SONGSBREW

Feature Story

Do we have commitment issues?

You never need to decide what you listen to if you don’t want to. Every song can be chosen for you. You can delicately travel through 750 genres and not notice at all. Enjoying each one, in that moment, and moving to the next.

Did you love them all, or were you not paying attention?

Do you genuinely love every genre and appreciate everything you listen to, or is it because you can’t commit to a single genre and its subgenres and microgenres?

Realistically, thanks to music streaming platforms, music is 'cheaper’ than it has ever been for the consumer. We can scremo in the morning and lo-fi in the afternoon without paying for a stack of CDs and records that we actively have to get up and change. We can tap a couple of buttons and move from The Temper Trap and Metro Boomin to Lo-fi Girl playlists, or the latest pop release, or a 17th-century choir… You get the idea.

It is a feast, a buffet, an all-you-can-eat music devouring session any time you want it.

But has it been pushed into background noise, or are you truly sitting with each track, soaking it in, and filing it away in your mental ‘I like this’ music bucket? There is a difference between loving every genre and not sitting with them, and letting them wash over you without hearing them.

Passive vs Active.

Genre Tourism

The beauty of streaming is the no-strings-attached, in-and-out, no-loyalty-required genre tourism. Don’t like something? You can skip it.

It’s different from the financial commitment to a record, tape, or CD. That investment sticks in your throat when you buy something that blew a budget and is terrible to listen to. You need to listen through spite. Not enjoyable, but hey, at least you committed to it.

Back to the beauty of the fuss-free streaming. Enjoying a song? You never need to know the release date, artist, album, or who features on it. Tap the heart, and it heads to your never-ending Liked songs. The algorithm will give you more enjoyable but forgettable tracks, and maybe you’ll even get that one again and not notice.

We can dip in and out of anything we want, and for some, those who are polyJAMorous, that is a beautiful thing, feasting on music you’d never see otherwise. However, there might be something to be said about how music streaming has allowed us to become lazy with our listening (if we choose to).

There is a joy in really listening to music, instead of the ultra-quick scrolling, swiping, and skipping we are accustomed to.

Are you truly polyJAMorous or algo-washed?

Truthfully, only you know which camp you sit in. But if you’re unsure and need some gentle words of encouragement and confirmation of being a jam. We can help.

• If someone asks you ‘What music are you into?’ you’re more likely to panic than have an answer. How can you even begin to explain the importance of bard music AND mumble rap?

• When you have to answer the best you can do it ‘a bit of everything’ or worse ‘I like good music’.

• Your streaming service offers daily playlists that resemble 75 (very different) people fighting over the aux at a party.

• You fall in love with a single sound tucked between the layers of the music. It might be a perfectly timed triangle, a specific long bass note, or the way an artist pronounces something. It won’t matter what genre it is; it's all about the sound. And truthfully, you’re listening to things you can’t even place IN a genre anymore.

• When you hear something new to you, you are almost feverish about it. The discovery is part of the process.

• That discovery sparks the ‘rabbithole’ of finding more. Adding a new genre to your list, which is too long to talk about, and you use streaming services to help you uncover real gems.

You let the music hit you over the head, and take you places. Doesn’t matter where it is from, but it is active. You’re taking part. And, most likely, if pressed, you have several artists that are in your heavy rotation that are pretty different.

In the end, no one can tell you how to make the most of your music streaming subscriptions. Letting the music pass you by, or not, is up to you. The most gorgeous thing about polyJAMorous people is that they’ll have a song for you at the drop of a hat, and it could be bubblegum pop, thrash metal, or a 17-minute jazz piece.

The greedy curiosity that keeps music streaming services in business. An endless appetite for sound, regardless of how it is shaped. It’s not indecision, it is expansiveness.

You don’t need to choose a lane. Just don’t sleep through the ride.

The Essentials

Your Catch Up

The Playlist Edit 

Music Discovery

What has stolen our hearts this week? Here.

A Final Note

Until next time,