#like....1+ year is average wait time for albums from other artists
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A while back I began covering the history of Jay Z and Nas' beef. I finish everything I say I will, even if it's a little late. So I present the continuation of their feud as well as the conclusion. Feel free to catch up on part one.
Nas - Stillmatic Freestyle (H to The Omo) - So Jay and the Roc had been firing shots for a while and Nas had not directly responded to any of them. Simply stating that he would not bow down. So one day he goes on the radio and he kicks a freestyle over an Eric B and Rakim remix. It's the normal Nas freestyle then he says "N.Y. City, grab a hold and ride with me." He then proceeds to drop bomb after bomb on Roc-a-fella artist including
Rip the Freeway, shoot through Memphis with money bags. Stop in Philly, order cheese steaks and eat Beans fast and bring it back up top, remove the fake king of New York. You show off, I count dough off when you sample my voice, I rule you, before, you used to rap like the Fu-Schnickens, Nas designed your Blueprint, who you kidding? Is he H to the izz-O, M to the izz-O? For shizzle you phony, the rapping version of Sisqo
Summer Jam - Nas wants to hang Jay Z mannequin on stage during his set at Summer Jame. Nas is told that would not allow this at all or any other actions that can be considered as adding fire to his beef with Jay Z and Roc-A-Fella. Nas then pulls out of the concert and is replaced with Jay Z. Jay Z kills Prodigy on Screen by releasing the photos of Prodigy performing ballet routines, who portrayed himself as a gangster from the poorest of ghettos. Nas boycotts Hot 97 for several years providing competitors with exclusive interviews and tracks first. Afterwards he begins to care less for the beef feeling as if there are certain people who are determined to make him out to be a loser. That is until Takeover dropped.
Jay Z - Takeover - Takeover was primarily a Mobb Deep diss. Mainly because Prodigy didn't know how to shut up. Havoc just happened to catch shots for standing next to him. In fact, Nas had also dissed prodigy in a few bars on It Was Written while featuring Havoc on the album because Prodigy couldn't stop bothering people. Anyway it's all good for Nas until that 3rd verse hits. with "I know you miss it Nas (FAME)" then you just had to sit and listen. One of the coldest lines in the track was:
Yeah I sampled your voice, you was using it wrong, you made it a hot line, I made it a hot song, and you ain't get a coin, nigga, you was getting fucked then
I know who I paid, God - Serchlite publishing.
This was the line that really go under Nas' skin because it just wasn't true but people rode with it. MC Search who owned Searchlite (Named Zomba at the time) waited until 2014 to explain what happened. Jay Z did pay $2000 for the sample and 50 percent of the royalties. However he only paid for clearance because Searchlight only distributed Nas material and did not own any of his masters. Also the name of the company wasn't Searchlight until 2012. Nas Deal with Searchlight actually included the clause that he receive 50 percent of any money they make from his publishing so in the end, Jay really did pay Nas $1000 for that sample. He just didn't know it.
Anyway Nas feelt that Jay had gotten everything off his chest despite saying things like:
You said you've been in this 10, I've been in it 5, smarten up, Nas, 4 albums in 10 years, nigga? I could divide, that's one every...let's say 2, 2 of them shits was due, 1 was "nah," the other was Illmatic, that's a one-hot-album-every-10-year average
Nas - Ether - There was no plan to respond to Takeover. Nas was done with the beef until Jungle informed him that the streets were saying that his career was over if he didn't respond. So Nas rolled out of bed and recorded Ether. Nas really did start a lot of the things that would haunt Jay Z forever. The big lips camel thing, that was Nas. Nas also killed the Roc by claiming all their artists were irrelevant, just Jay's sidekicks and look what happened to them. Kanye is like the one outlier. The first two verses were gentle warning shots that Jay should turn the track off. Here are some excerpts from that last verse:
Y'all niggas deal with emotions like bitches, what's sad is I love you, ‘cause you're my brother, you traded your soul for riches, my child, I've watched you grow up to be famous, and now I smile like a proud dad, watching his only son that made it
Jay did in fact open up for Jaz on a tour that he was sharing with Large Professor's group Mainsource, that featured Nas as a lead member. In a sense, Jay was opening for Nas' opener.
You seem to be only concerned with dissin' women, were you abused as a child? Scared to smile? They called you ugly? Well, life is harsh; hug me! Don't reject me!
Jay admitted all of this on 'Song Cry'
You a fan, a phony, a fake, a pussy, a Stan
Jay Z has literally mentioned Nas, had a Nas sample or a Nas feature on every album except Watch The Throne
I still whip your ass; you 36 in a karate class? You Tae-Bo ho, tryna work it out, you tryna get brolic?
Jay Z was known to take martial arts classes at the time, he however stopped after this line.
Jay Z - Supa Ugly - If you ever heard the Angie Martinez interview with Jay the first time he heard Ether you would know he was upset by it. Not mad, just upset and on the verge of tears. He responded with one of the nastiest diss tracks ever. Supa Ugly came right after the passing of Nas mother so it didn't actually hit Nas because he was so emotionally numb at the time. It did hit him when Jay Z's mother forced him to call and apologize. The first verse has Jay claiming Nas ran away from a fight because Jay had Beanie Sigel and Memphis Bleek with him, but neither has backed up the story. The second claims Nas had his chain stolen and JT The Bigga Figa bought it back for him, but again nobody backed Jay on this. That third verse, well that shit is all true. Here are some bars from Supa Ugly, it may not be the greatest diss of all time, but it was the most disrespectful:
Me and the boy A.I. got more in common than just balling and rhyming, Get it? More in Carmen, I came in your Bentley backseat, skeeted in your Jeep, left condoms on your baby seat.
That's the part that had Jay Z's mother force him to apologize. Yes it's true, he did sleep with the mother of Nas' first child Carmen Bryan, and so did Allen Iverson. In fact a lot of people did, she wrote a book about it. The thing is, the book was flattering to Jay either. During interviews she claimed that most of the time they spent together wasn't having sex in Nas' vehicles. It was him asking increasingly personal questions about Nas. She claimed that it was almost as if Jay wanted to be Nas best friend.
Jay goes on to make reference to the fact that Nas already knew about the affair but was trying to keep quiet so as not to ruin his street cred. This was the last diss in beef that most people look at and it just wasn't the last one. It did however bring a lot of things to the front that caused Jay and Nas to spill their hearts on tracks about how they really felt.
Jay Z - Blueprint 2 - This is Jay's last dissin the feud. He actually promised to diss Nas every year until Nas quit rapping. The instrumental is probably one of my favorite's of all time, but lyrically, Jay just comes off bitter at Nas, Rosie Parez, Prodigy and a lot of other people. The track equates to "Why y'all don't love me like y'all love him." It sounds petty and that's probably why Jay didn't go through with his promise to diss Nas every year, after hearing Nas' response with "Last Real Nigga Alive." Jay sounds bitter, but he does bring up some good points. Rosie Perez wrote an article for XXL applauding Nas for his lyrics praising women of color and shaming Jay Z for his overuse of the words "bitch and hoe," which Nas also uses, just to a much lesser extent, especially at the time. Jay states:
I'm sorry Miss Rosie Perez, I call a spade a spade, it just is what it is, but you can't give cred to anything dude says, same dude to give you ice and you owe him some head, shorty, it's time to wake up the dead, you sound a little naive in them articles that I read
He's got a point. Nas will do songs like "The American Way" where he defends black women and turn around and drop songs like "The Makings of a Perfect Bitch" on the same album. Jay also brings up a good point when bringing up charities. This is the first and last time Jay ever mentioned his giving to charity on a song. Jay states:
Can't y'all see that he's fake, the rap version of T.D. Jakes, prophesizing on your CDs and tapes. Won't break you a crumb of the little bit that he makes and this is with whom you want to place your faith. I put dollars on mine, ask Columbine, when the Twin Towers dropped, I was the first in line, donating proceeds off every ticket sold, when I was out on the road, that's how you judge Hov, no? Ain't I supposed to be absorbed in myself? Every time there's a tragedy, I'm the first one to help, they call me this misogynist, but they don't call me the dude to take his dollars to give gifts at the projects. These dudes is all politics, depositing checks, they put in they pocket, all you get in return is a lot of lip and y'all buy the shit, caught up in the hype
Jay is right, he does donate a ton of money to charity, then and now. Nas donates to charity as well, but not on the same levels. However, to be fair to Nas he has always been about creating economic equality through building businesses from the ground up. While Jay has purchased business and made a lot of money from them, the number Nas has invested in is ridiculous. Nas actually owns Queensbridge Venture Partners where he invests in different small businesses. As of 2015 Nas managed to get in on the ground floor in over 40 businesses including; Bevel, Dropbox, Lyft, Lookout and many more.
Jay has good points but the reason people thought he sounded bitter was his flustered and angry tone as well as bars like:
You opened the door god, I'm at you annually
Cause the nigga wear a kufi, it don't mean that he bright, cause you don't understand him, it don't mean that he nice, it just means you don't understand all the bullshit that he write
Since I will not lose, they try to help him cheat
I will not lose, for even in defeat, there's a valuable lesson learned, so it evens up for me
I'm a legend, you should take a picture with me
You should be happy to be in my presence
This was probably my favorite diss track from Jay. If he had started the beef saying this stuff it wouldn't have been as debated about who won. Instead he waited until his feelings were hurt to actually say these things.
Nas - Last Real Nigga Alove - So this is Nas putting the all of his beef to rest. Not because he gives up but because he's tired of it. For some perspective it comes from his album God's Son. Nas' mother had just passed and he had actually retired from music at this point. However before his mother passed she asked that he never stop making music. The result was God's Son featuring a different Nas more focused on trying to enjoy life than past problems.
The first verse features Nas explaining how he met BIG and Diddy as well as what led to their beef. In this case it was because Nas was too passive. He let other people drag him into a beef he wanted nothing to do with and this one actually hurt because he considered him and BIG to be friends. He opens the verse with:
Y'all don't know about my Biggie wars, who you thought "Kick In The Door" was for? But that's my heart, y'all still tripping off the Jigga shit
If you listen to "Kick in The Door" that first verse is about Nas and uses the same Leprechaun bars that Jay Z would recycle on "Takeover." Nas never even responded to the track before "Last Real Nigga Alive" because he was too upset about it.
The second verse touches on a lot of issues. The big one here is Nas admitting Carmen cheated on him with more than Jay Z and it was Nas' own fault because he didn't pay her any attention. He's also not mad about it anymore which is a big jump from his song "The Cross" earlier in the album. Then he talks about Jay. Nas was spending time with his mother when "Takeover" dropped and he understands why Jay did it. Nas believes Jay did it because Jay wanted to be the top rapper in New York and for that to happen, Nas had to be taken out. But Nas goes on to say, he doesn't care about chasing that crown, because as he stated in verse 1 king of New York brought him nothing but problems and lost friends. The big kick here is how Nas ends it:
I was Scarface, Jay was Manolo, it hurt me when I had to kill him and his whole squad for dolo
If you've ever seen the movie Scarface, Manolo is the best friend of Tony the title character. Tony kills Manolo after he sleeps with Tony's sister. Despite Tony always thinking Manolo was soft killing him actually did hurt Tony. In this case, Nas had been friends with Jay. Large Professor backed this up. Large Professor also stated that there where three other versions of "Ether" that Nas scrapped because they went too far with lines like "It should have been you who died in that plane crash instead of Aaliyah." So yeah, Nas was hurt and he was done with the beef because.
The End
So that's the history of Jay and Nas. The next thing that happened was Jay became president of Def Jam and immediately signed Nas to one of the biggest contracts in the label's history. They followed it up by closing out Jay Z's "I Declare War" concert together after Jay had brought a bunch of rappers together to end their beefs. Then they did a bunch of songs together and hang out now. It's weird seeing Jay and Beyonce at Nas birthday party or Nas at the openin
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tagged by @shmazarov, ty for the excuse to indulge in lj-style nostalgia blogging; rules: answer 30 questions and tag others
name/nickname: isabel
star sign: capricorn but i have four planets in sagittarius
height: 5′7
time: this is SO lj! 8:33 a.m,
birthday: jan 16
favorite bands: rly am more of a solo artists person! longtime fave bands are probably world/inferno friendship society (rip jack terricloth!) & the unlovables; currently really into the new pom pom squad album; charly bliss’s young enough is maybe my favorite album of the past five years
favorite solo artists: too many.... some forever faves are liz phair, britney, carly rae jepsen, bob dylan... melodrama shook up my shit; first two charli xcx albums back when she made songs that were songs; big 2k21 vibe is thanks iirc @tothevines for alerting me to baby queen who i hope gets big bc she rules; i feel like i can’t not say taylor swift even though almost the entirety of her catalogue i never listen to.
song stuck in your head: baby queen, “raw thoughts,” altho if you’re gonna check out just one it should be “want me”
last movie you watched: i think in the heights, which i loved
last show: god i don’t know. i’m currently very slowly watching arrested development for the first time ever. i think the last new to me show i finished was silicon valley which i watched start to finish like three times in a row, for Normal Reasons
when did you create this blog: sometime in 2014 bc i couldn’t shut up about bucky barnes and trauma metaphors, altho my now deleted perblog dated to like, summer 2008
what do you post: screaming
last thing googled: pulled calf muscle symptoms :[
other blogs: every day of my life i am resisting the urge to make an animorphs sideblog. also i have a tinyletter i use the way i used to use livejournal including the part where i use it like 1-3 times a year
do you get asks: sometimes and i am almost always delighted to receive them even though i am also terrible at answering them
why you chose your url: it is a riff on a lonely island awards show ditty cool guys don’t look at explosions
following: very few people bc in a previous life i had dashboard stress
followers: i’m so sorry
average hours of sleep: 6-7 :/ rly trying to settle into a regular 8 but it is tough for me both to stick to a regular bedtime and to sleep through the night
instruments: i took piano lessons as a kid but was terrible at it
what are you wearing: ancient hello kitty PJs
dream job: currently attempting to Pivot To Tutoring not so much bc it is my dream job as bc it is a job i can do less than full-time and without having a fucking Workplace, which are my actual job dreams. i do not like to have responsibility coworkers or a commute
dream trip: i’d like to go to spain as an adult
favorite food: favorite treat food is ice cream especially fancy ice cream. favorite actual food as measured by a balance of enjoyment and how much i fucking eat it is probably eggs. i eat a demented number of eggs
nationality: american
favorite song: my go-to answer to this for years has been alexz johnson’s chicago bc it is both a song i’m perennially obsessed with and a song no one on earth has ever heard of and like. still works
last book read: my big Pandemic Brain Effect is that it really knocked out books for me. i think the last book i finished was one of the ones i read when i was going through a books about the internet phase last summer, maybe sherry turkle’s alone together? currently working my way extremely slowly through four very different reads: jenny slate’s little weirds, which i borrowed from a friend and keep putting off bc i want to Savor it but am never in a Savoring mood; dean spade’s mutual aid which i failed to read for a mutual aid book club and then felt like i should keep going since i’d borrowed a copy; detransition, baby for gay discord literature book club; and cynthia voigt’s homecoming, a childhood favorite that absolutely holds up so far which i’m revisiting as part of enrichment for an eleven-year-old i’m tutoring.
top three fictional universes you’d like to live in: i feel like the whole thing about fictional universes is they exist partly to support like big plots with lots of drama and strain so are not very fun. or else it’s like an HP situation where it seems fun on paper but then you’re like wait memory charms are just GHB but legal and totally untraceable and unpreventable? i want to live in the new girl universe where a bartender and an early-career teacher can afford to live in that fucking loft
tagging: i have lost track of who has been tagged so. anyone inspired!
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30 Questions About Me
Thanks for the tag, @lightkeykid !
