My Music Journal 2025: January 21, 2025

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Time: 3:08 PM
Song: Snowflakes
Artist: Dropkick
Mode of Consumption: Listening to Spotify’s Release Radar playlist.

Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/4yaOn1ooBQD0UVHipsIJqs?si=07d37be93073419e

I’ve made a concerted effort over the last two years to try and find newly released music. It started when I joined a group lovingly named the Music Snobs. It was a group of five people who drafted songs by a single artists/band each month, and then we had a vote on the best playlists created. One of the bonus challenges was a list of ten songs released that year.

While the group has since disbanded due to scheduling conflicts, I have tried to spend time each week listening to newly released music. Last year was probably one of the most engaged years of music of my life. I had a healthy list of new tunes and new bands that hopefully remain in my rotation for years to come.

Snowflakes seemed like an appropriate song for today, even though we only had a dusting of snow overnight, the temperatures in the Sauk Valley have remained below zero most of the day. This is the most winter that this winter has felt so far.

The Spotify homepage tells me that the band Dropkick hails from Scotland, and draws their influences from Wilco, Teenage Fanclub and Tom Petty.

There’s an adage that people tend to listen to the music they listened to in high school for the rest of their lives. I certainly have plenty of 90s music in my rotation, but I’ve added significantly since then, allowing the tastes I formed back then to influence my likes today. For people that think that there isn’t any music made today that they like, the reality probably is that they either don’t have or haven’t taken the time to look for it.

Most of the music I have adopted in the last few years could have easily been made in the 80s or 90s.

If you’re looking for tunes from the last ten or fifteen years to expand your personal playlists, I recommend bands like the Avett Brothers, Trampled By Turtles, Band of Horses, The Shins, The Decemberists, Dawes, The Gaslight Anthem, jus to name a few.