I wonder if your malaise is connected to the tendency I've heard referred to more than once for people, as they get older, to return over and again to the art they know they like, rather than to seek out new art. Maybe we reach a kind of saturation point beyond which new art seems dull because we've already seen and heard so much.
I'm curious about the idea that some listening pleasures first require a period of work because I can't relate to it. My experience has been that music destined to become part of my personal canon always intrigues me on first listen, and music that feels like work on first listen is destined never to feel like anything else. Maybe our idea of 'work' differs.
I wonder if your malaise is connected to the tendency I've heard referred to more than once for people, as they get older, to return over and again to the art they know they like, rather than to seek out new art. Maybe we reach a kind of saturation point beyond which new art seems dull because we've already seen and heard so much.
I'm curious about the idea that some listening pleasures first require a period of work because I can't relate to it. My experience has been that music destined to become part of my personal canon always intrigues me on first listen, and music that feels like work on first listen is destined never to feel like anything else. Maybe our idea of 'work' differs.