1. Name: Hanaa
2. Gender: Female
3. Star Sign: Aquarius
4. Height: 5'0" (to my everlasting chagrin)
5. Time: 1.03 am
6. Birthday: 29th January (i'm 23 this month??? wtf???)
7. Favourite Band/Group: McFly (surprise surprise. I never shut up about them lmao), The Lumineers, Fort Hope, PVRIS
8. Favourite Solo Artists: Taylor Swift, Atif Aslam, Arijit Singh, Riz Ahmed ( his album The Long Goodbye is SO GOOD)
9. Song stuck in my head: This years Love, David Gray
10. Last Movie: Howl's Moving Castle
11. Last Show: Umbrella Academy
12. When did I create this blog: February 2013, apparently. Wow.
13. What do I post: Literally anything. I have no system AT ALL
14: Last thing I googled: UCAS postgrad deadline
15. Other blogs: Nope. Wait no oh god this just reminded me of the time I wanted a blog but didn't know what tumblr was so I made this. Sigh. Also that website I made for a uni assignment in one of my creative writing modules where we had to make an author site or whatever. I can't even remember what that site is called.
16. Do I get asks: More now that I joined the Miraculous Writers Guild and made friends lol which is always fun. I love getting asks about my fics which has only happened a couple times but I always have to resist the urge to gush in my responses
17. Why I chose this URL: Just something my uncles called me when I was a kid and it's easy to remember
18. Following: 302
19. Followers: 442
20. Average hours of sleep: uh, I'd say I get around 5 hours in one go? idk my sleep schedule is whack so I usually go to sleep at 2 and then get up at 7 to pray, then go back to sleep until 10 so I get around 9 hours I guess.
21. Lucky number: I don't think I have one tbh
22. Instruments: I don't play anything but the first thing that came to my mind was harmonica so I'm sticking with it
23. What am i wearing: long sleeve sleep shirt and purple fleece pajama pants
24. Dream job: Author!
25. Dream Trip: I'd lOVE to go to Italy or Greece just to see all the historical sites. OR go on a eurail trip and go to all the places from DDLJ
26. Favourite Food: Aloo paratha, bhindi salan, lasagna
27. Nationality: British Pakistani
28. Favourite Songs: oooh, SO MANY let's see. She falls Asleep part 2/Down Goes Another One by McFly (I love this narrative bc the latter song was from the next album and from the POV of the guy mentioned in she falls asleep, a year later), Broken Crown Mumford and Sons, Plans, We are the Gods (Heritage), Dios Falso,Fort Hope, Change on the Rise, Avi Kaplan, Hey Brother, Avicii, Brother, Kodaline, Aaja, Swet Shop Boys, Deewangi, Sahir Ali Bagga,Tum Hi Ho, Yaar Berozgaar , Mere Rashke Qamar and honestly so many more lmao
29. Last book I read: Chime, by Franny Billingsley
30. Top Three fictional universes I'd like to live in: Storybrooke from OUAT-seems a pretty nice place if you're not a main character lol. ATLA and the Six of Crows/Grisha universe. I'd probably get robbed by Kaz in Ketterdam though bc I'm a little dumb. Maybe Ravka?
This was fun! I tag @theladyfae @apopcornkernel @omnishamblegreg @deinde-prandium @2manyfandoms2count and @sukker-sugar
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INCEPTIVERSARY 2020 IS COMING THIS JULY!
INCEPTI...WHAT?
Inceptiversary is our yearly celebration of Christopher Nolan’s Inception. Every year the fandom gets together to create and support fan work, discuss the film and meet like minded individuals to talk about all things Inception (and a lot of Inception-adjacent things.) The event runs on average 5-6 weeks and contains a multitude of events ranging from spreading positivity to competitive writing to collaborative fan works.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Inceptiversary starts Wednesday, July 1 and ends Sunday, August 9.
Many events have sign ups before July!
A master post with updated information to come in July.
On point this year is @usersoup and I’ll be handling stuff from @inceptioncentral with a few friendly faces.
BELOW THE CUT
How to stay up to date
Timeline (Tentative)
Theme Weeks
Confirmed events
Volunteering Prize Offers
General Housekeeping
Header commission by @zigster-ao3
HOW TO STAY UP TO DATE
+ COME CHITCHAT
Our fandom has two chat platforms you can join:
Inception Chat on Slack
You’re Waiting for a Train on Discord
To receive an invite to Slack, send us your email account at @inceptioncentral or alternatively please contact the Slack moderator @deinvatiwrites for more information.
For access to the Discord, please contact @queuebird.
+ FOLLOW BLOGS
@inceptiversary
@inceptioncentral
Individual event blogs (listed below)
+ TRACK TAGS
#inceptiversary — everything relating to inceptiversary
#inceptiversary2020 — everything relating to inceptiversary this year
#inception — everything related to the film, cast and fandom content
+ GOOGLE SOCIAL CALENDAR
https://bit.ly/inceptiversary2020
TIMELINE
Please note that there might be last-minute changes. All dates and events will be confirmed on the master post. This is the most recent timeline for this year’s Inceptiversary:
Week 1 — Wednesday July 1 until Sunday, July 5
Week 2 — Monday, July 6 until Sunday, July 12
Week 3 — Monday, July 13 until Sunday, July 19
Week 4 — Monday, July 20 until Sunday, July 26
Week 5 — Monday, July 27 until Sunday, August 2
Week 6 — Monday, August 3 until Sunday, August 9
THEME WEEKS
These are confirmed.
Week 1 — Inception (General)
Week 2 — Found Family
Week 3 — In Peril
Week 4 — Rare Pairs
Week 5 — Travel
Week 6 — Bon Appétit
CONFIRMED EVENTS
More information can be found via links and/or will be available closer to July. Please check in on the event blogs for more details, including any guidelines and participation restrictions.
Other events remain to be confirmed and the list will be finalised in the master post.
Please forward all event-specific questions to the appropriate blogs and/or organisers. Pay attention to signup deadlines!
+ 30 DAY CHALLENGE @inceptiversary / @flosculatory
The Inception 30 Day Challenge is 30 days of prompts about Inception. Everyone is invited to participate in as many days as they want and in any way they want, whether it be a photoset, original art, gifs, written word, or any other media. Prompts posted June 24th.
+ ARTHUR EAMES LAST DRABBLE WRITER STANDING @aeldws
Elimination drabble challenge. Sign-ups are first come, first serve, and there is limited room. Challenge usually runs seven or eight weeks, with one writer eliminated each week until a winner is announced. Each week drabbles are written according to Genre, Word Count, and Prompt, and writers have a week to submit their entry. Drabbles are voted on by the public and all entries are anonymous until a winner is decided. This event will run from July 3rd to August 21st. Sign ups on June 20th and 21st. Please check out @aeldws for more details.
+ #INCEPTIONAF @inceptionart
Artists are to create work for their favourite fanfics that match up with theme weeks and post said weeks.
+ INCEPTION BIG BANG @inceptionbigbang
This is an author and artist collaborative event where authors anonymously submit summaries of their stories (see guidelines) and artists can claim stories they’d like to create art for. Signups start soon! Works are due July 31st. Please check out @inceptionbigbang for more info.
+ INCEPTION BINGO @inceptionbingo
Participants sign up to receive a bingo card comprised of randomised tropes and/or kinks taken from a preset list, and will have to create work inspired by these, attempting to get a complete line for bingo. Cards range from 9-25 slots. Tropes and Kink Lists have not yet updated. Sign ups close June 30th.
+ INCEPTION BINGO WATCH PARTY @inceptionwatchparty / @zuulee63
This will take the place the weekend of July 18-19. Party time slots and participation information will be announced closer to the date. Participants join in on one of the multiple watch parties and try to get the fastest bingo. Cards must be requested in advance. More information to follow.
+ INCEPTION CHARITY AUCTION @inceptionauction
People donate fic, art, services, crafts etc. to raise money for a charity meaningful to our fandom. Please contact @corinnetags if you have something to put on offer. Auction will begin mid-July and run for a limited time. For more information please check out https://inception-auction.dreamwidth.org/
+ INCEPTION FANDOM FLUMMERY @inceptionficrx
Sign ups by June 29th to send and receive a virtual card from another fandom member with a short list of favourite fanworks.
+ INCEPTION FIC RX @inceptionficrx
Every week, according to the week themes, fan fiction recommendations are posted. Wednesdays are Hump Day Fic and Fridays are Bunker Fic Friday. Hump fics are to get you through the week. Fluff, Crack, Silly fics that make you smile. Bunk fics are one that make you need to go hide in your bunk for 'special time' after reading. Usually more explicit fics and straight up smut. Please check out @inceptionficrx for past and future recs.
+ INCEPTION FRIENDING MEME @flosculatory
The Inception Friending Meme is a form that fandom members can fill out with some information about themselves and their interests. Their info is then entered into a database that everyone can check, with the hope of finding friends with common interests! Forms currently being updated. Please check back for links on the Inceptiversary master post and follow @inceptiversary
+ INCEPTION KITTIES @inceptionkitties
More information coming soon. It’s cat-related!
+ INCEPTION POSITIVITY @inceptionpositivity
Inception Positivity is a place to send love and kind thoughts to Inception fandom friends anonymously and receive some love in turn. People submit kind messages via Google form and these are turned into colourful posts that are posted on the blog. Opens June 24th.
+ INCEPTION QUIZ
Test your knowledge from Monday, July 13 to Sunday, July 26! More information coming soon.
+ INCEPTION WATCH PARTIES @inceptionwatchparty
Watch party attendees queue up the same movie at a designated time, and message throughout. The schedule is planned beforehand but hosts sign up to run individual parties. Follow @inceptionwatchparty for updates and event planning surveys. Survey closes June 21st.
+ INCEPTION SOUNDHOUSE @inceptionsoundhouse
Musicians make covers of songs from the soundtrack and original works to be put in an EP. Sign ups open on 8th May and close on 29th May. People will share their contact details and how they would like to contribute to the album. There will also be listening parties for the soundtrack and actors' music, a playlist creation challenge and a small fic rec challenge.
+ MORE INFORMATION AND MORE EVENTS
There are events that have yet to be confirmed and which will be listed in the master post later in the year.
If you are a returning organiser or interested in launching a new event, please get in touch at @inceptioncentral.
Please join us on the chat platforms as there are other mini-events being discussed.
VOLUNTEERING PRIZE OFFERS
Many Inceptiversary events are competitive in nature and result in prizes for the winners. We turn to the fandom to donate fan work, services and crafts. We also have the @inceptionauction that features fanworks and services other fans can bid upon by making donations to charities.
Please fill out this form or contact us via @inceptioncentral or the event organisers for more information.
HOSTING WATCH PARTIES
Get in contact with @inceptionwatchparty if you are able to host a watch party. Keep an eye out for surveys about which films will be on offer and make sure you vote for your preferred time slots. Please note that streaming capability isn’t required to host!
GENERAL HOUSEKEEPING
Finally, here we are, readying ourselves for a very special 10 year anniversary of a movie that has had a huge impact on many of our lives. A lot of planning has and continues to go into this and we are always on the lookout for more hands on deck.
A few notes before we part:
@inceptioncentral will tentatively be posting weekly bulletins throughout July and part of August for Inceptiversary. These will have updates as to what is happening each week and will be tagged #inceptionbulletin for easy tracking.
Participation is voluntary. Certain events may contain or promote content that is unsuitable to minors, so please contact event organisers if you have any further questions about guidelines or participation restrictions.
We hope you join us this year, whether you’re returning to the fandom or new!
If you have any questions, please forward them to the organisers and/or get in touch @inceptioncentral.
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October 2020
Six Feet Under - Nightmares of the Decomposed
I wrote a full-length review of this disaster of an album earlier in the month, and yeah, wow. Between the phoned-in performances from the instrumentalists who have proven themselves far above this joke of a band and the half-assed production this would have been a pretty crappy album even without Chris Barnes’ milk-aged vocals. But he’s here, and he’s managed to actually get worse too, gasping his way through the whole album and littering it with these ludicrous “high” squeals that would make Smeagol sound like a more competent death metal vocalist. It’s the worst thing I’ve heard all year, and what’s worse, I don’t think Six Feet Under is stopping.
1/10
With that out of the way, let’s cleanse the pallet right away with some really good shit.
Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God
Ever reliable in his artistically integrity, explosive former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman, Greg Puciato, has been pretty sonically and artistically adventurous since the honorable dissolution of the iconic mathcore outfit, his most notable music project being the ethereal, synth-heavy The Black Queen. This year, however, Puciato has gone fully solo for a full-length project, and something told me to get ready for a wild ride, and boy was I right on that hunch. Borne out of an exponentiated process of songwriting that produced songs Puciato deemed unfitting for any of his current projects, what was planned as a small release to ship these songs out of the writing room eventually spiraled into a full-blown debut solo album clocking in at over an hour. A lot of solo projects play like clearly indulgent amateur hour sessions from an artist whose ego has been boosted pretty well from significant success from their main project, leading them to overconfidently try their hand at music they have no business trying it at. And it’s often approached under the understanding that it is a victory lap, more or less, and a satisfaction of creative impulses for the sake of it. Sometimes the resultant material is clearly inspired and showcases a side of an artist that certainly deserves some spotlight. Other times it feels like being trapped in an awkward situation with an acquaintance where they just show you all their newest pedals and production software and you’re just stuck there watching them fiddle around while you nod along and offer the occasional “wow, that’s pretty crazy” every now and then while they don’t pick up on the obvious cues that you are just waiting for them to finish playing with their toys. While Puciato was open about this album being borne from the very creatively borderless mindset that so often damns solo projects, Child Soldier: Creator of God is an actual realization of the type of grand, genre-spanning album that so many solo artists envision themselves making and set out to create, and it’s hardly a whimsical, amateurish crack at the styles within either. Puciato’s foray into sludge metal, industrial rock, harsh noise, darkwave, synthwave, and shoegaze, (1) makes for a hell of a dynamic and exciting track list, and (2) shows a much deeper than average respect for and relationship with the styles being played here. This isn’t some frontman thinking his charisma can carry him through a whole rap solo album; this is a well-rounded artist (also a hell of a frontman, no denying that) giving the most comprehensive look yet into his creative mind. The album leaps around in patches of different styles, strung together mostly by ambient connective tissue of various types, all with a great attention to detail paid to both texture and progression. We get early patches of smooth ambiance, but also aggressive industrial and sludge metal, eventually moving to more soothing and meditative synthy stuff around the middle, finishing with some serene, Have a Nice Life-esque shoegaze. But really there’s no way to sum up this album stylistically without breaking down every single song on here, and that would just ruin the fun and the experience. You really just have to experience it for yourself.
9/10
DevilDriver - Dealing with Demons I
Embarking on a conceptual double-album, Dez Fafara and DevilDriver’s first installment in the pair is a scoop of the, indeed, slightly above average, but unfortunately still plain and predictable modern groove metal they always offer up. I’ll give the band credit for keeping the pace up and clearly putting substantial energy into the performances on this album, while also trying to squeeze in a few shake-ups to their sound, like the clear Gojira-inspired riffage on the opening track. The album loses steam, unfortunately, as its punches lose their impact as it goes on.
6/10
Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment
While certainly cultivating a unique sound, Anaal Nathrakh’s unholy fusion of nasty modern blackened grindcore with sweeter metalcore and melodic death metal elements has its mixed results. And while that might at first sound like a relatively critical assessment of the Brits’ eleventh album, I’d say that there is actually a lot to enjoy and take in for at least the interesting mix of styles, most of which are hits rather than misses as well.
7/10
Enslaved - Utgard
Having been a fan of a good amount of their recent output, especially 2015’s In Times, I came out of Utgard moderately disappointed with how infrequently Enslaved galvanized their potent brand of Viking folky, progressive black metal effectively; the few moments the band do channel their strengths cohesively and purposefully left me wanting more rather than savoring those moments.
6/10
In Cauda Venenum - G.O.H.E.
It’s hard to, and indeed seems kind of in just to, sum up a heaping prog metal serving like G.O.H.E., comprised of two 22-minute halves, in a capsule review, but that is kind of the format my current busy circumstances have forced me into. French outfit In Cauda Venenum made a self-titled debut in similar two-long-track fashion back in 2015, and the band’s gothic and somewhat theatrical brand of atmospheric post-black-metal is continued on their sophomore effort here, drawing the obvious comparisons to Opeth and Katatonia, as well as Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Numenorean, and Sólstafir, and apart from the more frequent sample usage and extra drawn-out songs, there really isn’t that much to differentiate In Cauda Venenum stylistically. The band’s second album, unfortunately, resembles so many others in the field with big aspirations and the same inadequate means of getting there.
