OK, Great: Some good music [No. 102]
Wanted: Gatekeepers and taste
I set out to write a few sentences in this lil’ issue, to say “hey, i’m gonna start doing playlists again because i missed doing that, so so so bad. so here’s the first new playlist and there will be another new one at some regular interval. let’s have fun!”
Instead, you got a quasi-manifesto about, uhhh, music consumption and… other stuff. That’s all below. But definitely dig in to the main course: listen to BUREAU SOUNDS #1 on Spotify or Tidal.
New playlists will be shared out here, on social, and maybe as cassette tapes or CD-Rs delivered via mail.
I’m actively trying to reorient my media consumption and discovery—news, art, movies, TV. But especially music!
And good lord has it been invigorating and gratifying. Without going too deep into it (might be for another newsletter), I’m rebuilding the digital music library that I used to have. Listening to and buying more vinyl again, living on Bandcamp, and digging through Allmusic and Discogs like never before.
This week, I turned my on my 5th generation iPod for the first time in 15 years. I think I’m going to update, mod, and customize it. This feels like an ironic thing, yes, but also unironic? Solid chance I electrocute myself in the process. Genuinely don’t know how this stuff works. Wish me luck.
Anyway, at the core of all of this media-consumption reorientation is active, deliberate, self-initiated, curated research and discovery. The flattening of art and music into a passive, infinite, algorithmically-surfaced content infrastructure has removed so much joy and interestingness of it all.
I’m not calling for or expecting a full-on, mass rejection of the streaming economy (even though, like, the actual art creators are the biggest losers in all of this). The whole point of this fucking newsletter was to share my playlists so you could listen on your streaming platform of choice—which is what we all do!
However, we could all stand to be more active in discovering and choosing what media we consume. I wish for a pendulum swing back towards trusting in peoples’ taste and recommendations.
Technology enabled this democratization of music (and, more broadly, multimedia) creation and potential distribution. Which is good, probably. It also completely borked the economics for creators and swapped out genuine human taste, criticism, and curation for the never-ending grind of algorithmic optimization and eternal content.
Above all, we need a meta-pivot back to directly supporting artists and musicians. We also need gatekeepers. We need people and and their creations—media, zines, paper-based newsletters printed on card stock or recycled Amazon boxes or maybe as an edition of 10 cursive-written letters or maybe Christmas cards with hand-drawn Peanuts characters on the front and thoughtful notes inside—to surface what’s good, important, or meaningful.
It’s not a one-way relationship, though! As fans and consumers, it’s important to disagree or have feelings about what the critics have to say. Fuck their takes! Or maybe not! Critique the critics (respectfully, ideally via a lengthy, nuanced 94-minute podcast that ‘does have to hand it to them’ but emerges with a fresh way to interpret the piece of art and so the critics, podcasters, fans, and artists all come away having learned something about themselves and the world around them.)
So let’s do a bit of a reorientation, yeah? (That’s a note and reminder for me, to be honest, lol)
Progress comes through some combination of the heart, our brains, our need to connect; creation, discovery, sharing. It’s what creates meaning. Makes things matter.
Editor’s note (lol there’s obviously no editor): I’ve re-read that last paragraph 27 times. It reads and sounds cringe. Like: I’m wincing, over-and-over, as my eyeballs scan some bullshit about “hearts” and “brains” and “discover” and “progress.” Tired, cliche language. Maybe call it trite? A touch gauche. A way-too-long truism. I wouldn’t have published it 4 months ago!
But today? This week? This month? These next few years? Worth repeating, over-and-over-and-over.