I Don't Know What Music I Listen to Anymore

BOJACK DOESN’T KNOW, EITHER!!

My brother-in-law recently asked me what music I was listening to these days, and I didn’t know how to respond. Eventually, I answered, “Whatever comes up on my Spotify Discover playlist.”  This answer felt both unhelpful and embarrassing.

There was a point in time when my family, if they wanted to find out about good new music, would come and ask me which bands or artists I was listening to. This felt good, both because people respected my taste in music, and because I had something to offer.

These days, I have no idea which musical artists I’m listening to, and no recommendations to give. I simply can’t connect any identifying labels with the sounds that come out of my speakers.

For this development, I blame Spotify, which is possibly my favorite piece of software ever created. When Spotify came out a decade or so ago, and ushered in a legal way of listening to whatever I wanted at no cost, it seemed too good to be true. But it wasn’t. To date, there are over 50 million songs on Spotify, and you can listen to all of them for free, with no restrictions. When I was 12 and Pearl Jam’s newest album, Vitalogy, came out, it cost me $20 and a long walk to the mall. When Pearl Jam’s latest album, Gigaton, was released in January 2020, it cost me zero dollars and three clicks of my mouse to listen to it the hour it came out. That is a quantum leap in value.

However, to this day, Vitalogy holds a very special place in my heart. I listened to that album repeatedly during the months following my purchase, memorizing every lyric and becoming instinctively aware of every swell of guitars and every crash of drums. I knew those songs inside and out, and loved them all the more for it.

If you asked me to name a single song off Gigaton, I couldn’t do it.

Now, some of this ignorance has nothing  to do with Spotify. I’m not as big a fan of Pearl Jam as I used to be. My life is busier and there are more demands on my time; I can no longer sit and listen to a music album over and over again.

But much of the reason I don’t know even a single lyric off Gigaton is attributable to Spotify, and the manner in which it has changed the way people consume music. When so much content is available all the time, there is a strong pull to avail yourself of it. Why would I listen to the same album relentlessly, when a hundred other new albums are a click away? And if an album has a dud or two in the middle (as Gigaton does), the lure of other options becomes that much stronger.

In reality, though, I don’t even go looking for new music anymore. Instead, I let it come to me.

The Discover Weekly playlist is a thing of beauty. Thirty songs delivered to me every week, curated according to the genres, bands, sounds, etc. that I already like. Most of the time, when I get this batch of songs every Monday, I like what I hear quite a bit. Sometimes, I’ll even save a few songs and add them to my main playlist. But in the last five years, after listening to the Discover Weekly playlist every week, I couldn’t name more than a few artists I have “discovered” by listening to music this way. My connection to the artist simply isn’t there. Instead, all I really care about is the sound I hear coming from my radio. Did I really like this beat? Was the guitar solo in that bridge exceptional? Did the singer’s voice hit a perfect note? Those are the elements that make me take notice, but the notice ends there. Rarely do I investigate who made the beat, who played the guitar, or who sang the beautiful note. I simply save the song and move on.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???

Which means really this isn’t Spotify’s fault. It’s my own. Spoiled for choice, I have allowed my own musical curiosity to wither. Content to enjoy snatches of songs here and there, without further investigation, my musical literacy has dwindled, and I’m the one who suffers for it. I have no doubt amidst all those starred songs I have in my library sits a musical artist who could become one of my all-time favorites. Likely, there are many musicians out there who I could grow to love. But I don’t put in the work to love them. That takes time, and it takes sitting through the occasional dull song. I no longer seem to have the patience for that.

Unfortunately, this isn’t just my problem. It’s way worse for all the musicians out there, especially ones without a dedicated following. If you produce a great song and a bunch of people like it, but all they do is save it to their playlist and never bother to learn who made it, that’s not good. In fact, it’s pretty detrimental to furthering your music career. Plants need sunlight. Websites need traffic. And bands need fans. Without them, without any sort of acknowledgment that the music an artist creates is worthwhile, they’re liable to stop making music. Not all musicians, but some. And that’s bad for everyone.

I am going to try to be more mindful and intentional as I listen to music on Spotify. When I hear a song I really like, I’m not just going to save it and move on. I’m going to listen to at least a few other songs the artist has made, and if I like those, maybe I’ll listen to a whole lot more. Then that musician will have a new fan and I’ll have a new favorite artist.

But at the same time, you’ll have to tear the Discover Weekly playlist out of my cold, dead hands. Maybe I don’t know who I’m listening to 90% of the time, maybe when people ask me who I’m listening to I’ll have to answer, “beats me,” maybe I’ll be viewed by my family as a musical ignoramus. But sonically I’ve never been happier than I am today. Music I enjoy endlessly pours out of my speakers. And that’s not about to stop.