Playlist [KNBR 19]

I've been making playlists in this series for 5 years. This one is the10th one I've posted to spotify, 19th of it's name, and technically the 23rd of it's kind. This is the first one that gets a post on this blog. I call these playlists KNBRs as a reference to faux radio call letters, because in my own personal world these songs are what would be in heavy rotation on the airwaves.

These started out as a 2 disc set (CDs were still the easiest way to share playlists in '09) called The Current. (It was followed by a disc of extras and another volume.) It was a sampler of all the great music I had been discovering that year, and it's the genesis of this blog. After finishing those first four in the span of about 6 months, I reestablished it using the call letters and started releasing them every 8 weeks or so. Then they got sporadic. Now I'm going to try to put a new one out quarterly.

I used to make these out of whatever I had been listening to at the time. In the last year or so, I've been trying to put only brand new stuff on them. This is fresh baked goodness, hot out of the oven and still cooling on the windowsill.

Yes. Float closer my pretties. 

There is no particular kind of music on these heavy rotation lists. They're comprised of what I like to call Subdermal Pop. That is, popular music that isn't really all that popular. These songs are mainstream enough that an enthusiast in the midwest (read: me) has heard of them, but rarely are they on any sort of popular music chart. They're just under the skin, but close enough to the surface to see the light.

I spend a large part of my free time searching for new and interesting music. Finding music I like isn't as easy as it used to be. This seems odd considering how much information I have access to now vs. fifteen years ago. My cup should runneth over. I should be drowning in waves of sound. The problem is, I am.

Music has lost its filter system over the years. Even though I agree that they were, overall, a parasite in the bowels of the music industry; I do sometimes lament the downfall of the record companies. Labels would seek out bands in small clubs. If the bands were good enough they might get signed and get to make a record. Then, if they made a good record, they might get local or even national airplay. Now you can skip all those steps. You can record a single in your bedroom with less than $500 worth of equipment and put that single directly on iTunes or BandCamp or SoundCloud etc, etc, etc. Immediately giving you an international audience. All without anyone but you thinking, "This person makes good music." This is a double edged sword. It makes an environment where everyone can be heard. Risks can be taken in the creation of new sounds that no record company would ever have put into the world. But the side effect is that the market is explosively overcrowded. When everyone who wants to make music can get it to you with little to no effort, how do you begin to process it all?

Now who's going to tell you that you suck?

This rampant availability of music has made the record companies, who previously controlled everything you could hear, effectively useless. Since you can hardly sell albums anymore, the labels have no money, or at least nothing close to the endless piles of cash they had before. So what little money they do have, they spend on a sure thing. They can't afford to take risks anymore. This leads to the average, homogenized crap that makes it through to the top of the old delivery system of radio and television. In turn, the boring music on the radio and television forces anyone with any sense of adventure into the waiting and open arms of the internet where each individual can have a totally different and unique experience tailored specifically for them.

All this sounds like a great idea until you take off your headphones and realize that no one you know is listening to the earth shaking, life changing music that you've fallen in love with. You are alone in your personal auditory utopia.

I'm not saying I would take the old, major label music industry over the freedom of the internet. I just miss being able to listen to a good song on the Out Of Order countdown or see a good video on 120 Minutes and know that there were a significant number of people that I would meet the next day that had that same experience. I miss the mutual entanglement that came with a limited delivery system.

That is why I started this blog. I make the playlists for me, because I love to listen to them. They help me find my way back to sounds that excited or intrigued me. They are like bookmarks and highlighted passages in an immense novel. But, contrary to the plot of the average pirate movie, finding a treasure is rarely as fun as spending it. The exchange is the best part. This is my way of inviting everyone into that personal utopia that I find. I don't want to be alone in Elysium.

That and I'm a narcissist who thinks his taste in music should be the standard.

All that being said, most people aren't going to like this whole list. I don't expect anyone to. I keep my KNBRs diverse: Pop, Rap, Metal, Shoegaze, EDM, Indie, Folk, Polka, All underdogs are welcome. If you like something here, tell me why. If you don't like something here, tell me why. The more input I get, the more interesting the next one of these will be.

I'm done ranting now. Go listen to some music.