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Greatest Hits: Don't Listen to Everything

One of the Invisible Oranges articles that has stuck with me the most is Doug Moore’s 2013 piece, ‘Don’t Listen to Everything’. It was one of those stories that has the power to make you feel recognized, where you feel excited that someone else is grappling with these questions. Moore was analyzing points made by cultural critic Keith Kahn-Harris, but it was his further inquiries that highlighted just how many contradictions metal seems to be built on now. Was everything better in some golden period of tape-trading and demo-hunting, or do we have an advantage now discovering music in the age of the internet? Is it preferable to have a vast scene of infinite bands to find, or to have a limited number of artists that fans actually feel like they can keep track of, listen to everything and have a grasp on the entire genre? Should we as fans be pushing ourselves to try everything out there (impossible as it might be), or should we give ourselves a break and enjoy what comes our way? I’ve never known what I feel those answers are, but this article made that indecision feel like an okay way by which to digest metal.

—Courtney Iseman

Read: ‘Don’t Listen to Everything’

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