How do you approach a “new” artist?

SCENARIO: You hear a great soul song that you’re not familiar with

This is not a “new” artist but an older one [[say 60s/70s) that either

A: You’ve never heard of

Or

B: For whatever reason you just never got into

This artist has a discography [[maybe not extensive but they have one)

You hear this song that blows you away

What’s next?

1: A greatest hits/best of CD will do

2: Anthology or Box Set - A deeper dive. The hits, the near hits, the should’ve been hits, some good album cuts

3: Completionist - You want everything! You want the albums, the singles, the B Sides, you want the official live stuff, the bootleg live stuff, you want alternate mixes, alternate vocals, demos you want the stuff from the vault. You want it all

I guess this scenario may make more sense for a younger person

A 20 year old hears September by Earth Wind & Fire or Dance to the Music by Sly or Higher Ground by Stevie or Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett for the first time and LOVES it

Where do they go from here? Where would you?

It depends on the artist, I guess. There are some that a greatest hits cd and/or live set will do.

But then there are some artists that I've always been aware of but never got into. Then I will see one performance and that will impress me enough to make me go and buy everything they've ever recorded. That's what happened for me with Dionne Warwick, Shirley Bassey, Nina Simone, and Shirley Brown.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Optimal Saint

SCENARIO: You hear a great soul song that you’re not familiar with

This is not a “new” artist but an older one [[say 60s/70s) that either

A: You’ve never heard of

Or

B: For whatever reason you just never got into

This artist has a discography [[maybe not extensive but they have one)

You hear this song that blows you away

What’s next?

1: A greatest hits/best of CD will do

2: Anthology or Box Set - A deeper dive. The hits, the near hits, the should’ve been hits, some good album cuts

3: Completionist - You want everything! You want the albums, the singles, the B Sides, you want the official live stuff, the bootleg live stuff, you want alternate mixes, alternate vocals, demos you want the stuff from the vault. You want it all

I guess this scenario may make more sense for a younger person

A 20 year old hears September by Earth Wind & Fire or Dance to the Music by Sly or Higher Ground by Stevie or Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett for the first time and LOVES it

Where do they go from here? Where would you?

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I would just start acquiring the song that blew you away by the artists and then go back a few releases by the artist just prior to the one you like best.

I would shop for the single, in original 45rpm format, on Amazon.

This has happened to me many times in the past. Usually when I hear that song that just knocks me out, I listen to that entire album to see if the complete work is great. If so, I google the artist or group and look into their discography to see how many albums they've released. I then go to any retailer that will allow me to listen to samples of all the songs on each album. If I like 80-85% of the samples then I'll order their entire catalog[[ if available on CD) then listen to the albums one by one from the first to the current.

Many other things came with this way of doing things for me. How many producers the artist[[s) worked with, which producer did the most albums, what studios were preferred, what musicians were hired the most,how many times their sound changed,what record companies signed and dropped them,etc.

I'm a Spotify / streaming fan. Best thing ever. Get to listen to lots of the catalog of the newly discovered artist, then pick the best title to purchase a cd of, and go from there.

Since I'm constantly researching music in a variety of genres this happens to me all the time. I used a few different procedures in the past but nowadays I just go straight to
youtube. Almost everything is uploaded there eventually so I can listen to tracks old
and even many new. I can also watch live or lip-synced performances and make up my
mind about whether I want to have the bulk of an artist catalogue or just the highlights...

This happens to me from time to time-i buy alot of vinyl and don't always play it right away,so when i do sometimes i get a pleasant surprise.