Chew it up...

For me, my appreciation of pop music is enhances when I go back to an older single and rediscover it. Trying to keep up-to-date results in a more jaded outlook.

That's why I'm glad I don't work in college radio anymore, despite the fact I no longer recieve big boxes of free records every day.

I was jaded when I listened to forty or fifty records a week - now I'm just picky.

Aaron, I think you have a valid point. In fact, my record-buying has been influenced by this phenomenon to an extent; I have realized recently that my voracious appetite for new music has colored the way I respond to anything I purchase. Possibly because of the volume of music being produced, and the increased access to new sounds via the internet, I have been tiring of new music at a rapid pace. Consequently, I've been buying more singles and passing up discs by artists I'm interested in but have already heard several times. The result is that I sometimes buy cds I don't like as much because I am less familiar, and therefore less likely to quickly tire of them. All in all, I feel this has been negative, and I need to alter these habits.