an auditory appreciation: 2023 Music

- Personal Reflection -

Another year in music has passed by, and this one is particularly special for me. At the end of last year, I mentioned that I was aiming to listen to at least one new record a day, and guess what?

I did.

Right before the year started, I changed it from a vague goal to a structured listening project: A Record A Day 2023. I set up a calendar, scraped through my library to find all the albums and EPs I had yet to listen to and started planning them out, one record on every single day for the whole year, a good 365 of them. This resulted in one of the most consistent and dedicated input of new music I will ever experience, and oh boy was it fun. I don't plan on dwelling too much on it here, because if all goes well, this post will be updated with a link to a video about ARAD2023 early next year, and you can find out all about how it went over there.

In general though, I think my music tastes have expanded a lot this year, no doubt due to ARAD2023, where I intentionally forced myself to listen to over 150 new artists, including dedicating a whole month to non-english records. Of course, I am still strongly rooted in the rock and metal subgenres, but it was fun to branch out and taste some art pop, modern jazz and wild electronic projects. A lot of it implored me to learn more about the wide variety of subgenres and their own little music worlds surrounding them, and just become slightly more fluent in music than I was before.

Continuing to write about music on this blog has continued to be super fun, encouraging me to pick apart what I like about the music I like and why I like it, and to be more aware of the complexities of music that make it such an intriguing part of life. Learning more about the histories of different genres, the social discourses and phenomena that surround some of them, and the network of musicians that intertwine so much more than I expected. The more I get into music, the more I understand why so many people eagerly devote their lives to it, whether as creators, critics or avid listeners.

This year felt so much more special than the previous years because I was at a point where I knew enough music and artists to finally feel, for the lack of a better word, knowledgeable. I started being aware of when artists I know start new album cycles, and actually follow them through all the way to the album release itself. I was more aware of genre differences and specific subgenres (mostly in the rock and metal domain), and learned to appreciate all the genre fusions and influences that I heard. And of course, I finally get how it feels to finally get new music from an artist that you love, the anticipation leading up to the release date, as well as the disappointment when an artist delays their release (Bring Me The Horizon, please give us POST HUMAN 2 :<). It was eye-opening to learn more about the community that all this music is built upon, both internationally and locally. Going for my first show ever blew my mind, but it also showed me that it's a lot about the people. Seeing the local bands open for international acts and realising that some of them have been around for a long time, that was wild.

Personally, this year has been a bit slow in every other aspect. There's definitely a bit of a plateau in terms of my guitar progress, especially since I focused more on listening to music than anything else. I did get my first electronic drum kit, which is pretty exciting, but I am sure it'll take a while for me to get good at it, so I'm not getting much from that front for a while. I did get guitar pedals too, so that's a whole new world of musical tech to delve into now that I have it.

One big new thing this year is finally starting to go for music shows. The Alpha Wolf show and the Fall Out Boy show have both been super fun, and eye-opening into the world of concertgoers, but also just to experience music even more. Whether it was headbanging in a 200 pax venue next to a mosh pit or jumping and singing along to Thnks Fr Th Mmrs in a giant crowd, hearing the music I love being played live has been so cool. It really made me have this extra layer of appreciation for the art and the artists.

After this crazy year of music, I'm definitely going to slow down for 2024. It's going to be a bit weird to get back to normal, casual listening, but the way I discover music now has been irreversibly changed, and I think it is for the better. It is bittersweet to know that there is so much good music I have yet to hear but I will never have enough time to listen to all of it, but at least I get to pick and choose. I'm already excited for some artists that have already announced albums for next year, as well as some artists which I think are hinting at or very likely to release an album next year, so there's definitely no shortage of new music to be had, but I definitely have a lot of leftovers from ARAD2023 that I can still get to listening to outside of the project, and many new artists I love that I would like to dig into their discographies of. I guess the moral of the story is, there's always good music?

- Spotify Wrapped tl;dr -

Minutes Listened: 152,759

Top Genre: Melodic Metalcore

Top Artist: Manchester Orchestra

Top Song: Manchester Orchestra - Rear View

- Favourite artist discoveries -

1. Adjy

2. Manchester Orchestra

3. Hot Mulligan

4. Periphery

5. Johnny Booth

- Favourite record discovery (that isn’t from 2023) -