5/10
Apparition - Granular Transformation
A much more bite-sized early two-track offering, Apparition’s debut EP offers a more promising glimpse into a heady, atmospheric, yet still visceral manipulation of modern death metal that I would be curious to hear in a more long-form format. In a genre as extreme as death metal in recent years has been, finding artists effective at working with negative space can be difficult, but the two songs on Granular Transformation showcase a formidable dexterity from Apparition that I think can take them places.
6/10
Molasses - Through the Hollow
While indeed marred by some rough performances on songs with sometimes more desert to cross than water to make it there, there’s an undeniable occult hypnotism about the Dio-era-esque doom metal hollow that Molasses ritualize their way through.
7/10
Death Angel - Under Pressure
While certainly an odd choice on the surface, Death Angel’s acoustic EP and cover of the famous Queen song actually comes out pretty alright. The acoustic version of Act III’s “A Room with a View” comes off with the energy of something like Rush whenever they went acoustic, and the original acoustic cut, “Faded Remains” isn’t too bad either. The acoustic format did not, however, mask the drabness of “Revelation Song” from last year’s overall disappointment, Humanicide.
6/10
Necrophobic - Dawn of the Damned
The Swedes’ melodic brand of blackened death metal is nothing if not thorough on the quintet’s ninth full-length, Dawn of the Damned, covering all the ground that their fans expect their style to cover and doing so with more compositional and performative stamina than their average contemporary. While the band’s broader compositional approach is akin to the beating of a dead horse, I can’t deny it produces some tasty motifs in the process.
7/10
Bloodbather - Silence
After coming onto the blossoming metallic hardcore scene in 2018 with a standard, but potent enough 14-minute EP, Pressure, Bloodbather are back with another 14 minutes of similar, yet less promising material, doing little to set themselves apart from or on the same level of the likes of Jesus Piece, Vein, Knocked Loose, or Harm’s Way.
5/10
Infera Bruo - Rites of the Nameless
The Bostonians’ fourth full-length is, at the very least, a rather well-executed forty minutes of modern black metal a la Craft or Watain, but beneath the seams the band’s progressive tendencies twist what would otherwise be a fresh, but standard, slab of black metal into a more head-turning offering of the usual shrieks and blast beats.
7/10
Touché Amoré - Lament
While somewhat shaky in their compositional exploration in their fifth LP, the firmness of their emotive post-hardcore foundation allows for Touché Amoré to build upwards relatively steadily without losing that raw vulnerability that has made them so captivating to begin with.
7/10
Gargoyl - Gargoyl
This is the self-titled debut from Bostonian four-piece Gargoyl; a novel blend of dirty nineties grunge and gothic prog metal, Gargoyl come through with one of the more impressive genre fusions of the year, meeting the lofty sufficiency for dexterity with excessive vocal harmonies in a manner so uncanny that would make habe to Layne Stayley proud. While there is the expected room for improvement on the compositional end that many debut projects come with, Gargoyl have laid the groundwork for themselves fantastically and started off on a good foot.
7/10
Crippled Black Phoenix - Ellengæst
Through creative gothic flair and full-bodied guest vocal contributions that bolster the somber atmosphere beyond the typical post-metal album, the UK band’s most recent offering of “endtime ballads”, despite its few low points that undo its otherwise immersive atmosphere, serves as one of the more engaging releases under the broader post-metal umbrella of the past year.
7/10
Wayfarer - A Romance with Violence
The Denver-based quartet follow up 2018’s strong emotive case for the potential for evoking cathartic power of the atmospheric black metal which has so saturated the American scene to the point of numbness, their Americana-tinged third LP, World’s Blood, unfortunately, with a fourth LP whose compositional homogeneity and mere few intermittent bursts of enthralling atmospheric instrumentation more represent, rather than advocate the merit of, the saturation of the American atmospheric black metal scene.
6/10
Armored Saint - Punching the Sky
Though I think the structural homogeneity and John Bush’s similarly limited vocal delivery holds it back, with crunchy bangers like “Do Wrong to None” and “My Jurisdiction” alongside more tempered tracks the clearly grunge-influenced “Lone Wolf”, Bush and company provide a relatively stylistically diverse traditional heavy metal album for an age that could use more contemporary representation of classic styles (beyond the entire stoner metal genre LARPing as Black Sabbath too).
7/10
Spirit Adrift - Enlightened in Eternity
But it's not just the old guard representing their era of classic heavy metal robustly; a year and a half after their energetically melodic third album, Divided by Darkness, which took a triumphant melodic approach to classic heavy metal and doom metal similar to that of Khemmis on their excellent third album, Spirit Adrift ease up a bit on the hyper-soulful approach to guitar melody that had led me (and others I'm sure) to draw the comparison to Khemmis, and instead dive deeper into the headspace of the genre's earliest progenitors to achieve that unabashedly glorious rallying cry that is evoked by the very front cover of Enlightened in Eternity. While I am personally pretty partial to the very vulnerable and heartfelt melodic approach that characterized Divided by Darkness, the effectiveness with which Spirit Adrift are able to wield the sometimes Maiden-esque, sometimes Testament-esque sounds of the 80’s on this album is undeniably impressive.
8/10
Fever 333 - Wrong Generation
Providing the correction to this generation’s answer to Rage Against the Machine (after Prophets of Rage’s insufficient attempted revival) Fever 333 follow up last year’s debut of heavy, fired-up and modern take on rapcore with another 14 minutes of righteous anti-racist hardcore anger that’s attuned to the issues to a level that I wish more artists would at least express in their art. While the EP is 18 minutes long, the last two songs, “The Last Time” and “Supremacy”, don’t match the sonic energy of the first six tracks. The somber piano-led snippet-length ballad, “The Last Time”, should have been the conclusion of the album, but the closing track, “Supremacy”, while as conscious as the tracks before it, is basically a late-stage formulaic Linkin Park track that flatters neither of the two bands. Despite botching the landing though, Wrong Generation is a ripping batch of songs that well represent the current unrest and provide a positive hypothetical idea of what it might be like if Rage Against the Machine were in their prime and active today.
7/10
Mörk Gryning - Hinsides Vrede
The Swedes return from their 15-year disillusioned absence from the studio with a concise and clearly renewed enthusiasm for the energetic black metal that they put forth on Hinsides Vrede. Dynamically bolstered by folk-metal compositional tendencies and more than a dash of that famed Gothenburg melodicism (I know they’re from Stockholm and in fact their melodic approach often does heaven to that of their close neighbors from Uppsala, Watain), Mörk Gryning’s seamless return to music finds them jumping into the modern black metal scene’s advanced compositional rubric with relative ease.
7/10
Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation
Having covered their output since their debut and being a big fan of Manuel Gagneux’ project, it pains me to say, especially given the noble pretext and occasional momentary flashes of sobering messaging, that this six-song mini release really doesn’t capture the unique sonic pallet that has made Zeal & Ardor such an interesting act to listen to for the past few years in the most flattering light. The title track is possibly the least of the offenders here, but all the songs here function by taking a little snippet of sound that samples Zeal & Ardor’s broader stylistic range, and drawing it out across these short, but all too minimally composed tracks in such a way that they lose their momentum very quickly. Like I said, I wholeheartedly appreciate, sympathize with, and support what Manuel Gagneux is doing to lend his band’s platform to the addressing of the dire issue of today’s racism through musical means with this project, and when its social motivation is at the forefront, it’s at its most potent, but musically, unfortunately, it’s just desperately underwritten in a way that doesn’t fairly represent how accomplished Zeal & Ardor really are with their sound.
5/10
Sevendust - Blood & Stone
The flashes of crushing grooves reminiscent of their earlier work on Blood & Stone that highlight how well Sevendust can harness nu/alternative metal to execute pummeling attacks with the right crunchy guitar tone, unfortunately, don’t come frequently enough on their twelfth LP to mirage the exhaustion that has come of the band’s writing process after such frequent, unrelenting output and the all too apparent desperate need for a recalibrating, refreshing break, which they certainly deserve for their tenacity.
5/10
Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind
In one of those cases where the ridiculously gratuitous album cover actually represents the album’s sound quite well, Rochester, New York five-piece, Undeath mince neither words nor sounds on their debut LP in their 100% upfront, no-nonsense, and wonderfully nasty delivery of death metal. Eschewing even the slightest sense of snobbery or pretense for aimless ambition, the band simply compile the genre’s tried and true elements of bellowing growls, filthy riffs, mean-ass down-tuned chugging, and blood-pumping double-bass with blast beats into an addictive slab of raw, uncured death metal that serves as a testament to the merit of not overthinking shit.
8/10
Griffon - Ὸ Θεός Ὸ Βασιλεύς
On their sophomore LP, Parisian quintet Griffon channel the world innovative ethos that has become rather prominent in their scene into a somewhat short, but definitely sweet offering of modestly ambitious black metal that captures much more effectively than most albums of similar style and lesser imagination, the divine grandeur that the genre so often tries and fails to embody.
8/10
Bring Me the Horizon - Post-Human: Survival Horror
After taking the hard left into current pop music trends very transparently on their controversial, which was at least partially intentional on their part, and ultimately really patchy, but not wholly awful, 2019 album, amo, Oli Sykes and co. walk it back substantially for this smaller release here, back to That's the Spirit, even Sempiternal, a prospect that might get a lot of the band's more long-time, metalcore-centric fans excited, but I would suggest those fans temper their expectations of Post-Human: Survival Horror. The band reunite with the anthemic metalcore/deathcore that put them on the map for a good chunk of this album, and the intro track, "Dear Diary,", might even give some false hope of the prodigal sons returning home. But songs like the cookie-cutter single, "Teardrops", provide strong evidence that, while the band have re-embraced their old aesthetic, they have not kicked the pop vocal or compositional habits. And the project really does run out of energy in its final third because of this compositional homogeneity. I do want to highlight the song, "Kingslayer", which features a very in-form Babymetal (I loved their album last year), because their fun, not-so-serious approach to the crossing of J-pop and metal music in their feature on this track among the other songs around it provides a contrast to the more formulaic, disinterested radio pop swagger that Bring Me the Horizon have been trying to jam into their sound that could perhaps inform Bring Me the Horizon's artistic approach to integrating pop music if they really are so hellbent on doing so. Ultimately though, as much as they want to move into newer territory, this trajectory-revising release shows just how much more solid Bring Me the Horizon are in their metalcore territory than they were on amo. It had its predictable hiccups, but this thing wasn't too bad.
7/10
Pallbearer - Forgotten Days
With the slow, sludgy, down-tuned riffing of the menacing opening title track and the similar chug of “Vengeance & Ruination” being the sole exceptions, the remainder of Pallbearer’s fouth full-length largely sees them operating in the same niche they have in their three previous albums. And while this could invoke accusations of playing it safe, the brimming heartfelt sorrow and resistance to succumbing to despair across Forgotten Days is enough to wave that away, as Pallbearer showcase just how emotive doom metal can be.
8/10
Bleeding Out - Lifelong Death Fantasy
The very new act and fresh Profound Lore signing, Bleeding Out, certainly display more dynamic capability than your average local grindcore scene’s biggest names here on their 18-minute debut for the label, but as of now it is still just a glimpse of potential for more effective future implementation. It’s a good start, though, and I’ll be looking forward to a more long-form project from these guys.
6/10
Evildead - United States of Anarchy
Every year we get the resurrection of some long-inactive old-school band who seem to have found that missing spark at last; we’ve seen the return of smaller bands to the studio like Angel Witch or Sorcerer and long-awaited revivals of iconic acts like Possessed. This year, Los Angeles’ Evildead has seen fit to make their commentary on the massive ongoing sociopolitical upheaval. Despite my love for the 80’s thrash scene they were born out of, the combination of the utterly lame band name, logo, and covers for either their ‘89 or ‘91 albums never really made me want to check them out, but seeing the horridly cheesy and incoherent cover of United States of Anarchy (I mean how much more on-the-nose can you get), my morbid curiosity got the best of me. Maybe I’d be wrong to have judged them by their cover, plenty of my favorite 80’s albums have particularly goofy cover art. So what do we get from Evildead in 2020 with this fucking album? Well, it’s not as poorly performed as the past few Anvil albums I’ve had to review have been, but Jesus the lyricism is similarly cheesy 5th-grade-level stuff and smacks of silly political incoherence that essentially boils down to “enlightened centrism” with mix of that good ol’ Illuminati-conspiracy-theory belief that no political thrash album is apparently complete without. I mean there’s just basic acknowledgment of the prominent problems of the day and the fact that both major political parties are bad and that corruption is rampant all throughout DC, but Evildead not only barely scratch the surface, they apply the same level cynicism to the “both sides” they criticize with no substantiation to their criticism despite that mindset being a big reason for our being where we are right now, mixed in with the occasional conspiracy-paranoia about the shadowy underworld running everything, so no real solutions or even proper addressing of these problems. Like, the same level of criticism is levied at right-wingers and communists, like communists are at all why this country has gone to shit. And the generic Anthrax/Megadeth type of thrash instrumentation, while rumbly and mixed well to highlight its bass heaviness, doesn’t exactly make it easy to get past the commentary deficiencies on here.
4/10
Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full
Rounding off their year (at least I think), with a long-teased collaboration with Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou finally present their massive sludge-doom sound in a much more flattering light than the previous cover albums this year did. Thou's original material continues to highlight just why their relatively stiff sound is much more cut out for that, original material, than for trying to bend beyond its flexibility to tribute grunge songs. And while Thou being back in their more effective department, Emma Ruth Rundle's contributions, beyond just her gorgeous and ethereally haunting vocals, to the album's atmosphere, dynamic, and structuring really take the collaboration to the next level. Not to say that Thou are completely overshadowed and relegated to the background on this record or that they don't contribute to a fair share of the legwork here; the workload is shared pretty equally, and both collaborators have their moments of prominence, but Emma Ruth Rundle's ever-present gothic/folky influence really directs the music in a way that plays to Thou's strengths in a way I'm not sure they would have been able to on their own. It's great work from both of them, and I'd be eager to hear Thou find more collaborations like this in the future that push them into doing more interesting things with their crushing doom sound, as opposed to the rather tepid collaborations with The Body.
8/10
Auðn - Vökudraumsins Fangi
Sadly, three albums in, Auðn have only barely exceeded the bare minimum for naturalistic atmospheric black metal, with no signs of significant improvement to be found. The Icelandic band earn points for their earnest delivery, but they never seem to fully make it out of the rut that the genre’s many contemporary acts have dug.
5/10
Botanist - Photosynthesis
The black metal traditionalists might have had to accept that the floodgates to bright ambience and serene shoegaze in the genre have been opened and that there's no going back now, but even as an avid Deafheaven fan, I'm sometimes momentarily surprised at just how heavenly some black metal has gotten lately, and this new album from Botanist is one of those albums. And while it sometimes slips into some of the current wave's typical ruts, the sheer blindingly illuminating aura of this album when it reaches those high points (and it does so frequently) is enough to pull it out from those gutters and high into the cosmos. Yeah, another splendid offering of nature worship from Botanist.
8/10
Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo
Making their return after over a decade, Mike Patton recruits both Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian for the long-awaited fourth Mr. Bungle album, which is titled in homage to the first Mr. Bungle demo which it is comprised largely of much clearer re-recordings of. Ever impressive, Mike Patton balances aggression and eccentricity like a tightrope walker on this project too, while his bandmates do the same with thrash metal’s natural adrenaline rush while pushing the genre into new compositional and stylistic territory without sacrificing that crucial whiplash. It’s a great time, and definitely one of the year’s best thrash albums.
8/10
Carcass - Despicable
While they've been much less prolific since their reboot than they were prior, Liverpool's melodic death metal pioneers simply continue to demonstrate their excellence in this seemingly effortless four-track appetizer to next year's Torn Arteries. Anyone familiar with the band's brutal form of melodic death metal will certainly be pleased with the four quite sufficiently pulverizing cuts here; those who may only be familiar with some of the band's many less muscular imitators might be surprised, and pleasantly so, with the Englanders' ability to lay on the infectious guitar melody without sacrificing an ounce of force.
