With the extra time that quarantine gave me to delve further into this hobby, I made it something of a mission to listen to more new albums (to me) in 2020 than there were days in the year. I completed that task quite easily. In 2021 when college was back in full swing, I became notorious for quitting artists' discographies as soon as it got dull; instead of worrying about the grand total, I wanted to consume as much top material as I could. In 2022, I realized all the 60s artists I still had to do so I organized all the artists I wanted to cover and began to go through certain time periods more methodically.
In 2023, I asked myself: why is my system to listen to one 70s punk artist, one 60s artist, one early 70s singer-songwriter, one early 70s band, and one 1930s blues artist at a time? As each list continued to grow, I began to realize that I would be stuck in each time period indefinitely. My solution became to put more focus onto the 60s in an effort to finally put that decade behind me for good. As of now, my strategy is now to listen to three 60s artists, one 70s punk artist, and one 1930s blues artist at any given point. As my statistics and top albums of the half-year show, this has considerably dropped the quality of the albums I am listening to but I am nevertheless happy with what I am doing. I'm finally chipping away at my 60s list at a fast rate and I'm also gaining fascinating new insights into the genres of the time: the explosion of psychedelic rock after the releases of Sgt Pepper and Are You Experienced (unfortunately, I've only grown more staunch in my stand against the genre), the beginnings of heavy metal (with Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple all hailing from England, I was quite surprised to learn about the Californian psychedelic blues bands that pioneered the genre beforehand), and early garage bands from Washington and Oregon that pioneered a influential gritty sound before the Stooges and the Velvet Underground.
Despite the success of my adjustments, I'm worried about what my future in music listening will hold. I'm already considering dropping the 70s punk artist to focus on the 60s full time. But once I accomplish the 60s like I hope, what then? I still have so many other artists before that time period that I never finished: dozens of 50s rockabilly artists, a plethora of 40s country artists, an abundance of electric blues rockers in the 40s and 50s, and the entirety of the soul/Motown scene. What about all jazz records that span from the 1930s to the 1970s? My methodical approach is working fine for the limited releases in 60s rock but will I ever be ready to move onto the 80s artists? I want to listen to everything but there's a lot of worthwhile music before the Beatles ever formed.
I'm not as spontaneous as I used to be. I listened to Charley Patton on a whim, which began my delve into blues music; I started country music because I was absolutely floored when I played a Hank Williams playlist while doing a puzzle; I decided to start listening to punk music on a random night in my dorm. I no longer make such rash decisions without careful consideration--I know the months long excursions they can bring about and I'd prefer not to get side tracked. But if not on a random night, when?
Such questions will have to wait, at the moment I'm still laser focused on alienating my small fan base as I ramble on about big name 60s artifacts like Tommy James and the Shondells.
