It’s a very rainy Sat morning here so ideal for some listening - can’t decide what musical mood I’m in however. Been through Mayhem’s “Daemon”, then Country Joe & Fish “Electric…” followed currently by Herbie’s “Headhunter”.
What struck me was the stark contrast between them all yet all they hit the spot at the time of playing.
Anyone else ever flit between genres so contrasted when you can’t decide what to play?
All the time…
Yesterday I listened to the following;
*Neil Young - Harvest
*Pop Evil - Onyx
*Dream Theater - Count of Tuscany
*Miley Cyrus - Tracks from Plastic Hearts
*Judie Tzuke - Sportscar
*Joni Mitchell - Miles of Aisles
*Theory of a Deadman - Random mix from Qobuz
Quite a mixed list although missing Classical & Jazz🙂
Simple: your musical mood was “I fancy variety”, or “I fancy contrasts”… However if you mean you found none of the music satisfying, then maybe a break and do something else until the call of the music comes - “I want to listen to X”: it is not compulsory to listen to music just because you can!
It was more an observation that they all hit the spot at the moment they got played yet were so contrasting - made we wonder how the brain decides what to listen to at any given point. Any armchair psychiatrists out there?
All the time Bach to Jeff Beck (RIP) and back again.
I doubt anyone can really answer that!
Although occasionally, I me sit down to listen with a specific intent of, for example, playing all of a particular artists, albums in that session, or sticking to things, I haven’t played in a long time, mostly I don’t do that, and start off with whatever comes into my head. Then the randomness really starts, in that sometimes win an album finishes I want more of the same, other times (even starting from the same album). Other times I want something completely contrasting, or maybe go for something in between. That is one reason why I generally dislike listening to music on the radio - and where Roon Radio fails at first hurdle, “thinking” it knows what might like next, when the chances of it doing that are extremely small - not least because I only decide what I want to listen to next either after something is finished or through some very variable emotional trigger making it pop into my head while something is playing.
My current approach when I don’t know what I want to listen to is to play all tracks I’ve not listened to in the last year, on shuffle, until I find something I want to hear more of. Or sometimes I just stick with shuffle. Great way to rediscover what I have in my collection too. This is with Roon.
I do find that some of my usual Sat & Sun morning sessions start with music following a recent external prompt - meaning I might have heard an old track on TV, found myself singing a tune in my head or sadly, news of a musician’s death, and I’ve thought “ooh, I’ve got X albums by them,must dig out this or that” but thereafter, I can go off in totally random & contrasting directions. I also rsrely listen to two whole albums back to back by the same artist. Maybe it’s just me?
I am often led by posts on the “What are you listening to…” thread. Bands/Artists I haven’t heard either in a long while or ever (Jeff Beck/Melody Gardot), or things by artists that I like that I haven’t heard (Bowie-TOY).
Once started though, the “Butterfly Effect” often takes over and goodness only knows where that “Rabbit Hole” may lead 
On occasions where I am not immediately heading for a particular album when I turn on, I do one of two closely related things: One is open my playing software’s album view, which on an iPad I can zoom, so I typically set it for maybe 30-40 albums to a view - enough to recognise thumbnail images and read the text beneath - then browse by scrolling quite rapidly through until something catches my eye and takes my fancy. Doing this I don’t just start always at the top, but deliberately flick so another screenful, from the top going down, or reverse. The second that I have done from time to time, and especially if aforesaid browse didn’t come up with anything, is to flick the screen up and down a few times without looking at it, then jb my finger to pick one at random.
FIFY 
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