8/10
#metal#heavy metal#death metal#black metal#deathcore#sludge metal#post metal#new album#album review#new music#thrash metal#blackened death metal#blackgaze#experimental metal#mathcore#doom metal#stoner metal#groove metal
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ALBUM REVIEW- Perception
“Think your own thoughts, don't let them do it for you/ Say you want a drink, don't wait for people to pour it on you/ Cut out the liars, stay close to people you know are loyal/ Grab your own glass and fill it, don't let your fear destroy you”
Up until NF’s 2021 Mixtape CLOUDS, I had never really heard of nor listened to NF. I only heard one comment on him: he’s a wannabe Eminem. 1 hour later, after listening to his 3rd album Perception, I can confidently say NF is not a knockoff or wannabe Eminem. NF is definitely in his own lane. Now, is this lane good?
In short...no.
Perception, his most popular album on Spotify and host of three of his most popular songs in his discography, is a melodramatic, unnecessarily intense, underwhelming project. NF drudges his way through this project with little lyrical versatility and bland concepts. Although there are a few bright spots about this project, it’s not middle of the road: neither excellent nor awful. This project was difficult to get through.
But first, there are some aspects I enjoyed about this project. First, the production is excellent. The grand instrumentals, beat evolutions, and sudden changes from quiet to fortississimo are constructed flawlessly. NF and his production team deserve praise for the sound of this record.
Secondly, NF’s singing is very good. The bright spots on this project all came from NF was singing with raw emotion and storytelling. It was a breath of fresh air after intense, overly-dramatic tracks to get a deep cutting track that focused on his singing.
Unfortunately, the bright spots on this record do not compensate for the major flaws of this record that make it unlistenable at times. NF’s melodramatic approach to most of his songs directly counter his boasting songs. I can’t take you seriously when you brag about yourself when you spent the past 10 minutes crying on the mic, yelling about vague opposition you’ve faced in your life.
And the vagueness of his whining play into this weakness. I cannot relate to your emotional outbursts because you just describe people generally not believing in you. But as a top 10 streamed hip hop artist, who exactly are the people doubting you to to the point you feel this outrage. NF has 15 million monthly streams on Spotify and has almost a billion streams for his hit “Let You Down”. The emotional outcry doesn’t match NF’s narrative, which makes the listening experience that much worse.
NF reminds me of late 2010s Eminem who makes projects targeting his competition and opposition, but generally doesn’t face any. Despite some people not liking your music, you still have massive success. Complaining about people not believing in you after you’ve already succeeded gives off an aura of insecurity. And listening to an insecure artist pretend to be confident through unimaginative lyrics and identical-sounding songs is a bore.
NF’s lyricism can be described as very face-value. He’s not leaving any lyric up to analysis. If he’s stressed, he will say “I am stressed”. Over an over again. Compare to other artists like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar, who create projects people analyze years later. NF’s albums are like listening to a brief summary of a complex emotion and mind state.
Overall, this was a pretty below average listening experience. His singing is good though; if he genre shifted I think he will be playing to his strengths more. Perception just greatly missed the mark on what he describes as this deep emotional journey into his darkest thoughts and sides. Instead, it’s bland, repetitive, and simply underwhelming.
Top 3 Tracks:
1) Dreams
2) Remember This
3) Lie
Overall Grade: F
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My Top 88 Songs Of 2020
Previously: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
Though we couldn’t get as trim as last year’s 75, still very happy to keep this under 100 for the second year in a row. This was a very difficult year in many ways, but music helped make it more bearable.
As always, criteria and info:
This is a list of what I personally like, not ones I’m saying are the “best” from the year; more subjective than objective
No artist is featured more than once
If it comes down to choosing between two songs, I try to give more weight to a single or featured track
Each song on the list is linked in the title if you wanna check them out for yourself; there is also a Spotify playlist at the bottom that includes the majority of the songs
Usually a pump up video goes here, but 2020 had a different energy, so Michael, take us in.
88) Katy Perry - “Smile”
Even Katy Perry’s good songs are a swirling spiral of maxed out auto-tune. This one is just fine. It’s... fine.
87) All Time Low - “Trouble Is...”
Is All Time Low the Katy Perry of pop punk?
86) Tee Grizzley f/ Payroll Giovanni - “Payroll”
I have never heard of Payroll Giovanni, but I have two questions:
1) Is this his song, and he got Tee to jump on it?
2) Or, did Tee write a song called “Payroll” and think to himself “You know who would be great on this? Payroll Giovanni!”
Favorite stretch:
Listen, we is not the same, you say "door", I say "dough"
You say "floor", I say "flow", you say "for sure", I say "fa'sho"
85) Lady Gaga & Ariana Grande - “Rain On Me”
Coming out in 2020 probably hurt this song, because I have no, like, out of the house memories with it. You can only have so much fun with Big Singers Singing over a pulsing beat when it’s coming from the phone in your kitchen as you’re indifferently scrambling eggs.
84) Benjamin Gibbard - “Life In Quarantine”
Now this is a song you can do nothing to; almost feels like it’s reluctant to even exist. It got released in March of 2020, so the outro (“No one is going anywhere soon”) served as a too sad reminder/mantra for what the year was about to be. Second shout out to Gibbard for the many YouTube sets he put together during the early stages of the pandemic (when so many of his peers were trying to figure out the next move).
83) Cardi B f/ Megan Thee Stallion - “WAP”
This felt less like a song and more of a “whoa, did you see the music video?!” and/or a means to relitigate the eternal question “What is the sexual line in music?” And while it was fun to watch people freak the fuck out... the quality itself really needed to be better.
(Note: YouTube video is the edited chorus; explicit version here)
82) McKayla Maroney - “Wake Up Call”
Former Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney -- of medals and memes fame -- dips her toe into the music waters. It’s inside-the-box modern pop music. One thing that’s hard to escape: it doesn’t really sound like her.
81) Chelsea Cutler - “Sad Tonight”
He vocals really remind me of Alessia Cara.
80) blink-182 - “Quarantine”
Blink doing a Bad Religion impression. Docked a few points for the very weak chorus lyrics (“Quarantine, fuck this disease”). That said, as serious as the song comes off, there are some clever punchlines to be found.
79) Dave Hause & Brian Fallon - “Long Ride Home”
This is kind of a nothing song, but it’s easy listening. Also, if your guitar leads can’t clear the “Could Bobby have written or performed this?” bar, then said leads are probably pretty weak.
78) Travis Scott & Kid Cudi - “THE SCOTTS”
Two artists who pair so well together, it’s hard to tell who exudes more influence on the track (eh, that’s not true, it’s Travis Scott, but Kid Cudi is more of a roommate than guest). They want you to be high by the time the instrumental outro hits.
77) The Strokes - “Bad Decisions”
The beginning sound feels somewhat evolved, but by the time Julian Casablancas croons “Making bad decisions”, the song feels like it could be on their debut album “Is This It?”. And it goes in and out like that from there.
76) Thundercat - “Dragonball Durag”
Thundercat is one of those artists I wish I liked more, but when the occasional track does hit, it’s a momentary glimpse into what real fans seem to always see.
75) TI f/ Lil Baby - “Pardon”
Standard fare. Lil Baby’s cameo is very meh.
74) Porches - “Do U Wanna”
For a song that repeatedly asks “Do you want to dance?”, it sure makes you feel like you’re moving in slow motion.
73) NOFX - “Thatcher Fucked The Kids”
On the best-named album of the year (“West Coast vs. Wessex”), Frank Turner and NOFX cover each other’s material. To start us off, the legends take a song from 12 years ago about British politics from 40 years ago and, well, very easily apply it to right god damn now in America.
72) The Bombpops - “Dearly Departed”
Ahh, my year’s first cancelled concert. The listed names in V1 always make me want to skip this song -- but patience, grasshopper. Chorus is aight.
71) Ratboys - “Alien With A Sleep Mask On”
This band name will never match what the music sounds like.
70) Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever - “She’s There”
The vocals in this song channel, like, four completely different singers for me, ranging from Bob Dylan to Cloud Nothings.
69) NOBRO - “Don’t Die”
An anthemic chorus meant to be belted in a room with sweaty strangers.
68) Oliver Tree f/ blink-182 - “Let Me Down”
The original solo version of this song is 1:52, and though the blink cameo pushes it over the dreaded two minute mark, it adds enough diversity to justify the choice (keep an eye out for the quick Green Day lyrical nod in the back half).
67) AJJ - “Normalization Blues”
This dropped in January, and if you thought the year was bad then. Punk News:
I'll admit I do want the album to age badly because I really don't want to have to listen to it years later and still say this is the world we're living in.
Said album being titled “Good Luck Everybody” is straight cryptic.
66) Selena Gomez - “Rare”
Very chill for big pop; triplet rhythm singing in the chorus gets me erry time.
65) Kid Cudi & Eminem - “The Adventures Of Moon Man & Slim Shady”
Cudi’s second split collab yields bigger results than his Travis Scott joint (admittedly with a worse beat here). It rarely ever hurts to let Eminem do the heavy lifting.
64) Alkaline Trio - “Smokestack”
A little cheerier than the average Alk3 song, but Dan Andriano seems like he’s been in a great place for a long time now; confident and in control. For me, the whole song builds up to the “You changed my life” chorus.
63) Frank Turner - “Scavenger Type”
Here, Frank takes on the acoustic closer to NOFX’s legendary 1994 album “Punk In Drublic”. Though the energy boost is most noticeable, my favorite part is how you can hear how much Turner loves this song as his melody bursts on the verses.
62) Mike Posner - “Alone In A Mansion”
Mike Posner, an artist I have a very soft spot for, released a storytelling concept album in 2020. From the intro track:
This album was written, recorded, and produced over a period of two weeks in Detroit, Michigan in my parents' basement.
It's meant to be listened to all the way through. At least on the first listen. And it's about 36 minutes long.
If you can't devote 36 minutes of undivided attention to this album, I again politely ask that you turn it off and return at a later time.
I love you and I thank you for taking the time to listen in the first place.
Also, it's important to note that the characters and the stories in this album are completely fictional. In addition, anyone struggling with a mental illness - depression, schizophrenia - should not listen to this album. Turn it off.
So those are the stakes. Pulling this song -- the record’s closer -- feels unfair void of context, but them’s the breaks.
61) Nada Surf - “Just Wait”
Heavy hitting chorus without having to be heavy; this could really work in a movie.
60) Matt Pond PA - “Wild Heart”
This having only 805 views on YouTube is criminal.
59) Liquid Death - “Unnecessary And Unimpressive”
Liquid Death -- in this iteration -- is a punk rock supergroup with members of Rise Against, Anti-Flag, The Lawrence Arms, and The Bombpops. If that didn’t interest you enough, all lyrics in the project (which, I believe, is for charity) come from hateful comments or negative reviews. Of the four artists involved, this sounds most like a Bombpops song, with Jen on lead vocals as others chime in.
58) PUP - “Rot”
Off my silver medalist for album name of the year (“This Place Sucks Ass”), PUP doesn’t do anything new here, but it was relieving to see them still going in 2020 when so many others got roadblocked, both physically and creatively.
57) Paul Harrold and the Nuclear Bandits - “Massanutten”
This reminds me of local Chicago artist Al Scorch. So much earnestness in the vocals, but a little more prairie for Harrold compared to speakeasy for Scorch. This would be a good road trip song. And I’m not talking about singalong... more for the stretch where you want to sit in silence and look out at the sun-kissed land blazing by. The song’s greatest victory is getting me to like something that cracks 6:00.
Note to future me: Massanutten is in Virginia (saved you a Google).
56) Kesha f/ Sturgill Simpson, Brian Wilson & Wrabel - “Resentment”
Kesha has been vulnerable in the past but never this stripped down sonically; the chorus would feel right at home on a country radio station. Love a good bridge, too.
55) Megan Thee Stallion f/ Beyoncé - “Savage (Remix)”
An up-and-comer pairing with a legend rarely lets down when both sides are this locked in. Bey wins. Fav line: “If you don't jump to put jeans on, baby, you don't feel my pain”.
She matches flows with Megan but also brings melody. Her blessing takes this song from pretty damn good to undeniably great.
That beat, too.
54) Red City Radio - “Baby Of The Year”
If all you want to do right now is grab a drink in a bar, here is a video built to troll.
(Also: a Liquid Death cameo?!)
53) Nathaniel Rateliff - “And It’s Still Alright”
The last time Mr. Rateliff had our attention, he just wanted a drink. That hit had a chorus with the very-sad-when-removed-from-the-song “If I can't get clean, I'm gonna drink my life away” lyric. Well, our man got sober since. And when the party is over, the introspection comes.
52) Direct Hit! - “HAVE YOU SEEN IT?”
Listening to slowed down Direct Hit! is like watching Usain Bolt lightly jog. It kinda makes sense because the core action is there, but it also feels sort of incorrect.
51) Hayley Williams - “Dead Horse”
Solo Hayley songs have this feel like they could do anything at any time... but then don’t. This one does the same until a very fun chorus breaks it up.
50) Kid Cudi f/ Phoebe Bridgers - “Lovin’ Me”
Probably the most improbable collab on this list (if 2020 hadn’t repeatedly taught us to not be surprised by anything).
49) The Homeless Gospel Choir - “Don’t Compare”
Listening to The Homeless Gospel Choir is kind of like getting a dedicated pep talk from a good friend... while fire rains down from the sky.
48) Carly Rae Jepsen - “Let’s Sort The Whole Thing Out”
Queen vocals with one prince of a tempo; this chorus is Sour Patch Kids riding Twix logs down a soda pop waterfall -- and it’s a b-side.
47) Green Day - “Meet Me On The Roof”
I like this song because it reminds me of summer and because it doesn’t really sound like Green Day (but still totally does).
46) Broadway Calls - “Meet Me On The Moon”
Promise -- swear -- I was gonna compare this Broadway Calls song to Green Day before realizing they both had titles about meeting in an escalated location. That said, I did put them next together on purpose to more coherently make this point.
45) David Rokos - “Building Bridges”
My buddy Dave wrote this song, and I think I’ve asked him three times what “burning sugar” meant (he says it’s a reference to absinthe). This song will make you want to travel to enjoy not only the places but the people around you.
44) Charli XCX - “claws”
Charli XCX keeps it futuristic in a video that could be described as sexy, cheesy, goofy, and playful-yet-serious.
43) Brian Fallon - “Lonely For You Only”
This is too easy and should not work (and maybe doesn’t). But that chorus... that circular phrasing... it still takes me all the way out. But I’m the same cat who proposed while a Gaslight Anthem cover was playing.
42) Waxahatchee - “Fire”
This song could be in a different language and hit just as hard.
41) Harry Styles - “Adore You”
Purifying pop.
40) Local H - “Hold That Thought”
Hardest rock song thus far. Local H was one of the first artists to play “live” once the lockdown hit (on a simultaneous YouTube/Facebook stream), and watching them attack music in their Chicago practice bunker felt a little bit like taking in the end of the world. New songs, old songs, covers -- it didn’t matter; their cool, unmatched apathy fits a pandemic or peacetime.
Ironically, was able to see them live in 2020, as they played a socially distanced, outdoor drive up concert in a minor league baseball parking lot. It wasn’t the same, but it was still something.
39) Crazy & The Brains - “I Don’t Deliver Pizza Anymore”
This song is just cool*. The verses feel tense and crucial, it starts to unspool in the pre-chorus, and the chorus itself feels like a light comedown more than anything else.
(* - though the lyric video is docked some points for spelling y’all as “ya’ll”)
38) Drake f/ Fivio Foreign & Sosa Geek - “Demons”
Menacing Drizzy can be very fun from time to time. Also more than happy to keep “Toosie Slide” very far away from this list.
37) Hey Dad!!! - “Life’s Alright”
Small band, big song; though summer feels light-years away.
36) insignificant other - “i’m so glad i feel this way about you”
This song lands a big haymaker in the first few seconds, so it was probably a good call to pull back some for the chorus and, eventually, outro.
