Digestible Playlists, or How to Stop Worrying About Joy Division
Decide once and for all if you like a band
The Problem
There are a number of bands1 with whom I have this recurring and totally one-sided problem, i.e., this problem doesn’t affect the bands in any way. It’s this: There are certain bands that I feel like I should like—not should for some sort of ethical or moral perspective, or even reasons of coolness. But like, on paper, these are bands that ring the right bells and should interest me. But they don’t and/or I actively dislike them.
The problem comes in because every now and then one of these bands will come up in conversation, Spotify’s awful recommendation algorithm will foist one upon me, or I’ll just think of one as I’m idly staring into space—as is my wont!
Here’s a running list of those bands.
The Solution
I realized that I can, to my own—and no one else’s—satisfaction, close the book on these bands through a simple procedure:
Get a friend who likes the band to compile a selection of their favorite songs by the band, between 5 and 12 songs, the fewer the better.
Listen to those songs.
Make a final decision.
Move on with my life!!
Step 1 is crucial. Listening to a band’s most-streamed songs doesn’t do it, but for some reason if someone whose musical taste I respect says, these are the songs, that feels sufficient to inform a once-and-for-all verdict.
You have no idea how liberating this is. Now I don’t have to keep revisiting Kid A every few years trying to figure out why anyone thinks Radiohead is worth my time (they aren’t), nor do I have to keep trying to figure out why I don’t respond to Joy Division—even though I love New Order! See the thing was, I always felt like other people were seeing something I wasn’t seeing in these bands. Because the verdict-yielding playlists (#1 above) come with a friend’s endorsement—a friend who sees—I can feel like I’ve given the band due consideration, and I can move on confident in my conviction that these bands aren’t for me.
So…I want to do this for you, my valued readers. I have a greater-than-average knowledge of / appreciation for a handful of bands, and I want to create brief intro play lists and little appreciative essays about them. If you’re interested in any of these bands, or if any of them present to you the pesky problem described above, I hope this will help.
Bands I plan to write about (in no particular order):
Ramones
Dinosaur Jr.
Sebadoh / Folk Implosion / Lou Barlow
Illuminati Hotties
Why?
Serengeti
Open Mike Eagle
Martha
The Rentals
Minutemen
Sonic Youth
The Beach Boys
Here and everywhere, I’m going to use the word band to refer to an entity that records/releases music—though admittedly this could be a single person or a group. I just prefer the term band, over saying artist, which always seems dumb and pretentious to me when it comes to bands.