discover weekly
not a single person in the world knows me the way that Spotify knows me.
trigger warning: I’m typing this on my phone on my return flight from Mexico City. I’ve got a connection at DFW (woohoo Texas) before heading to LGA (woohoo New York!!). The trigger warning is because I will not be proofreading this before sending it out (lol). You GOTTA remember that I do this for free; zero monies. My time is precious and I’m really feeling this stream of consciousness vibe sans proofing. Anyways, enjoy.
For what it’s worth (if anything truly is ever worth anything) I have had “Say Don’t Go” by our home girl TS on repeat for the past hour of this flight. We are all sad girls on the inside and that’s a good thing. [see figure 1 for proof]
My phone is on 22% by the way. I was rotating through 3 different games that absolutely drain my battery all the way to hell, but it’s the little things, ain’t it?
I thought about doing another music piece focusing on the rerelease of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) but only on the vault tracks…but then I couldn’t stop remembering where I was when the full album was originally released; how I felt, who I loved, where I was, what I wanted… I don’t maybe that’ll be a later newsletter.
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Just to let you know, I stopped writing en flight to NYC and am instead on a plane to Vegas right now and picking right back up where I left off.
Had a quick little weekend (barely 30 hours) back in the city and biked around Govenor’s Island and snapped some pics to finish out a roll of film. Woke up at 330AM to catch a 6AM flight.
Yesterday while biking, I had a brilliant idea for this piece but absolutely forgot it and am upset about that. This is all very stream of consciousness which is normally one-thousand-and-ten percent my vibe but I’m not sure that does anything for you, as a reader.
So let me think…
Okay, so I listen to a LOT of music. I’m talkin’ a TON of bops and anthems and bangers. My weekly music routine goes as follows:
Monday listen to my Spotify Discover Weekly on repeat all day. While I’m doing this (and this is super important) I am ‘liking’ the songs I’m loving and adding them to one (or several) of my very specific playlists, and pressing that lil “-“ minus button for the songs that are NOT my vibe.
Tuesday as I listen through my Discover Weekly again, when one of the songs I loved is playing, I go to that artist’s page and add a few of their most popular songs to the queue to see if I like more of them. If/when I do, I’ll add them to my playlist for that current year, follow the artist, and also go to their insta/social media to see if they are queer lol
Wednesday, again my discover weekly but also will check out my Release Radar to see if any artist I follow or love has anything I need to be listening to. Sometimes it’ll be a new track from a new album that slipped through my listening cracks so I’ll go to that album and do a full listen and fave any of the songs I love, add them to my playlist for that year, and then go back to the radar and do the same thing for the rest of the playlist.
By Thursday, most of the podcasts I listen to have dropped their weekly episodes so I spend that day listening to those but switch back to my Discover Weekly when I need a break from the pods or when I am reading things for work or typing emails and can’t focus on the words the girlies on the pods are saying. When I do not switch back to music in these times is when I accidentally send emails where I have typed words, sentences, and thoughts from the podcast instead of what I’ve meant to reply to.
Friday is when New Music Friday drops and I handpick what I listen to on that playlist. I skip the artists and genres that don’t really do it for me, add stuff. I like to one of my billion playlists, and will typically spend the full day making my way through this playlist.
On the weekends I play my playlists because they are full of only songs I’ve liked and loved and that brings me joy.
All this to say, I am consuming so much audio content in a way that has allowed me to have a fun quirky goofy silly 👉🏼👈🏼 way of analyzing and critiquing it, imo. ((shout out to my pals for pointing all of this out to me))
I have/had no intention of having so many music-based newsletter topics but realizing how much of my time is spent devouring music/audio-related content, I guess it just kinda makes sense that that is what I often have to discuss.
I wish I could write songs. I can write one-off lyrics or a lil rhyme or two that could be something more if I knew how. But I don’t really know how so I am left with thousands of words in my notes app of “lyrics” or song ideas that just sit there and get dusty crusty. I’d love to experience being in a writing session and being able to collaborate with someone who could help with the music piece and help with taking the lyrics and making them something better and bouncing back and forth with each other until we finish a song??? How do I make that happen? Anyone trynna do this?
Anyway, my top songs right now:
MY KINK IS KARMA - CHAPPELL ROAN
BEST PART (FEAT. H.E.R.) - DANIEL CAESAR
HABIT - CASSANDRA COLEMAN
SAY DON'T GO (TAYLOR'S VERSION) (FROM THE VAULT) - TAYLOR SWIFT
LEAVE MY MIND - BEN PLATT
JADED - MILEY CYRUS
USED TO BE YOUNG - MILEY CYRUS
What does it mean that I am a hopeless romantic but my most listened-to tracks are always the sad, heartbreak, breakup, ballads? BTW I’m a Virgo and have been single since Jan 2022 if that helps you come up with an answer. DMs are open for your diagnosis.
There is something that is so very romantic about music. Other than the obvious act of sharing songs you love with someone you care about. I think the feeling you get knowing that someone wrote those words for that song from something so specific they experienced. There is a certain level of intimacy that comes with listening to an artist that you love telling a story that you can relate to. The whole “this song feels like it was written for/about me”, is a real phenomenon that the world’s greatest minds and brightest scientists are working tirelessly to figure out…!!!
Wrapping up here with a lyric that just played in my ear at this very moment that:
You said distance brings fondness,
but guess not with us.
Wow. A good one.
Anyway, I think that’s all I’ve got. I’ve gotta transfer planes here in Charlotte for some annoying reason so wish me luck and thanks for reading this mess of a newsletter.
I’d love for anyone to share their fave tracks and their playlists with me! It’s free and easy and I LOVE listening to other people’s Discover Weekly. If you want to KNOW ME know me, check out mine because it drags me to absolute filth each and every week.
Spotify looks down at me, in the eyes (I’m kneeling in this scenario. It is not important why it is just important that you know that Spotify is VERY DOM) and says to me, she says, “You sad little f-slur little boy. I know just what you need. Just what you deserve,” and gives me music meant to destroy my soul; music to remind me that love isn’t real and that there is only sorrow and sadness and longing.
And I say to Spotify, I say, “Yes sir miss Spotify, thank you DOD!” and I crawl back into my little cold dark cave and play that playlist. This happens every week. Can send the vid of this exact interaction to anyone as proof (for a fee, of course).