35) BTS - “Dynamite”
Heard they made the lyrics bad on purpose for their English hit, which makes sense, because they’re bad. That said, if you listen knowing they’re supposed to be bad, it kinda makes them... good? Listen, 771 million views would have me singing nursery rhymes in Pig Latin.
34) DaBaby f/ RODDY RICCH - “ROCKSTAR”
Someone said this could be the song of the summer, but, because there wasn’t really a summer, I feel like I only heard it once all year. Also, are we really pretending Post Malone* didn’t just do a “like a rockstar” song three years ago?
(* - and N.E.R.D. before that and Cypress Hill before that... though N.E.R.D. only waiting a year after Cypress, so maybe DaBaby actually was patient)
33) The Front Bottoms - “the hard way”
Don’t take it easy on the animal / I am the animal
Not quite sure what this line means, but I fixate on the phrasing every single time. This song sounds resigned in a very self-aware way.
32) The 1975 - “If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)”
For a band called The 1975, they sure sound like they’re on their ‘80s shit here. Also, a real thing that happened:
Me: Is he coercing her to get naked?! I thought this band was woke.
/scans lyrics
/notices “She said” before the “Maybe I would like you better if you took off your clothes” line
Me: Ahh.
Sax solo, take us out.
31) Charly Bliss & PUP - “It’s Christmas And I Fucking Miss You”
A song that is already a forever staple on all my future Xmas playlists.
30) 2 Chainz f/ Ty Dolla $ign & Lil Duval - “Can’t Go For That”
Shorty said she love me / I said “I love me back”
This is a real genre blur; rap at its core, but also soulful, funky, and very danceable. Damn creative.
29) Billie Eilish - “Therefore I Am”
Billie's 2020 gave a few singles -- but no new album -- and a body shaming scandal where the backlash to the backlash probably caused more headlines than the tweet that started it all. Still, she stays on cruise control above the clouds; can all eyes be on you if they can’t even make you out?
Video for this is fun, too. Not sure if her running amok in an empty mall is more of a COVID necessity or commentary on the dying retail industry. As always with her, fill in your own blanks for now.
28) Future f/ Drake - “Life Is Good”
This was my most listened to rap song in the first half of the year, and bumping again now, almost forgot how good it is. Drake just chasing one-liner Instagram captions in the first half:
- “Haven’t done my taxes, I’m too turnt up”
- “N****s caught me slipping once, OK, so what?”
- “B****, this is fame not clout, I don’t even know what that’s about”
And, of course, “Workin’ on the weekend like usual”. The man could make anything glamorous. Let’s hit that H&R Block, bro!
Future’s back half is a totally different song and feels mostly like noise, but the vibe is cool, so I don’t even totally mean that in a bad way. You can even make out a “Got Promethazine in my blood and Percocet” lyric to mark your Future bingo card and immediately move on.
27) I’m Glad It’s You - “The Silver Cord”
This song feels like cold air blowing on the back of your neck.
(Sidebar: thought this band was called The Silver Cord until literally right now)
26) The Spill Canvas - “Mercy”
A dreamy, distorted, at-home version of whatever you remember The Spill Canvas sounding like. This song is confessional and at peace, with the Grade A self-loathing we’ve come to love from this band.
25) 100 gecs f/ Charli XCX, Rico Nasty & Kero Kero Bonito - “ringtone (remix)”
100 gecs first hit my radar with the explosively obnoxious “money machine”, but that’s a 2019er, so this remix to “ringtone” will have to do. It’s catchy like a younger sibling persistently singing a song you’re sick of hearing*.
(* - /only child trying to work in sibling analogies)
24) iann dior f/ Machine Gun Kelly & Travis Barker - “Sick And Tired”
Iann Dior -- ...yeah -- channels Juice WRLD on the hook, and MGK/Travis Barker buoy a track that, honestly, doesn’t really even need the help.
23) Nick Lutsko - “Unleash Your Spirit”
Lutsko hit my radar on Twitter with some legendary political anthems (word to the RNC and Dan Bongino + his Dashboard Trump parody). “Unleash Your Spirit” is the song I most fear hearing (or even thinking of) within a few minutes of going to bed. Not because it’s Halloween theme is scary -- because it’s that god damn catchy. It permeates your brain. True story: a week ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with “Bobbing for apples with the boys” so ingrained in my head, it felt like someone was standing there yelling it through a megaphone.
22) Dogleg - “Kawasaki Backflip”
Bad 2020 robbed many concerts from us, and not getting to see this band live might take the cake. I end the year liking them but could have been *all in* with the right performance and the right venue. Also, Song Title of the Year until further notice.
21) Eminem f/ Juice WRLD - “Godzilla”
Eminem has all of the words and all of the lyrical dexterity, but sometimes it feels like there isn’t anything to ground him. Enter: one of the best beats he’s ever spit on and a Juice WRLD hook to give it pop angle. But let’s not put Slim in the corner -- when he starts accelerating at the end, it’s is a true “holy fuck” moment. It sounds faster than if you actually fast forwarded.
The video ends with a touching audio message from Juice WRLD.
20) Soccer Mommy - “circle the drain”
This song is so gloriously ‘90s; it leans in and does not care.
19) Sam Russo - “Always Lost”
The first time I met you, we were on the last bus
You passed me a bottle, and I knew you were one of us
Took 25 words to hook me; I was txting friends before the first chorus even hit.
18) Sincere Engineer - “Trust Me”
Deanna Belos pushes her vocals in this one. I asked about the performance, and she said it was one of the first ones they recorded in the studio, but when they were done and listening back to everything, she re-did this track because her throat was much more used to what the song required.
“That’s why it sounds like I’m on roids lol,” she added.
17) Jay Electronica f/ JAY-Z - “Flux Capacitor”
Jay Electronica signed to Roc Nation in November of 2010. At of the start of 2020, he had still -- STILL HOW FUCKING STILL -- not released a debut album. When he announced it was finally dropping in February, it was met with skeptic eyes. He’d “announced” before. Shit, he’d even posted track lists of albums that never saw the light of day. He was a tease’s tease. It ended up getting a release date of March 12. As the pandemic got really bad in the March 11 zone, he finally had an actual reason to delay the proceedings (the plan: a studio live stream listening party*).
But no -- this is Jay Electronica. Why wouldn’t he drop as the world was ending? The same reason why his costar wouldn’t not have a watch like a Saudi prince. It had to end for it to happen. I wish I saved the memes, because they were fantastic. All I have is my own Twitter memory to prove it happened:
I love this song entirely: the “get the gat” hook (soooo New Orleans), Hov calling out the NFL/acquaintances clout chasing his potential death/rapping forever bars, Jay Elect’s ham-fisted and awkward ass Farrakhan line. Everything is exactly where it should be.
Final verdict on the full album: I don’t know, a B or B+? It had a lot more Jay-Z than expected (wooo), but -- and I rarely say this -- it could have actually been longer.
16) New Found Glory - “Greatest Of All Time”
NFG with a song referencing the Jordan-Rodman-Pippen Bulls only a few months before “The Last Dance” aired. Dare we call it marketing genius? The punk beat does not care; the punk beat is too busy taking souls.
15) Dave Hause f/ Amythyst Kiah & Kam Franklin - “Your Ghost”
“I can’t breathe”
On the heels of the George Floyd/BLM protests came Dave Hause’s somber attempt to capture the moment, desperation, and hurt. On a podcast, he said he was aware he might not ever lead the movement but still wanted to contribute something in an effort to use his platform as a white artist to change someone, anyone’s mind going forward.
14) Taylor Swift - “this me trying”
The chorus makes me feel like the crowd is parting like the Red Sea on a high school -- shit, no, middle school -- dance floor; smoke machine and all. Your crush is waiting for you on the other side. What are you going to say?
13) Phoebe Bridgers - “Kyoto”
Phoebe is one of the best lyricists out because of her specificity, but even though this song is about her dad, you can really fit it to your own narrative.
12) The Lawrence Arms - “Last, Last Words”
The Lawrence Arms wrote their new record (which singer Chris McCaughan described as “this end of the world outpost”) prior to the pandemic, but once you start to process album themes -- and research its namesake -- you do wonder. All of this, combined with some “Catcher In The Rye” references, and we’ve got ourselves a winning formula.
Dressed to kill for oblivion
11) New Lenox - “Fairytale Of Gary, Indiana”
Your boy plays drums and is on the cover art for this one. Dave Rokos wrote the tune, which references The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York”. Good news: no slurs in the Gary version. We’ll have you in and out in 90 seconds. Also: say hello to the recording debut of Alisa Caruso (some backup vox at the end).
10) Beach Slang - “Tommy In The 80s”
My most played song of 2020, but it really was more of a byproduct of how early in the year the album dropped. I’m still such a sucker for it, though. Other than forced nostalgia, not totally sure what the track is about. Did learn Beach Slang recruited former Replacements bassist Tommy Stinson to play on their LP, which was named -- /deepest of breaths -- “The Deadbeat Bang of Heartbreak City” (so maybe it has something to do with that).
9) Juice WRLD f/ Mashmello - “Come & Go”
The :55 mark. Wait until the :55 mark. When the guitar kicks in and tempo doubles, we have a real “oh, shit!” moment. I knew who Juice was when he passed but only “Liquid Dreams”. His 2020 album (“Legends Never Die”) showed us of what could have been; 55 minutes, loaded with cameos and creativity and experimentation. This song had me in its gravitational pull immediately. By the end of the year, they were using it on sports broadcasts, and it felt like a ubiquitous part of the culture.
One of my favorite days of 2020 was visiting the Juice mural in Chicago with my wife. We went impulsively during the day after someone posted a picture on Twitter.
I snapped one of my own and posted to IG with the Signals Midwest lyric “There is such quiet grace in private moments in public spaces”. The band responded with “RIP JUICE”; the perfect online exchange.
Shortly after, I was out with a different group of friends, and we went back at night. This time, it was protected by a fence you had to squeeze past. When we got through, there were kids in there smoking, taking pictures, just hanging out; empty liquor bottles lined the bottom of the mural. Even though it didn’t take all that long to make it there, it still felt like a journey and total ‘movie moment in real life’; a complete rarity in a year like 2020.
8) Mac Miller - “Good News”
Maybe I’ll lay down for a little...
Sadly continuing the theme of artists gone too soon, we have this reflective Mac Miller single, which feels more like self-eulogy than traditional rap. You feel it the entire time. The song crests with “There’s a whole lot more for me waitin’ on the other side”, and it conveys a readiness for whatever happens next.
7) The Dirty Nil - “Done With Drugs”
I don’t pray to Jesus or even own a suit
We lost the creators of our last two songs to substances, and, if we are to take this song at face value, The Dirty Nil don’t want to go down the same path. Drying out never sounded so cool and defiant... until the IKEA suggestion.
6) The Weeknd - “Blinding Lights”
Uptempo Abel is undefeated. My favorite pop song of 2020 has you feeling like you’re speeding through the empty streets of nighttime Las Vegas in a stolen car; indifferent to your environment, only tuned in to your personal desire.
And, on the lamer side of the spectrum, it spawned a catchy TikTok dance.
5) Spanish Love Songs - “Self-Destruction (As A Sensible Career Choice)”
It won’t be this bleak forever... yeah, right.
SLS has always been over-the-top with their lyrics spotlighting the hopelessness of the human condition -- so it was the *perfect* combo to being locked inside with nothing looking to forward to. Bonus: fun cake video.
Though the song’s core is uncut despair, a random moment I remember from 2020 was my wife telling me “I can hear you smiling as you’re singing” from another room as I belted the despondent chorus.
4) Worst Party Ever - “False Teeth”
This song sounds like The Front Bottoms; insecure yet so full.
3) Run The Jewels - “the ground below”
There were a lot of songs *about* 2020, but I’m not sure any artist soundtracked what being alive now is like more than RTJ. My favorite rap song and rap record of 2020.
Fav Killer Mike line: “Not a holy man, but I'm moral in my perversiveness / So I support the sex workers unionizing their services”
Fav El-P line: “I'll slap a dying child he don't pronounce my name correct”
2) The Menzingers - “America Pt. 2″
The Menzingers unexpectedly released an acoustic, re-done version of 2019′s “America (You’re Freaking Me Out)” single. It dropped on my birthday -- June 5th, 2020 -- as the rage in this country boiled over and protesters took to the streets. Though some of the lyrics remained the same, the new ones were changed with true purpose:
Well George Floyd was murdered by a cop
The whole world saw the video and watched
Now justice is long overdue
Grab your pitchforks, we’re heading to Pennsylvania Avenue
I had nothing left when the first pre-chorus hit: “I hope the Devil and Donald and Mitch McConnell rot in hell for all tomorrows”. Tattoo this on my fucking soul.
All funds from the song were donated to Community Bail Funds (via Act Blue) & Campaign Zero. I purchased the track before hearing a note.
1) Machine Gun Kelly - “My Bloody Valentine”
Going into the year, I couldn’t tell you the difference between Machine Gun Kelly and Mac Miller -- now they’re both fixtures in this Top 10. All I really knew about MGK involved tattoos and a rap battle lost to Eminem (not that anyone ever beats Eminem).
In 2020, he took a punk/emo turn, with the services of GOAT drummer Travis Barker and new squeeze Megan Fox at his side. This song’s lyrics could potentially be cheesy but aren’t -- they all land. From the simulation going bad to not wanting “fake love” to all the damn second guessing and the earnestness that just won’t let you off the mat.
Every piece to the puzzle adds something: the messy hair, the Ken doll build, the forced iconic pink guitar that now feels actually iconic. It was almost like no one had any fun this year so he could have all of it on our behalf. There’s a half second shot of him sticking his tongue our during the pre-chorus, a joy 99.99% of us never got to feel.
The album itself was just as fantastic*; a 2000′s pop punk throwback with a Halsey duet, horrible skits (hi, Pete Davidson FaceTime), OpIvy lyrical nod (complete with a royalty check), a warp speed punk track that doesn’t even crack the minute mark, your token 6/8 ballad, acoustic closer (about his daughter), and some experimentation that leaves the new genre but still stays nearby; shades of Lil Peep, if he had Blink-182 as his backing band. Speaking of, please do not miss Travis’ fill at the 2:30 mark.
(* - named “Tickets To My Downfall”... woof)
MGK could get cancelled tomorrow, but we’ll always have this year in a bottle. The acoustic version of the song (sung in a lower resister), the 10 minute making of video (that I watched, uh, twice)... shit, he even turned it into a medley at the start of 2021.
It might be cliche to say “stay winning”, but when someone stacks this many W’s with no end in sight, what the fuck else do you call it? Real love.
* * *
Thank you so much for reading. Here is the Spotify playlist (includes 87 of the 88 songs).
#machine gun kelly#bts#selena gomez#hayley williams#the menzingers#rtj#run the jewels#the weeknd#the dirty nil#mac miller#mgk#juice wrld#phoebe bridgers#2020#music#lists#taylor swift#sincere engineer#jay-z#sam russo#jay electronica#100 gecs#charli xcx#blink-182#pup#travis barker#megan fox#billie eilish#soccer mommy#drake
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This isn’t exactly Queen-related, but since this is my “bandom” blog y’all are getting this post over here instead of on my main so. sorry about that I guess lol.
I mentioned this a little bit in my post about the sale Tim Staffell is having on his bandcamp right now, but I also want to talk about this in it’s own right too: Music artists, especially independent creators, earn hardly any money from streaming services and it’s important to actually buy their products to support them!
I know there are other posts going around talking about the problems with Spotify’s payment model right now, but a) I can’t find them to reblog at the moment and b) I think it’s easy to get confused when you look at “average amount paid per stream” because that’s not actually how streaming sites pay out their artists at all.
Rolling Stone did a breakdown in August 2020 of what Spotify most likely pays out to artists, based on the available revenue information. If you don’t want to read the whole article, the long and short of it is that:
The conservative estimate for the number of artists on Spotify is 3 million - of which only about 43,000 artists account for the top 90% of streams on the site.
