Happy New Year
On resolutions, looking forward, and looking backward
Inspired by a couple of other Substackers that I read, for the month of January I’m discounting yearly memberships from $80 to $50. Monthly subscriptions are just $5 and they always will be. Why subscribe? You’d be supporting an independent writer who wants to keep delivering quality content on a consistent basis. Free subscriptions will always be an option too and I’ll always be sure to provide content whether you’re paid or not. Your support matters to me either way! A big, BIG thank you to everyone who has subscribed thus far! It’s so meaningful in a multitude of ways. Now let’s have a great year of seeking out new music and sharing love for music: new, old, and everything in between!
Happy New Year, everyone!
I don’t think the need to be consistent is very important anymore. I thought you should know.
Why am I bringing this up? Well it’s the season of consistency!
First let’s start with gift giving, and let me know if this happened to year this year or maybe in years past:
A friend or relative who doesn’t know you that well or maybe does know you well, but doesn’t know what type of gift to get you, finds out that you like something. Say for example, oh hypothetically, the flavor lemon. And for several years running, it becomes lemon cookies, lemon candies, maybe lemon teas. And yes, you do love lemon as a flavor and are so extremely thankful that you have loved ones who want to give you things you like. But also there’s something kind of funny about it. You’re the lemon guy. And spoiler alert, yes, it’s me. To an extent, I am indeed the lemon guy. But I do like chocolate too. And pumpkin. I’m just sayin’.
And what of new years, you ask? You’re either a resolution person or you’re not. I have mostly fallen into the not-a-resolution-person camp because I felt that if something was that important to you, why do you have to wait for the new year? Can’t you try making the same change in April? Doesn’t it seem sort of like a peer pressure-y time anyhow? The whole new year/new me thing seems like…a lot. Good for you, but don’t judge me if I’m going with new year/just gonna take things a week at a time and hopefully have enough energy to maintain whatever my semblance of balance is these days.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with being consistent. We need routine. Routine can build good habits. I’m not arguing with that. And I’m even glad that I can seem consistent enough when someone wants to give me a gift and doesn’t know what direction to go in. I’m fine being the lemon guy. We all only have so much mental/emotional bandwidth at any given time, ESPECIALLY at the holidays, so if we can save a little of it by relying on consistencies, that’s totally fine, and I’m happy to let you use that saved bandwidth for more important things.
However, I think I’m coming around to the idea of resolutions. But the resolutions I want to make are pretty low stakes. I want to make the things I enjoy doing, even more enjoyable. That’s my type of resolution. Why do most resolutions fail anyway? Because people don’t really believe in the reasons they are giving for their resolutions or they just hate doing these things they are resolving to do.1
So I won’t say I’m becoming a 100% “resolution guy”, but here’s what I would like to resolve to be: a more intentional songseeker.
“THAT’S your resolution?”
Yes, I hear you. It’s vague, it’s not measurable, it has to do with a word that doesn’t exist, and is slightly self-promotional. You got me. All of the above are true.
Here’s another thing about consistency, and yes, I’m going to apply it to the idea of songseeking:
We all have our ways of listening to music and consuming all forms of media for that matter. Some of us are super consistent with the artists that we listen to. Some of us might stick to largely one genre. Some of us (though probably not anyone reading this) may not even listen to that much music at all.
The times I listen to music the most are when I’m commuting to and from work (although sometimes I’ll do a podcast or an audiobook during this time), at work (I largely am the one in charge of the daily playlist), and while I’m cooking or doing general kitchen stuff. On the weekends are when I’ll usually listen to vinyl albums, or I might just throw on a gigantic playlist on shuffle and see what happens. Sometimes I’m focusing on the music intently, a lot of the time it’s in the background. There’s a rhythm and consistency to it. The playlists aren’t always predictable, but the routine tends to be.
Apps like Spotify allow us to throw on whatever we want at any given time, so in my opinion, it’s a lot easier to be removed from the process of listening and just let it play. We take for granted what it means to listen because we have it all at our fingertips and we know whatever is going to play is something that we’ll like.
It’s not all Spotify’s fault. I’m typing this with a Bob Dylan record playing in the background. Part of that has to do with the fact that I know the record well, so it’s easy to just half listen. But is that the right way? Yes and no.
And do we always need to challenge ourselves with music we’re unfamiliar with? Of course not. Sometime a comfort playlist playing in the background is what I need and I don’t feel the need to apologize for that. You’ll find one of my favorite comfort playlists below. Thanks to Nichole Esmon, Tweedy Show client, for curating this wonderful audio equivalent of a hot mug of lemon tea.
Yet here’s the resolution part. In becoming a more intentional songseeker, I want to make a concerted effort to listen to music I have no preconceived notions about. And for something like that, I want to really listen. No distractions. I want to try new genres. I want to find new artists. I want to make small, manageable playlists of new and/or recommended songs that I can really sit with and hear. I want to listen with openness and awareness.
And the songs and albums that I think I already know? Do I really know them? I may have fallen in love with an album in my 20s, but I’m certainly a lot different than that guy, except perhaps, that neither version of myself minds being the lemon guy.
The point is, I’d like to be more intentional with the older stuff too. I want to listen for things that I may have missed previously. I want to listen through my current lens and not through the lens of whatever critic I listened to years ago who said I should love this album, or because of some lingering hipster guilt that I SHOULD love the album because every other cool kid does.
Well, I’m not a kid anymore, and it’s debatable whether I was ever cool. Regardless, I want to listen without these previous attachments and bring them into the present. Maybe I’ll connect deeper with something. Maybe I’ll connect less than I anticipated. But like with the new stuff, I want to listen with openness and awareness.
Help a songseeker out!
For a couple of things…
I’m constantly looking for new music. Who should I be listening to? I really want to start 2024 out right and build on that momentum! Any genres, weird or normal…whatever. I want to hear it!
Do you know a musician who would make a good podcast guest? Or maybe you know a music lover that would make a good podcast guest. I’m compiling my own list of people I’d love to interview for episodes of the yet-to-be-launched Songseekers Podcast, but I’d love it if this was a community effort. Send ‘em my way!
I’m going to be looking for panelists to talk music from time to time. Interested? Lemme know!
I’m interested in having a roundtable with fellow Substack creators, but I’m also interested in adding people who consider themselves creative, with or without the Substack platform. I have two interested so far, but would love to build it up a bit more
Podcast Launch
For purposes of holding myself accountable, I’m going to say that episode one is going to launch on Monday, January 29th. There is a whole lot of work to do between now and then, so I may have to amend that date. However, I think it’s doable, and I thought you should know!
Merch!
That’s right! One more way you can support Songseekers is by purchasing a bit of swag from the official Songseekers Cafe Press store! Cafe Press lets you go pretty crazy with putting your logo on everything, so I mostly pared it back to a few shirt options. No pressure or anything, but the black shirts look preeeety sharp. The store can be found here: https://www.cafepress.com/Songseekers
Don’t get me wrong, I do need to exercise more and such. But a resolution isn’t going to do anything but make me feel shitty about myself when I have weeks where I just don’t feel like doing it. Maybe resolutions work for you. Maybe they can even work for me if I reframe my thinking a bit.