It's amazing how fast we get used to new technology and take it for granted. I got my Spotify end-of-the-year "Wrapped" report the other day (as did every other Spotify user), and it made me think about how much music consumption has changed in my lifetime. I became a cognizant human being during that relatively brief moment in history in which the cassette was the primary musical medium. I had a few tapes as a kid -- e.g., Beastie Boys License to Ill, "Weird Al" Even Worse -- but I didn't have a legit musical collection until the early '90s when CDs had overtaken cassettes. I had hundreds of CDs -- or rather I should say I have hundreds of CDs. They are in my closet right now. I haven't had the nerve to get rid of them.
But I should. I never play them, and they don't bring me any joy (isn't that Marie Kondo's thing?). They just sit in a box and take up storage space. I don't even have any desire to play them. It's not like I'm dreaming of buying a CD player and putting up CD towers in my living room. I just can't pull the trigger on ditching them. It's a nostalgia thing, but only for the CDs themselves -- the physically objects -- not listening to the CDs. Because the truth is, consuming music now is way better. You have everything on demand relatively cheaply, and you don't have to worry about scratches messing up your CDs and trying to buff them out with toothpaste. (Remember that one?) I heard the writer Chuck Klosterman say once that he was incredibly reluctant to move away from CDs, into the streaming world, because he so valued his CD collection, but then one day he made the change and didn't miss his CDs at all. He realized it was listening to the music that he liked, not the way in which he listened. I cosign this sentiment big time, and yet, I still have the box in my closet.
Actually, what I should do is tell S to get rid of them all at some point and just not tell me about it. Then one day I'll say, "Hey, where did all my CDs go?" And she'll tell me she got rid of them three years ago, and I'll shrug my shoulders and get on with my day.
Anyway, here's my Wrapped report.
I listened for approximately 25 minutes a day, which makes sense as I mainly listen on the exercise bike, and I do that two-to-three times a week for about 45 minutes. My top band is the Beatles, which also makes sense since they are the greatest band ever. Nirvana being second is no shocker either, as they might be the second greatest band ever (not really, but maybe to me they are). I'm kinda surprised to see the White Stripes come in third. I very much like them, but I'm not sure they would make my top ten favorite bands, if I made a list (which I might someday, if I ever finish my top-100 TV show list). Dua Lipa and Rihanna are S picks. She likes them, and I don't mind them, so when we're listening to music together it's often one of those two.
As to the top song, "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger, that's completely due to a one week period where I decided that it would be my karaoke song, so I listened to it like fifty times to get the feel for it. Then I ended up not even going to karaoke, so that was a bit of a waste. It's neither a terrible nor a great song. It's catchy as hell, campy as all get-out, and reminiscent of the early '90s, which is why I thought it would be a good choice for karaoke. Also, it's the type of song I feel I could power through with moxie and showmanship -- that's what I need when singing a song. I cannot carry a tune for the life of me, so I need something kinda silly. Paranoia, paranoia, everybody's comin' to get me, just say you never met me...
The weird one of my song list is "It's No Good" by Depeche Mode. The others make sense -- "Cold Heart (PNAU remix)" I listen to with S, "Kernkraft 400" is a workout song (it's that jock jam almost everybody has heard and almost nobody knows its name), and "Robbery" is a Juice WRLD song often requested by Lil' S2 and his friends when I'm giving them rides places. But "It's No Good," I have no idea how that got to number three. I think it was just a fluke song -- either it just came up a bunch by luck or something in the algorithm thinks I often want to hear the third best song by, like, my 81st favorite band for some reason.
Whatever the case, that's a Wrapped. Until next time...
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