Spotify doesn’t technically pay artists per stream. All the revenue that it distributes to artists each month is pooled together, and artists are paid out from that pool based on popularity of individual tracks.
As this separate Rolling Stones article explains, if five hit new songs by one artist pull in 2% of all the streams in December, that artist (and everyone with rights to those five songs) gets 2% from that pool of money. But that means that if you listen to nothing but small, independent artists the money Spotify makes from you is going first and foremost to top-name artists and not the people you actually listen to.
Here’s a breakdown from that first article that makes this a little clearer: The top 43,000 artists make about $22,000 per artist per quarter. Everyone else (over 98% of all artists on Spotify) averages $36 per artist per quarter, or roughly $12 per artist per month.
You can also see that in breakdowns of what artists with high stream numbers actually make. Just over 1 million streams earned one group just under $5,000 across three months. Although to be clear, this is not a problem with only Spotify and buying digital copies of albums from places like iTunes and Amazon also doesn’t result in high profits for artists - usually netting them less than $1 per album, or about 9 cents per track downloaded.
Here’s the thing, though: If you buy directly from the artist themselves that percentage of profits goes way up.
That should be obvious, but it’s easy to rail against how unfair Spotify and other streaming sites are and lose sight of the fact that there is a very clear way to support independent and/or less popular artists and it’s by simply buying their stuff without using a middleman!
Not to keep talking about Tim Staffell but that’s exactly what we’re going to do for a moment here: He sells his music and limited merch through Bandcamp which takes 15% of each sale of digital downloads and 10% of each sale of merchandise.
His albums are priced a little more expensive than a $9.99 iTunes purchase, but you can buy digital copies of his entire discography for £24 and he’ll make about £20.40 on each sale. If you buy a physical copy of one of his albums for £20, he makes £18. Hell, even if you buy a CD during his 50% sale he’ll still take home about £9 from it and that is still a significantly higher profit than what either streaming sites or iTunes pay out.
This article talks more about how much more money artists earn selling through Bandcamp than they do through streaming sites. One example given is a band who made $4,200 releasing a new album on the site, vs maybe making $100 a year in streaming.
From a broader ethical standpoint, that same article talks about some of the charity donations that Bandcamp makes from their revenue and the fact that since the COVID-19 pandemic started Bandcamp has launched “Bandcamp Days” where they waive their percentage from each sale entirely so all profits go directly to the artists. (There’s also the fact that Bandcamp simply pays out artists faster than streaming sites do, so they aren’t waiting for their money to be released.)
It’s also worth noting that Bandcamp requires artists to set a minimum amount, but you can also choose to pay more if you want so if you have some extra cash to burn you can, in fact, give it directly to that small indie artist whose music you fell in love with if you so choose!
And the thing is, it can be really easy to look at a group and see that they have their music on iTunes or Amazon or whatever and just buy from there out of habit, but I guarantee that if you look at their website they’ll also have a link to their Bandcamp page - but you do have to go looking for it!
If you follow my main blog, a few weeks ago I was waffling over whether I wanted to buy merch from The Longest Johns (yes, you’re getting a real glimpse into my musical tastes today). I spent well over an hour looking through their store and I was so tempted by the vinyl copy of their newest album. And I’m still tempted by it but y’all, I live in the US and conversion from £ to $ plus international shipping is not always the kindest so I didn’t buy it. And I will never judge anyone for not having the money to pay for international shipping to support independent artists.
But here’s the thing: The Longest Johns also have a Bandcamp page, which I never went looking for because I’ll admit that I found their music to stream and I just did that and never looked further into it. But now that I know that I can buy digital copies of their albums for £10, of which 90% of that is going directly to them, I am definitely going to be doing that instead.
I get that not everyone has the money to do this, and I fully understand that streaming sites are sometimes the only way that people can listen to the music that they love. If you don’t have the money to spend on something, then of course that’s fine!
But if you do have the money, considering spending it to directly support an independent artist!
Look, Queen is a multi-million dollar enterprise. It’s one thing to advocate for supporting new album releases, like Live Around the World, because that can influence future projects that they might release - but at the end of the day, I genuinely don’t care if you illegally download their music or stream it or anything else. (Seriously, I don’t care if you stream Queen, because the issues with Spotify’s payment structure don’t matter to them when they’re that rich already and there needs to be a massive overhaul* across all streaming platforms anyway in order for smaller artists to make a reasonable profit off streaming sites.)
But if you have an independent artist that you love - be in Tim Staffell or The Longest Johns or Omnia or anyone else - how you engage with their music does matter a lot more. And if you’re financially able to do so, look into buying their music or their merch from them directly, either through Bandcamp or whatever other storefronts they may use. They’ll get a much larger share of the profits if you do that than any amount of time you could spend streaming them on Spotify.
*If you want to do something to start forcing changes with how streaming sites pay out artists, the Union of Musicians and Allied Workers has a list of demands for Spotify specifically which includes paying at least one cent per stream, adopting user-centric pay models, revealing existing payola and then ending it altogether, and crediting all labor in recordings, among other things. You can sign on to support them and read more information HERE and there’s a tumblr post you can reblog HERE as well.
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one direction albums ranked
5. made in the am
energetic and dynamic, but probably no one’s favorite. the unexpected and uncharacteristic surprise dropping of its insanely successful lead single, drag me down, was the band’s less than subtle way of alerting the public that they were alive and well in the wake of zayn’s departure. i can’t help but feel like this is the motive of the entire album. with its regression to the safe pop its predecessor four dared to challenge, the album feels contrived and rushed. some moments on it sound like an AI algorithm that averaged out their entire discography to generate a “One Direction Song”. Its occasional attempts to try something new are nice but ultimately gimmicky, preventing it from overcoming its ulterior motives--to be the band’s last hurrah (commercially and culturally) before the “hiatus” (you can tell us you broke up) we all should’ve seen coming.
this doesn’t mean there aren’t some tried-and-true fan favorites on this album. songs like infinity, olivia, if i could fly, and of course, the fandom-homage history (easily the album’s strongest single) hold a special place in fan’s hearts.
best: what a feeling, wolves, history, olivia
4. up all night
the iconic red double decker bus. louis’ toms and blue stripes. niall’s adorable crooked teeth. the flaming jealousy we all experienced as we watched harry sing the bridge of WMYB to a girl on the beach. this is an album that brings me nostalgia for a time in the fandom i wasn’t even a part of.
up all night is shimmery, camp, and more than a little embarrassing. (i genuinely can’t listen to stole my heart without bursting into uncontrollable laughter.)
it’d be a lie, though, to say it isn’t freaking EARNEST. gotta be you is melodramatic (what a mess i’ve made upon your innocence/no woman in the world deserves this) but the boys give it their all--shoutout to my mans harry. same mistakes is obviously too mature to be on this album but zayn delivers an emotional and skilled vocal performance indicative of the standout status he’ll claim for the rest of their discography (until it’s so potent he decides to move on to his own).
although it’s not very re-listenable, i will always have a soft spot for it, and i’m sure you guys do too.
best: one thing, stand up
3. four
ah, yes. the Mature album. coincidentally, my favorite album from my top artists always seems to be this said “mature” effort (see: Taylor Swift’s Speak Now, Paramore’s Brand New Eyes). not true in this case, but still a good album.
one direction goes very middle-aged-white-dad on us (unsurprisingly it’s my own dad’s fav). the singles from this album sort of tell you all you need to know about their direction on this one--80s-inspired rocky, else folksy. four is smooth and genuinely pleasant to listen to. it’s possibly their most cohesive effort (other than take me home), minus the out-of-place the 1975 ripoff change your ticket (hey, i’m not saying i don’t like this song, it’s actually good fun) and closer act my age, which is only forgivable because it’s become a meme in the fandom.
four sees one direction at a place in their career where they don’t need to (and are maybe even tired of) making typical bankable pop songs, so they decided to experiment, and overall it worked.
best: 18, fool’s gold, no control
2. midnight memories
one direction tries to do a lot of things on this album. do they all work? no. is it still damn good and jam packed with ABSOLUTE bangers? yes!
this album came at the peak of their career. their first stadium tour was for this album. this was the album that came out when i was just starting to become a full-fledged 1d stan.
it’s their first album that they really had a say in, in terms of production and songwriting. and you can tell. the songs feel authentic. for the first time, these boys are singing about things they actually believe in or have experienced. it’s why i forgive it for being kind of a mess. (what other album boasts a cheeky but admittedly novel love song composed of titles of other songs and a McFly-written 'remember your roots’ anthem? songs as antithetical as the minimalistic guitar ballad half a heart and the 70s rock jam little black dress?) the boys had been waiting three years to take the reigns, and they wanted to try everything. who could blame them?
finally, this album exemplifies what makes one direction so great: heart. it’s a record that is alive (no pun intended), and full of genuinely poignant moments.
side note: i am so glad that my first 1d concert was during the where we are tour, because these tracks were MADE for arenas.
best: little white lies (duh), strong, happily, right now
1. take me home
if you know me, you know i love a good pop album, in all of its saccharine, cliche glory. tmh may not be one direction’s smartest or best-produced album, but it’s definitely the most dopamine-inducing (that neuroscientist in This is Us said it himself, folks). and isn’t that primarily what one direction is all about? let’s be honest. we never listened to one direction to become more cultured, or question the structures and relationships in place in our lives, we listened because they make us, for lack of a better word, happy.
and this album makes me soar. it’s one direction at their most cheeky, their most infectious, their most head-over-heels for you, the listener. just try to listen to songs like i would and little things and not swoon. it’s impossible!
it’s one direction at their most one direction. and it’s so much fun.
i don’t care that some say this album is manufactured or carefully calculated under all those layers of carefree teenage energy. they’re probably right! one direction’s production team probably exacted this record to be eaten up by a young, doe-eyed tweeny bopper like i was the first time i heard it. and that’s exactly what i did. i gladly took it then, and i will gladly take it today.
best: nobody compares, loved you first, last first kiss, heart attack, c’mon c’mon
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My Thoughts on JYP Entertainment
Founder/CEO: J.Y. Park - Good but problematic
I have complicated feelings about JYP as a person. I think that as a business man he is smart and knows his business. I also think he knows how to train his trainees, but as a person and creator he has done some questionable things. Mostly he is very misogynistic towards his female trainees, along with his own music lyrically.
Two examples of this is during Sixteen he told Jihyo that she was too fat...to a 17-18 year old girl. She also wasn’t what people would even considered fat. His reasoning was not a good one, it was simply a stylistic look choice of a dancer’s body that he wanted and thus a 17-18 year old girl who was probably going through puberty wasn’t the ‘right size’ for him. He also said this to another girl who was 17 on the nizi project in 2020. Only five years later, his views unchanged.
The second example is his questionable lyrics that he gives TWICE. Not only in Cheer Up which is basically telling a guy, even when I say no, keep pestering me. And Yes or Yes, basically disregarding that No isn’t an answer. If either one of those songs was sung in context of a boy group, they would have been accused of disregarding the probablemic argument that as a society of a whole, women face daily. There are other songs for example Girls Girls Girls by Got7, and I will probably go into a deeper separate post about cheer up and Yes or Yes, even other songs he has written as well, but I wanted to give examples here. (Also not trying to put down TWICE or GOT7, counting that they didn’t write the lyrics or choose the song. I’m talking about the Song writer, a man in his 40’s.)
Company as a whole: Not the worst, but not the best. (But really is any company)
As a company, to me at least, they always wanted to be seen as a creative and forward thinking company rather then looking at it for money reasons, but how they treat their groups scheduling wise, future groups, and even trainee’s it seems to be more about money then what they want you to think. It sometimes feels like a shady company that wants a sugar coat cover to hide what they do.
JYP Entertainment is always praised for their look on mental health in their company and health in general. Which is a good quality to have, but they also are just doing the bare minimum. They are not doing it proactively, instead of only doing it after it’s a huge issue to the point were it affects business.
Such as with Mina, it’s good that they didn’t force her to be on stage when she has a panic disorder, but also they let it get to the point where she couldn’t even go on stage. With how much they promote and with no rest really given to the group until it’s absolutely necessary, meaning the girls’ are constantly working, I’m surprised only one member seems to have broken.
Their trainee system: They don’t seem to care so much about talent
For their trainee’s they seem to pick nice, wholesome people who work hard. Which isn’t bad qualities at all. They also have strict rules that they have to follow, such as the dating ban, the no going to bars ban (which makes sense to me considering the burning sun scandal and so on). They don’t seem to have a diet for trainee’s, but from the views of their Founder, I think it’s probably an unspoken rule.
Compared to other companies, talent wise, they seem to focus more on dancing skills then actual singing. When they do have singing, they seem to have a more westernized singing rather than a technical one. This is kind of made apparent on the show Unnies, when Tiffany recorded with JYP. Tiffany was trained at SM Entertainment which is known for having a more technical singing education. During their recording he showed her a more breathy way. She even stated, it was more about feeling rather then technique. Which isn’t bad. Most theatre performances want to emphasis feelings rather then technique, but if you can’t hit a note, there’s a too much of a problem. Plus this doesn’t necessarily mean a good longevity career wise, because if you are using improper technique for long periods of time, it could result in vocal issues in the future.
Moving on….
On how they treat Male Groups: They last longer then the girl groups.
Current Male Groups they have:
2PM + Soloists
Day6 - Band + Soloists
JJ Project
Got7 + Soloists
Stray Kids
Jus2 (sub Unit)
3Racha (Sub Unit)
J.Y. Park (Soloist)
Former Notable Groups they had:
2AM
G.O.D.
Rain (Soloists)
So with The boy groups, they seem to have a more usual staggered comeback release date, other then Day6 which for a year, they released a single every month. From my past experience, they seem to promote Got7 over Day6 and now that Stray Kids have entered the chat, Got7 is now getting less promotions resources wise. Which makes sense in terms of business, because they are already established while Stray Kids being the new kids on the block have less of a fan base. That is normal for most companies, given that the Kpop system relies heavily on the already established fandom that they create in the first couple of years rather than a long term comeback and promotional system.
2PM is from their 2nd generation of idols, along with their counterpart 2AM. They had a similar single release date between the two like got7 does with stray kids.
I am mostly excluding G.O.D. and Rain from this conversation because they are from the very beginning, where JYP was just starting out. G.O.D. is considered a legendary 1st generation group, and Rain is considered a legend in term so of male soloists himself.
Just mainly speaking on Got7, Day6, and Stray Kids, their most active male groups currently, here is a timeline from their debut years and how many singles they each had.
2014 - got7 Debut
Got7: 4 singles, 2 Ep’s, 1 Studio
2015 - Day6 debut
Got7: 4 Singles, 2 EP’s 1 Repackaged,
Day6: 1 Single, 1 Ep
2016
Got7: 3 Singles, 2 Ep’s, 2 Studio
Day6: 1 Single, 1 EP
2017 - Stray Kids Debut
GOt7: 3 Singles, 3 Ep’s
Day6: 12 Singles, 2 Studio
Stray Kids: 1 Single
2018
Got7: 5 Singles, 1 Ep, 1 Studio,1 Repackaged
Day6: 6 Singles, 2 Ep’s, 1 Compilation, 1 Studio
Stray Kids: 3 Singles, 4 Ep’s
2019
Got7: 3 Singles, 4 Ep’s, 1 Repackaged
Day6: 2 Singles, 1 Ep, 1 Compilation, 1 Studio
Stray Kids: 5 Singles, 2 Ep’s 1 Repackaged
To note, in 2020, Stray kids have 6 singles already planned or have happened. Out of the three, Day6 seems to have the least amount of promotions all together minus one year when they released a single a month.
On how they treat Female Groups: Milk them for they got then leave them to dry Once they hit a certain age.
