I made my very first playlist back in year eight. It was an amalgamation of recommendations from my cool older cousin, songs that I analysed in my year seven English class, bands introduced to me by the parents of friends, and tracks that I remember hearing on the car radio. It was titled Commute and I listened to it religiously on the bus rides to and from school.
Whenever I meet someone new, I like to find out what music they listen to. Not to cast judgement, or assert musical superiority, but to get a sense of who they are. When looking over someone’s playlist, you start to see little bits and pieces of their personality. You learn what music their parents played in the car, which songs they pretended to enjoy in high school, and the bands whose entire repertoire they have memorised.
In curating my own playlists and scrutinising others, I’ve developed a hunger for something new. Something which recently, I’ve had trouble satiating. Spotify’s ‘Discover Weekly’ feature has served me well over the past few years, but frankly, I’ve grown bored of it. I commend Spotify on its ability to accurately assess just how much I enjoy indie folk music, but there’s a limit to how many sad acoustic guitar songs I can listen to. I think there’s something great about knowing what you like, don’t get me wrong. However, it can get a bit boring after a while.
Although having recently introduced an AI playlist generator that creates playlists based off of prompts that you give, as well as a wide collection of curated playlists, Spotify has not quenched my thirst for a new sound. My Daylist today told me that I listen to pov: indie and Beatlesque on Wednesday afternoons and that I should listen to some twee, indie-chill, stomp and holler, jangle and hipster. Whatever the hell that even means.
What all of these funky AI-generated playlists have in common is the same collection of music in varying orders. Each playlist serves up a series of songs that I already know and love, as well as a few new tracks that are remarkably similar to what’s already in my library. In an attempt to discover new sounds, I’ve found myself in a musical echo chamber.
Commute is now seven years old. That’s old enough to be in year one, learning to distinguish between imaginative, informative and persuasive texts. So why is it that this primary school-aged playlist has persevered when others, made more recently, have fallen to the wayside? Commute reminds me of when my friend Sylvie introduced me to The Smiths, or when I watched Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom for the first time and became insufferably pretentious. My newer playlists, many of which contain songs suggested to me by an algorithm, are nonetheless enjoyable, but are devoid of this history.
With machine-composed music steadily on the rise and algorithms dictating what we add to our playlists, it’s more crucial than ever to embrace what really drives music: the people behind it. Frustrated with these technological limitations, I set out to find some novel ways of discovering new music.
Let’s start with the most obvious way to find new music: getting recommendations from friends. It’s easy to forget just how much of your taste is influenced by the people that you spend time with. Reflecting on my taste in music, some of my favourite tracks and bands were recommended to me by friends. Curating playlists for those close to you is, in my opinion, an underrated form of bonding. In fact, I’ve recently started making birthday playlists for my friends. These playlists often include songs from artists that they already like, songs that we’ve enjoyed together, and most importantly, songs that remind me of them.
Engage with your local music scene! If you’re taking a stroll around the busy parts of the Inner West on a Friday or Saturday night (or most nights really), it’s likely that you’ll stumble upon live music. Sydney’s gig scene is chock full of hidden gems that would make a fantastic addition to anyone’s musical library. You never know, the band that you found sequestered in the corner of a dingy bar may be the next big thing and then you’ll get to tell everyone that you found them first!
If you’re curious as to what ‘Indonesian Folk Pop’ or ‘Brazilian Doom Metal’ sounds like, check out everynoise.com. Created by former Spotify data alchemist Glenn McDonald, everynoise.com is a musical smorgasbord serving up genres from around the globe. This site is a fantastic form of procrastination — which is especially useful as we head into exams. Everynoise.com allows you to hear a taste of each genre, and if it’s something that piques your interest, you can click on the link and discover the various artists that fall under that category.
Another word of advice — don’t underestimate the humble library. Many libraries have shelves of CDs available for borrowing, and recently, I’ve enjoyed checking out a stack of random CDs and listening to them while I study. Admittedly, I’ve had to eject some after the first track, but it’s also been a brilliant way of discovering music so outside of what I’d usually find myself listening to. The same principle totally applies to Vinnies, where CDs cost about $3 each!
It’s easy to forget that music is pretty much everywhere and that it exists outside of the boundaries of streaming platforms. In focusing so much on convenience and practicality, we’ve lost the art of finding new music. Next time you find yourself shuffling the playlists curated for you, or clicking the first track suggested to you, consider challenging yourself a bit. Great albums are referenced in books, brilliant songs can be found in film soundtracks, and new artists can be found playing at your local markets.
