 new albums this year and buy a bunch of old used stuff on the cheap.

i still download a lot of music and im often on this board to get new suggestions. I have time for it. Other media, doesnt excite me as much as getting the next album that will blow me away. Admittedly though i have a lot of free time on my hands these days.