Current Female Groups they have:
Itzy
Twice
Former Notable Groups they had:
Miss A + Soloists
Wonder Girls + Soloists
15& + Soloists
Jeon Somi/Trainee - complicated thing
Baek A Yeon (Soloists)
They treat their female groups differently then their male counterparts. For them, they either care or they don’t. Which is a weird thing to say, but you can tell by how they promote and how many singles they have. For most JYP Groups, they seem to be more of an afterthought with recycled concepts over and over again. With Itzy is too early to tell they path that they will go with. Will it be like MissA whose single count capped out at 8, with only one member the focus of the group? Will it be like 15&, who was never actually given the chance to shine and disbanded before they were even known as a group? Or will they overwork them like Twice? Wonder Girls started off good, but once they went to US and didn't get the results that I think JYP wanted, they were fazed out, as they grew older. JYP with their girl groups, seems to not know what to do with them once they hit a certain age. Which isn’t just a JYP problem, but a KPOP problem. The only differences is, he doesn’t wait till they are close to 30. They tend to stop earlier.
Let’s look at the numbers shall we….
15& - Deserved better!
Debuted in 2012 at 15 (Both girls were 15)
1 Studio Album
5 Singles (4 of them on one album)
Disbanded after having a four year hiatus
Active only for 3 years (2012-2015)
Disbanded by at the age of 18.
Miss A - Should have focused on the group as a whole, not just one member.
Debuted in 2010 at average age of 19.5
2 Studio Albums, 2 single Albums, 3 EP’s
8 Singles...yeah just 8.
Active for 5 years (disbanded in 7 years)
Disbanded by the average age of 24.5 (2015) 26.5 (official Disbandment)
Wonder Girls - a Legend that had so much potential with their band concept!
Debuted in 2007 at the average age of 16.2
3 Studio Albums, 4 EP’s
15 Singles (with 2007 being their most releases in a year with 4)
Active for 8 years (Disbanded in 10) (In 2017 they had one goodbye song never promoted)
Disbanded by the average age of 26.8 (2017)
TWICE - Overworked for money
Debuted in 2015 at the average age of 16.8
3 Studio Albums, 2 Compilation Albums, 4 Repackaged, 9 EP’s (Still counting they haven’t disbanded yet)
23 Singles in 5 years (not counting the 1 in 2020).
They had 5 singles alone in 2017 only in korea
In 2018 they had 9 comebacks total between South Korea and Japan
Back to just 5 in 2019.
Average is 2-3 comebacks a year for girl groups for the first two years then 1 or 2 after that...TWICE’s least active year was 2016 with 2. (Not counting their debut in 2015.)
As of 2020, their average age will be 21.8.
Also on solo artists, he has no idea what to do with them really, regardless of male or female.
Overall, I think I’m more critical of JYP as a company, because they try to hide the fact that they function like a business as opposed to YG or SM in terms of big three. They want to be seen more of an artist themselves rather then a business, which I find hypocritical. I based my opinions on facts and overall feel of the company that I get from them.
In terms of music, I tend to like vocal’s more, which also is not just a kpop thing. It’s true for most music genres, which is a personal preference.
So To end on happy notes,
Groups I Like from the company:
Miss A
Wonder GIrls
Day6
Baek A Yeon
I know it’s a lot of former….
Some Songs that I like that you should check out from this company:
ITZY - Dalla Dalla
TWICE - What is Love?, Like OOH-AHH, Dance the Night Away
MISSA - Hush, Only You, I Don’t Need a Man, Bad Girl Good Girl
Wonder Girls - Tell Me, Nobody, Be My Baby, Why So lonely, Draw Me
Day6 - Congratulations, Out of My Mind, I need Somebody Lean On Me
Got7 - Just Right, Miracle, Hard Carry
Baek a Yeon - Sad Song, Shouldn’t Have, So-So Just Because
Stray Kids - Hellevator
Things to note in general:
Some of these are not just JYP issues, but also a kpop industry as a whole. I tried to point those out, when I can.
It’s well known that Male groups are a gamble in terms of profit either they make a ton of money or the loose a ton of money, while Female groups always bring you money just with a shorter life span and don’t tend to out sell male groups (With some exceptions), which is why most small time companies debut female groups in order to gain money to debut a male group.
Also this just my opinion, so these issues might not be a problem for you, maybe you even prefer dancing groups to vocal groups. Both are valid. I’m just giving another opinion.
Masterlist
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Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2004
15 to 16 years old. A chaotic year for sure, but with a high quality soundtrack. So here’s a top ten list in which, as usual for that decade, several painful cuts had to be made.
Disclaimers:
Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.
Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.
My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.
I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.
To provide the usual personal context, that year, being that-weirdo-in-the-back-of-the-class suddenly became great when OTHER people were also considered weirdos-in-the-back-of-the-class, and together, with a guy who kept falling asleep in class because he had insomnia, another guy who had elocution problems, and a girl who arrived directly from Cameroun in the middle of winter and was kinda depressed, we formed some sort of losers club and suddenly things weren’t so bad anymore. Unfortunately I completely lost contact with these people after highschool and that’s one of the biggest regrets of my life.
And then in September I once again ended in a completely different class in Terminale (equivalent of Senior Year in the US unless I’m mistaken) and made another great friend. So while life at home was still pretty bad, at least it was much better at school.
At this point my parents also stopped checking what kind of singles I was buying, which means that instead of this madness from 2003 where I had to hide some purchases with other ones...
...I only bought this in 2004 and the rest were actual albums.
Also, I found some old tapes and oh my goodness look at the label on this one. Late 2002/early 2003 at its finest right there. Kyo written with a typo, next to Eminem, next to Mylène Farmer. Love it.
With all of that out of the way, here’s a list of honorable mentions first. A very, very long list.
Yeah (Usher feat Lil Jon & Ludacris) - Thank goodness I thought this song was pretty cool, otherwise I’d have been miserable while listening to the radio in 2004.
Milkshake (Kelis) - Ooooooh daaaaangerously close to the So Bad It’s Good category.
Let’s Get It Started (Black Eyed Peas) - Don’t have anything to say, it’s a lot of fun.
Dragosta Din Tei (O-Zone) - This took like four more years to chart in the US but we heard it all summer here. And it wasn’t unpleasant at all to be honest?
Heaven (remix) (DJ Sammy) - Hang on, wasn’t this on the 2002 honorable mentions? Yeah but it took two years to chart here so it was elligible for 2004 as well.
Turn Me On (Kevin Lyttle) - A quality earworm that somehow isn’t annoying? Sign me up.
Call On Me (Eric Prydz) - Hey, look, another repetitive dance track in my collection of repetitive dance tracks!
What You Waiting For? (Gwen Stefani) - I think this is the only Gwen Stefani song that never made me turn the radio off after a minute. Pretty good.
It’s My Life (No Doubt) - Love the original. This version, not so much.
Parce Qu’on Vient de Loin (Corneille) - Favorite artist of my best friend that year. That song was so moving and well-written. Never got tired of it but never actively listened to it either. If I had better taste it would probably make the list.
The Reason (Hoobastank) - I thought this was ok and pretty nice if a bit bland, and didn’t deserve the success nor the hatred it got. However, thanks to the rock journal I was buying at the time which was like “hey, please listen to the album itself, it’s great!”, I followed that advice, listened to the album at the cd store and bought it instantly. If you dislike this song, please listen to the rest of the album, I swear you’ll enjoy it. Here’s the first track, Same Direction, to get a general idea!
Don’t Tell Me (Avril Lavigne) - Her second album was very good, wasn’t it? What happened to her in recent years?
Je Saigne Encore (Kyo) - This was the last cut (HA, get it? cut?? ok sorry that was terrible) from the list. While I loved it back in the day and while I’m willing to ignore how cringy some stuff I loved as a teenager can be now, I'm not willing to ignore how this is basically a song about a white boy being dumped for the first time and hurting himself because he can’t deal with the mere concept of jealousy. And I’m like “holy shit calm down dude and please drop that knife”.
And now, the actual list.
10 - Hey Ya! (Outkast)
US: #8 / FR: #41
Who’s surprised. Come on. Everyone loved it. I even bought the single! And to think I almost considered leaving it out of the top 10 to put friggin Kyo on it, of all things. The indignity. But yeah, I genuinely loved this. The only thing I can say against it is that it’s a bit too exhausting to be listened to on a loop.
9 - 100 Years (Five For Fighting)
US: #77 / FR: Not on the list
I only heard this a couple of times that year and never paid much attention.
Then I heard it again in 2018 right in the middle of a very, very bad year, after losing my grandfather, and it absolutely destroyed me.
It’s very, very good.
8 - Face à la Mer (Passy & Calogero)
US: Not on the list / FR: #11
Very overplayed that year. A delight every single time it was on the radio, though. Don’t have anything else to say about it.
7 - Modern Times (J-Five)
US: Not on the list / FR: #26
A hiphop song sampling a scene from Modern Times with Charlie Chaplin. It peaked at number 1 here! Not kidding! I bought the single after hearing it exactly once. It’s fantastic and I’m really sad time buried it like it did. If you’ve forgotten about it or simply never heard it before, please give it a listen, it needs more love.
6 - Hit My Heart (Benassi Bros)
US: Not on the list / FR: #74
Remember last time when I said I was a major sucker for Benassi Bros? Well this isn’t an exception. That is a killer drop right there. It looks great and dark and glittery all at once and, by the way, the sunny and summer-y music video completely contradicted how the song looked like in my ears, haha.
5 - My Happy Ending (Avril Lavigne)
US: #54 / FR: Not on the list
I’m not entirely sure what went wrong and when in Avril Lavigne’s career the shift happened, but a couple of years after that song her music got a lot less interesting. I may have enjoyed her first album Let Go a lot, but this song might just be her best one ever.
The sudden shift from “YOU WERE everything” to “HE WAS everything” near the end, in particular, is great writing. Love that.
4 - Left Outside Alone (Anastacia)
US: Not on the list / FR: #76
Usually, voices, good or bad, have zero impact on me except when they border on unlistenable, or when they are physically painful to hear/look at. The guy from Muse for example has a voice that looks like the equivalent of a flashlight in the dark and it hurts, and I’m like dude. Can you please tune that down a little bit. Please.
This lady’s voice right there is fascinating though. Her voice is green and dark and it’s such a strange, rare voice I’m charmed whenever I hear it, and in this song in particular. This was on SO MANY of my tapes it’s not even funny. And the chorus is fantastic and a joy to sing along with even if you don’t have a good voice yourself.
3 - Orchestra (The Servant)
US: Not on the list / FR: #97
So we were on vacation, and they were giving away free cds at one stop. And I put the one I got in my portable cd player, and wasn’t that excited by the first tracks.
And then the fifth one started. And I was instantly captivated.
You already know I absolutely adored Placebo at the time (sadly, Protect Me isn’t elligible here either), and that guy from The Servant had a similar voice and the song was roughly in the same ballpark, and the lyrics were so, so weird.
There's an orchestra in me, Playing endlessly
I even hear it now
They play in the devil's key, An endless symphony
I even hear it now
And I listen to the music, Beautiful music
Yes I listen to the music, Beautiful music
And, again, I’m terrible at describing sounds but the colors are so disquieting and there’s an unpleasant vibe except the song itself isn’t unpleasant? It’s so damn weird. And that band never struck gold again after that.
I still don’t know what happened or how all of this works. It’s a mystery. A very beautiful and curious mystery. This would have had a good shot at winning the #1 spot if it hadn’t been for [shakes fist] these other guys.
2 - Breaking the Habit (Linkin Park)
US: #79 / FR: #89
Only #2? Does... does that mean Linkin Park isn’t going to top my lists three years in a row? Holy shit, dodged a bullet there.
Should I really repeat my whole speech about Meteora. Should I really. Come on. It starts with the sound of a closing door, then broken glass, and then guitars explode in your face. The first line of the album is “sometimes I need to remember just to breathe”! Somewhere I Belong is one of my favorite songs from the band! I was trying to match the flow of Faint even if my English was still extremely shaky and my accent terrible!
And then there’s Breaking the Habit, which sounds almost pleasant compared to the levels of aggression displayed by the other songs. But it’s weirdly tense and stressful for that exact reason, because this relative calm sounds like a menace.
It works even better out of the context of the album, where it sounded a tad more aggressive than the average pop song, but still tense and stressful. And the music video is fantastic. I had it on a giant poster. I know I’ve kept it folded somewhere. If I only knew where it was, I’d show it to you. Covering up the (bright pink) walls in my room back then was a lot of work.
Edit: Nevermind. Found it:
Gotta say one thing though. At least they aren’t #1 for the third year in a row. What’s left of my dignity has been saved.
1 - Enjoy the Silence 2004 (Depeche Mode, Mike Shinoda remix)
US: Not on the list / FR: #89
Waiiiit a second. This was remixed by Mike Shinoda, wasn’t it. Mike Shinoda. From Linkin Park.
I guess Linkin Park IS topping my lists three years in a row in the end sdfghjhgfdfghjkjhg end me
But yeah. So. Enjoy the Silence tops a second list of mine, then. 14 years after the first one. I’m not gonna repeat what I’ve already said about that song. It simply got a brand new coat of paint, but still, even if it’s basically street art painted over a framed painting, what a masterpiece. Was genuinely gawking the first time I heard it on the radio.
And then Depeche Mode released one of their best albums ever the very next year, and it was the album of the year for me, and I became a big fan. So yeah, thanks for introducing me to their music, Mike Shinoda.
Bonus: I noticed my trusty old radio/cd player was in the background of a pic my brother took around that time! I miss that radio. It was pearl-colored and I had added stickers of birds and insects on it. So everytime I say “on the radio” in these posts, just picture this round little thing which was at the center of my universe back then.
Next up: Not the best song of the decade but pretty close
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Blackpink Became the Biggest K-Pop Female Band in the World
Blackpink fan page
It is very taken just four several years for Blackpink to become most significant girl bands in the world, having members Jennie, Jisoo, Rosé, and Lisa continuing to be able to smash new records along with forge new ground. These folks were the first K-pop girl class to play at Coachella in order to reach 1 billion Dailymotion views-now they’re the most-subscribed-to music group on the platform, as 2019, they broke several Guinness World Records together with the single “Kill This Like, ” which has had in excess of 312 million plays in Spotify and over 824 , 000, 000 YouTube views, a mere tiny proportion of the quartet’s billions of revenues, downloads, views, and admirers. That same year in addition, they undertook the most financially productive concert tour by a Korean language female group. They’re front-row fixtures at runway demonstrates and the faces of brilliant brands, including Chanel, The puma company, Louis Vuitton, and Dior. Or any this with just a few songs in their repertoire.
Blackpink fan page
Currently, as they prepare to release their particular latest album in Summer, it may be time to ask: The way on earth did they do the item?
Excitement prior to Blackpink’s July 2016 debut had meant to a fever pitch, when they were the first girl set in seven years beyond YG Entertainment (home for you to K-pop legends Big Fuck, 2NE1 and formerly, Psy). There were big shoes to help fill: The reign with the trailblazing four-member girl team 2NE1 was over, in addition to Blackpink was expected to resuscitate the bold EDM go crazy sound they’d embodied. All their debut, Square One, ended up being an overnight smash, the particular insistent build of “Whistle” and cocky chorus about “Boombayah” making for a small but thrilling introduction.
With November 2016, their secondly single album, Square A couple, featured a pop banger (“Playing With Fire”), a acoustic version of “Whistle, ” and “Stay, ” a country-influenced track that will allowed them to spread their very own vocal wings away from all their “girl crush” concept (K-pop vernacular for a fiery search and sound that’s shown immensely popular with international audiences).
Though they were dubbed “the new 2NE1” during their novice days, some of their first hearings on Korean variety indicates bring into focus but not only Blackpink’s chaotically entertaining reputation but the determination to create their own identities. Vocalist Jisoo has become a face for magnificence brands Kiss Me as well as Dior; rapper and performer Jennie has branched available as a soloist and a powerful influencer; New Zealand-born Rosé’s particular vocal sound has found her on hits with regard to G-Dragon; and Thailand-born artist and dancer Lisa is a most-followed K-pop star with Instagram.
Then, and now, many people recognize the need for each other to carry out the group alchemy here is endeared them to millions. “I don’t think a specific new member should do more dancing as well as one member does considerably more singing. I think Blackpink’s relaxation is complete because of each one person’s energy, ” Jennie told Vogue Korea prior this year.
