Tuesday, January 28, 2014
2013 Music - Part One
I listened to a lot of contemporary music in 2013. Most of this was due to me discovering Spotify. I used Spotify Premium free off and on for four months and I liked it enough to pay for the service for two more months. I'm a bit sad that I'm letting the service expire tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be back.
I'm convinced that the best music of the year was not recorded. It was performed in someone's living room or backyard. It was sung by toddlers and grandmas. You probably heard it in your house. I know I heard it in mine.
Maybe even some of the best of the year was sung by frog-throated men like me, off-key celebrations of Mad Maudlin, moonshine, and mercy. Every time I open my own mouth to croak out a song, it means more than all the commercial music rolling down the spotify stream. I learned of Pete Seeger's death today. That's one lesson that I learned from him, that the only way you own music is by singing it yourself.
Even so, I do love me some pop music. Indie music. Folk. Country. Punk. Prog. Hiphop. Whatnot. I'm a pop culture creature.
This Spotify playlist is not a list of my favorite songs of the year. It's not what I think the best songs of the year are. It's a rough sketch, a representative sample, of what my year in music was like. The first two songs aren't from 2013 (and the last track isn't even close), but the rest of the songs were all released in 2013. I could qualify this list a thousand ways, mentioning that some of the artists on the list aren't even acts that I like and that others are folks that I've listened to over and over again and don't think I can exhaust my appreciation for. But I won't tell you which are which. I could grumble about Bandcamp artists that I couldn't add to a Spotify playlist. I could tell you that I listened to certain albums dozens of times but now can't hardly stand to listen to them. And on and on. Whatever. I like this playlist. It sounds like 2013 to me. I hope you like it, too.
I listened to a lot of contemporary music in 2013. Most of this was due to me discovering Spotify. I used Spotify Premium free off and on for four months and I liked it enough to pay for the service for two more months. I'm a bit sad that I'm letting the service expire tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be back.
I'm convinced that the best music of the year was not recorded. It was performed in someone's living room or backyard. It was sung by toddlers and grandmas. You probably heard it in your house. I know I heard it in mine.
Maybe even some of the best of the year was sung by frog-throated men like me, off-key celebrations of Mad Maudlin, moonshine, and mercy. Every time I open my own mouth to croak out a song, it means more than all the commercial music rolling down the spotify stream. I learned of Pete Seeger's death today. That's one lesson that I learned from him, that the only way you own music is by singing it yourself.
Even so, I do love me some pop music. Indie music. Folk. Country. Punk. Prog. Hiphop. Whatnot. I'm a pop culture creature.
This Spotify playlist is not a list of my favorite songs of the year. It's not what I think the best songs of the year are. It's a rough sketch, a representative sample, of what my year in music was like. The first two songs aren't from 2013 (and the last track isn't even close), but the rest of the songs were all released in 2013. I could qualify this list a thousand ways, mentioning that some of the artists on the list aren't even acts that I like and that others are folks that I've listened to over and over again and don't think I can exhaust my appreciation for. But I won't tell you which are which. I could grumble about Bandcamp artists that I couldn't add to a Spotify playlist. I could tell you that I listened to certain albums dozens of times but now can't hardly stand to listen to them. And on and on. Whatever. I like this playlist. It sounds like 2013 to me. I hope you like it, too.
Posted by trawlerman at 11:42 AM
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