I Discovered Radiohead Today.
In a world where you can really only listen to music digitally or on vinyl I realized recently that when I discover music it’s truly either stumbled upon in the digital blogosphere or via suggestion. And that’s just fine by me.
I think it’s pretty clear that when it comes to convenient listening, my loyalty lies with Spotify. Of course I listen to plenty of one offs other places(soundcloud, audiomack, etc), but when it comes to driving, commuting, and time spent as a cube monkey, I use Spotify. I’m an avid vinyl collector and certainly listen to them at home when I’m in “music mode” or while cooking dinner, however that is time less spent than the other 20+ available hours of the day
As many people may have seen a few months back, it wasn’t only Taylor Swift that decided to pull the cord out on her music being available via paid stream, Thom Yorke and Radiohead threw a much bigger hissy fit that left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.
Look, I get it. Artists aren’t paid NEARLY enough for the music they make. I agree wholeheartedly with his point, but we live in a different world now and while I personally wish it was different, I would say that digital discovery counts for something. And that some money > no money. And that the music you love and find today is almost 100% found via a free digital source. But mostly, you’re a globally loved, arena selling, plenty of dinero band. You’re as qualified as Jay-Z to “represent the integrity of the musician”. While I appreciate you standing up for the industry, I think, as Jon Taffer says, “ I embrace solutions, not excuses”
It was weeks, maybe months since i had spun a Radiohead record. Not for lack of desire, but because, like I said, I use Spotify mostly. But this morning, with my newly updated Spotify app(see that new shit here) and it told me about the new features (video, running, etc), but also defaulted me to a “morning commute” playlist. And the first song on my auto play. Radiohead’s AirBag . I was like “wait. Radiohead is on here now? Had it been all along? When? How’d I miss this?”
After immediately listening to Ok Computer in its entirety on my way to work, I felt compelled to not only listen, but write about this experience. I realized that despite the whining, I missed this band. And also, just maybe the time off was a blessing in disguise. Because I remembered how much I fucking love this bands catalog. While I admittedly don't love King Of Limbs and it kills me that my favorite album of theirs, In Rainbows, is NOT on Spotify, I miss these records. Most importantly though, I felt this morning like I "stumbled" onto AirBag. It felt like this whole digital music world of random discovery came full circle. I stumbled upon one of the first records I ever loved and it felt new again. And I really hope it happens again sometime, because it felt damn good.
So what’s the take away here? I’d say to you, Mr. or Mrs. Music Fan. Maybe today you try to Discover your band or song again. Don’t confuse that with nostalgia. I don’t mean that you should go listen to No Diggity, or This is How You Do It, or spin Dookie front to back because that’s what you and your friends used to sing all the lyrics to all summer in 2001. I mean to think about a band that really resonated with you, 2, 5, 10, 15, maybe 20 years ago and listen to that 3rd album you didn’t like at the time. Just because it’s not new to the world, doesn’t mean it’s not new to you. Maybe you’ll “discover” your “new” favorite and wonder how you missed it all along.