Apple Music, Soundcloud, and two YouTube accounts that I have owned for years. Yet, I still have days when I feel like I don’t listen to enough music. There are so many artists and music projects out there to choose from that will never reach my ears. Just one skip from a song in my recommended feels like I just missed out on the greatest hit of the year, and I will never know that it could have changed my life.
Today, I would like to challenge myself to do the opposite. I have my time of repeating the same song that I’m obsessed with that week, but I do not go a day without listening to something new. From playlists to DJ sets to music videos to music on people’s posts, I am always tapped into something new. The problem is that I could not tell you half the music I have listened to. Is that okay? Is that a problem? I have no idea, but this has been how I consumed music for years. I rarely look back at what I used to listen to. I’m constantly chasing what is new, but I still feel behind. People usually talk about this with their fomo to events or addiction to social media, but for me, it’s all because of music.
I have songs that I have listened to once and have no idea what they could sound like. If guessing correctly meant the world could finally be fixed from everything that’s wrong with it, they would have to find someone else to fulfill this made-up prophecy.
This includes songs like:
|
Artist |
Song |
|
aldn & Wisp |
“Crocodile eyes” |
|
Shuta Hasunuma & Ichiko Aoba |
“Robot Mechanic” |
|
THÉA |
“Á la mort” |
I listen to so many DJ sets, playlists, and live performances on YouTube that I could not tell you at least 50% of the songs that I heard in them, or if I heard them before.
This includes banger videos like:
|
Channel Name |
Video Title |
|
Black House Radio |
House & Club Music Mix | Black House Radio |
|
ackerlady |
Whimsical techno mix for having existential crisis at 2am |
|
NoodleCan |
Wholesome and aggressive music don’t mix |
I think my biggest issue with all of this is that I barely look back at music I did listen to. Sometimes it’s nice to be surprised by a song you haven't heard in a while. I experienced this joy recently with probably the most unexpected song called “Was ist dein Lieblingsfach (Club Remix)” by Janzl. To be honest, I have no idea how I found out this existed, but this song is part of my past.
https://youtu.be/tRBeGm0QMvU?s...
I even have playlists that I use to save songs so I can, on a brave day, go back to what I used to listen to. About 50% of the songs I listen to, I don’t save anywhere. The most that saves it is my history, and I accidentally deleted my Apple Music history last month (bye-bye accurate Replay 2025). It’s funny to see how much I’m questioning how much I listen to after having a blog post about needing to listen to more albums. This phenomenon is probably pretty normal, but it won’t stop me from questioning myself.
Hello! On my show Sporadic Symmetry, I just rant about random topics I find interesting that week. It can be from current events to a deep dive into topics like the effect of algorithms on the web to ranting about musicals like Epic. I'm constantly learning new things so I'll never run out of topics to talk about. I'll bring something different to your ears every Tuesday from 11:00am to 12:00pm.