The long-standing imaginative and prescient vision of K-pop as a blinged-out, ultra-slick fantasy world is made by three labels: YG Entertainment, JYP Entertainment, and also SM Entertainment. YG is acknowledged for maximalist visuals and a hefty, club-friendly sound devised by simply in-house writer-producer Teddy Park your car, the man behind some of K-pop’s biggest, hookiest hits. With Blackpink’s 2018 “Ddu-du Ddu-du” (“DDDD” for short), these elements aligned to produce the irresistible pop package.
Achievements lay in the catchy se?alar refrain, the memorable finger-gun dance, and a gloriously increased video, but also in Blackpink themselves as aspirational yet emulatable, aesthetically fierce and not intimidating, killer onstage nevertheless adorable off it. Often the four-track EP, Square Upwards, would go platinum in Sth Korea, “DDDD” would arrive at gold in the U. S i9000., becoming their first billion-view video, and “Kill That Love” would make them typically the first-ever Korean girl party to enter the U. E. singles chart.
These milestones came via a fandom in which had grown rapidly due to the fact late 2016, but which will had to wait eight several months for 2017’s single “As If It’s Your Continue, ” then an entire calendar year for its follow-up, Square Right up. One release per year used to be standard in K-pop, if there were fewer groups dealing with for a share of a modest domestic market. Groups currently average two or three releases (known as “comebacks”) a year in a very bid to grow and maintain fandoms, but YG Entertainment, considered one of South Korea’s oldest K-pop agencies, remains unapologetically invested in less is more.
It’s not really a huge fail-safe plan-it draws continual fan criticism, petitions, along with boycott threats-but the old-school approach, in an era connected with oversaturation and instant prime, has created heightened desire in addition to demand. It’s turned just about every comeback into a global affair and has funneled the fandom’s streaming power into the types of headline-making, spreadsheet-melting numbers that contain seduced many a point executive.
Like many profitable musicians, Blackpink understands the capability in marrying the oceans of music and manner. Their innate understanding of model has made them hot residence, with the girls now front-row fixtures at Fashion 1 week. In September 2019, Jisoo popped over to London regarding Burberry, while Rosé wowed at Saint Laurent (and was also asked by means of Anthony Vaccarello to be it has the brand ambassador). Meanwhile, Jennie found herself next to Cardi B at Chanel, intended for whom she is a brand ambassadress.
In February 2020, Lisa-currently a muse for Hedi Slimane’s Celine-took a trip to Hong kong for Prada’s fall 2020 show, and just this week, placed a #WFH look to seducre her Instagram account (high-waisted light-wash denim, a Celine button-down shirt, and Bottega Veneta’s latest envelope clutch) this garnered more than 5 zillion likes.
Given their tested selling power-magazines have claimed needing to print quadruple reports to supply demand; their adventures sell out in seconds-the romance between the band and fashion’s leading houses will longer continue to flourish.
Blackpink seemed to be signed to U. Nasiums. -based Interscope Records at the end of 2018, a direct play for any American market and something not any South Korean girl class had tried since Girls’ Generation in 2012. Even with their skill and practical experience, Blackpink’s awkward, lackluster January 2019 performances on Hello America and The Late Indicate With Stephen Colbert ended up widely panned. But in the front of a vast, mostly K-pop-unaware audience at Coachella, often the universality of the group’s sounds bloomed, earning rave critiques. A high point was the great “Kill This Love, ” the title single from their completely new EP.
It’s rare the fact that members aren’t busy, regardless if there isn’t a let go to promote. They often turn to Instagram to communicate with their blended 128 million followers (including the main Blackpink account), and get focused on solidifying their A-list status as fashion building (such as Jennie’s new collaboration with luxury glasses brand Gentle Monster), marketplace mentors, and accidental virus-like queens (Lisa’s stint for the survival show Youth To you and her performance videos that became a Made it happen Work? meme).
And finally, 1 year after their last file, the wait is almost over. There are the forthcoming Lady Gaga relationship, “Sour Candy, ” for a laugh album Chromatica, and a July comeback from the band themselves. Could Blackpink eventually as the first K-pop girl set to break through in the West? An opportunity is there for the taking, although that means new successes need to be capitalized upon and previous strategies reexamined and polished. Now might be the time to get Blackpink to really be the emerging trend.
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10 of my favorite songs rn
Requested by @manifold-superstorm
While I basically listen to whatever I feel like listening to (which can be from any genre), I tried to include as many songs as I could that I thought fit manifold's style.
These aren't in any particular order, so... apart from what ones I think of first to last.
Let's go.
10. "Soul 4 Sale" and "Joystick" by Simon Curtis
So let's start with two guilty pleasures of mine. I usually am not a fan of songs that are just... "Sex! Sex! Sex!", but hear me out. Imagine one of those songs... except the song is catchy, and IT'S FULL OF PUNS. Joystick is especially terrible in this regard. And regarding Soul 4 Sale, I don't know why, but the faster Curtis sings, the more I enjoy the song. I would probably recommend looking at "Diablo", and "Beat Drop". Not "Flesh" or "Psycho love" because fuck it, they're overrated.
9. Pleather for Breakfast from No more heroes
While the entire soundtrack for NMH slaps, Bad Girl's theme is weird in all the best ways. If you want a song that sums up a character perfectly, here you go! Demented whispers in the background, the fact that it musically sounds like something drunk girls would jam to, it's perfect. And yes, I've requested this before, but NMH's soundtrack is, imo, really that good.
8. Soundtrack to Killer Instinct
Same with the previous entry, I've mentioned KI's soundtrack before, but it is actually that good. You'd think that it'd be hard to come up with songs that are unique for every character, and have almost all of them be great. Except wait!!!! Welcome to the killer Instinct soundtrack, where electronic is mixed with everything from rock solos to korean throat singing. While Cinder's theme, "Inferno", is iconic, I would also recommend ".execute", "Warlord", "temperance and vengeance " and "Touch me and I'll break your face"
7. "Madwoman in the attic" by Black Briar
I love a lot of this band's songs, and they recently dropped a new album. My favorite of the newer songs is the aforementioned "Madwoman in the attic ". The singer has a beautifully distinctive voice, and the lyrical work here is amazing. Which is kind of interesting. Seriously, compare this Dutch band's lyrics to the average song you get from, idk, America. The fact that they're use of the English language is more advanced is somewhat concerning.
6. "Lantern in the night" by Rachel Rose Mitchell
I could list this woman's entire work here, but since I've already done something like that with Killer Instinct, here we are. I just think this song is really pretty. Yeah. And, as per usual with Mitchell, she uses elements of Fantasy to convey stories of real issues people deal with. Check her out!
5. "Artemis " by Lindsey Stirling
Ok, to prevent myself from fully geeking out over Lindsey Stirling, I'll just leave the description as this. This is actually a well fitting song for the goddess of the moon. Powerful, and yet serene. And, of course, Lindsey's violin work just makes this piece that much more amazing. If you or anyone else believes that violins can't be used in dubstep, think again. And yes, the opening does lowkey sound like star wars, but I'm sorry, am I supposed to see that as a negative?
4. Overkill by Riot ver. Nuke time.
So, I don't play Beat Saber, but I enjoy watching other people play it. And watching these types of videos on YouTube was what introduced me to this song. This is honestly a song that I just have fun listening to. Especially at the end, where I swear it's like someone gave the song 50 shots of pure espresso. Like, that weird, primal scream before the beat drops on more time? Great. The eery robot lady voice? Perfect. I feel like I'm stuck in the middle of an all out paintball gun war, and I'm strangely ok with that.
3. Honey I'm Home by Ghost
Well, I'm going to have to turn in my cool kid card, because yes, I even listen to vocaloid songs. Specifically covers tho, because I personally can't stand how the vocaloids sound. I would reccomend the cover of this song done by UmbraticForest on YouTube. Anyway, I love the majority of Ghost's songs, and this one is one of their best, imo. Containing themes of religion, drug abuse, mental illness, etc, it can get dark. But, like with all of the artist's songs, there's a point to it. The song tells an intriguing story, and is absolutely worth your time. It also doesn't hurt that the song slaps.
2. We like to party (the vengabus) by the vengabus
Fight me.
Ok, but you know what? Sometimes... sometimes you need something mindless and happy. Sometimes, you need to smile. And with this? Let's see... catchy tune, potential for memes, cheery lyrics.... yeah, I can vibe to this. So, if you like to party, get on and move your body.
DO IT
1.
....
Ok, so I hope you all understand that being the ambiguously supernatural creature that I am, I am obligated to include this song somewhere.
Number 1 is the Spooky Scary Skeletons remix by the Living Tombstone.
How do you turn a simple little tune into a banger? Like this, apparently! And I don't care how long it is until Halloween, Janet, you can listen to this song all year long. I don't need to explain how amazing this song is, right? I do? Well.... no. I am clearly unworthy of describing the pure joy this song gives. And if that wasn't enough, let me put this out there.
Have you ever considered,
Memes? :)
That's my list of 10 song I'm currently listening to. Manifold, I don't know if you'll enjoy any of these. Hell, it may have cost any respect you had for me. I still hope you enjoyed nonetheless, and the artwork will be coming soon! In the meantime, feel free to tell me what you think.
I apologize for wasting your time,
Spooky S Skeletons
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Chance the Rapper
Chancelor Johnathan Bennett (born April 16, 1993), known professionally as Chance the Rapper, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and activist.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Chance the Rapper released his debut mixtape 10 Day in 2012. He began to gain mainstream recognition in 2013 after releasing his second mixtape, Acid Rap, which gained critical praise. He then released his third mixtape, Coloring Book, in 2016, which garnered further critical acclaim and attention. It earned him three Grammy Awards, including the award for Best Rap Album; upon winning, it became the first streaming-only album to win a Grammy Award, and peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. His debut studio album The Big Day was released on July 26, 2019.
Alongside his solo career, Chance the Rapper is a member of the Chicago collective Savemoney, and is the vocalist for the band the Social Experiment; they released the album Surf in May 2015, led by trumpeter Nico Segal. He is also involved in social activism in the Chicago community where he resides.
Early life
Chancelor Johnathan Bennett was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father, Ken Williams-Bennett, was an aide to the late Chicago mayor Harold Washington and then-Senator Barack Obama. His mother, Lisa Bennett, worked for the Illinois Attorney General. Bennett grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of West Chatham on Chicago's South Side. When Bennett was sixteen, his father began to work in the Department of Labor during President Barack Obama's first term. Bennett personally met President Obama in his youth and discussed his aspirations to be a rapper, to which Obama responded with "word". Bennett was originally going to move to Washington, D.C. following Obama's win in the 2008 presidential election, though those plans eventually fell through. Bennett attended Jones College Prep High School where he was a member of the Jewish Student Union.
Bennett's interest in music began with Michael Jackson, who he exclusively listened to on cassettes until the fifth grade. Growing up, Bennett's parents were constantly playing music, including Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke and other artists in the jazz and gospel genres. Bennett began listening to hip-hop after hearing "Through the Wire" by Kanye West on the radio while walking through Hyde Park, Chicago. After finding out the song was on West's debut album The College Dropout, Bennett purchased the album, making it the first hip-hop album that Bennett listened to. Bennett considers West a huge influence on him and has said that he was inspired to begin rapping by West. Bennett and West met each other in August 2014 at Bonnaroo Music Festival.
Bennett began rapping in the sixth grade when his cousin let him start using his studio. In his freshman year at Jones College Prep High School, Bennett formed the hip-hop duo Instrumentality alongside a friend. Many of Chance's earliest performances took place at the YOUmedia Lyricist Loft at Harold Washington Library in Chicago. After placing second in a local songwriting contest, Bennett met then-Chicago Mayor, Richard M. Daley who enjoyed his music. Bennett spent most of his junior year and a small amount of his senior year writing a draft for his debut project, 10 Day, which was later released after Bennett was suspended for ten days after being caught smoking cannabis.
Music career
2011–2012: Career beginnings and
10 Day
At Jones College Prep High School, some of his teachers ridiculed his aspirations to become a musician. In early 2011 during his senior year, following a 10-day suspension for marijuana possession on campus, Bennett recorded his first full-length project, a mixtape entitled 10 Day (also known as #10Day). In December 2011, he released a song titled "Windows", and publicly announced his 10 Day project. In February 2012, Bennett was highlighted as one of Complex magazine's "10 New Chicago Rappers to Watch Out For". Bennett says he spent "about eight months recording, writing, and making connections off of the hunger to put out something". Bennett released the mixtape on April 3, 2012, and it has since been downloaded over 500,000 times via mixtape-sharing site DatPiff. The mixtape was well-received locally and helped Bennett make connections with producers such as Chuck Inglish, Kenny Jame$ and Blended Babies. The mixtape also grabbed the attention of Forbes magazine, which featured it in the publication's Cheap Tunes column.
2012–2015: Acid Rap and The Social Experiment
In July 2012, Bennett appeared on American rapper Childish Gambino's sixth mixtape, Royalty, on the track "They Don't Like Me". Gambino would go on to ask Bennett to join on his first concert tour of North America as his opening act.
On April 30, 2013, Bennett released his second mixtape, Acid Rap, on DatPiff. The record has been downloaded over 1.5 million times. Bennett enlisted guest appearances from Twista, Vic Mensa, Saba, BJ the Chicago Kid, Action Bronson, Childish Gambino and Ab-Soul. Acid Rap was well-received by critics. At Metacritic, the mixtape received an average score of 86, based on 21 critics, which indicates "universal acclaim". It was nominated for Best Mixtape at the 2013 BET Hip Hop Awards. On May 6, 2013, the song "Paranoia" (produced by Nosaj Thing), after initially being featured as a hidden track on Acid Rap, was released as a contribution to Yours Truly and Adidas originals' "Songs from Scratch" series.
In June 2013, Bennett was featured in a commercial for MySpace as part of their relaunch, alongside fellow American rappers Mac Miller, Pharrell Williams and Schoolboy Q, among others. In July 2013, Acid Rap debuted at number 63 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, due to downloads on iTunes and Amazon. In August 2013, Bennett performed at the Chicago music festival Lollapalooza. Acid Rap was listed on multiple 50 best albums of 2013 lists, including 26th for Rolling Stone, 12th on Pitchfork's list, and ranked 4th by Complex. It was also listed as one of NPR Music's 50 Favorite Albums of 2013. Bennett began his Social Experiment Tour in Champaign, Illinois, on October 25, 2013, lasting until December 19, 2013.
In March 2014, Bennett appeared in a shoppable online video for Dockers, promoting the brand's spring line, in which Bennett talks his style, love for creating music, and how it feels to live in Los Angeles. On May 5, 2014, XXL revealed Bennett was included in their annual freshman class, alongside fellow up-and-comers Isaiah Rashad, Ty Dolla $ign, Rich Homie Quan, Vic Mensa, August Alsina, Troy Ave, Kevin Gates, Lil Bibby, Jon Connor, Lil Durk and Jarren Benton. During Fall 2014, Bennett and other artists participated in Verge Campus tour. In November 2014, Bennett was presented Chicago's "Outstanding Youth of the Year Award" by Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
In January 2015, Bennett was listed number 7 on the "Forbes 30 Under 30" 2015 music list. In March 2015, Bennett released a short film called Mr. Happy, which was directed by Colin Tilley. Mr. Happy centers around the main character, named Victor, who is struggling from depression and was attempting to commit suicide. After many failed attempts to kill himself, he discovers Mr. Happy. On April 30, 2015, Bennett gave a lecture at Harvard University's Hiphop Archive & Research Institute. Just before midnight on May 28, 2015, Surf was released for free on the American iTunes store as an iTunes Exclusive. The album received high acclaim from music critics, receiving an aggregate score of 86 on review site Metacritic, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 17 reviews. In June 2015, Bennett performed at the Bonnaroo Music Festival in the superjam concert collection. He also made a guest performance with fellow rapper Kendrick Lamar, on stage with Earth, Wind & Fire. On July 19, 2015, Bennett and Lil B announced that they recorded a collaborative mixtape. The two rappers released it on August 5, titled Free (Based Freestyles Mixtape).
On October 13, 2015, Bennett released a video for a new song, titled "Family Matters", on his website. The song, which shares the same name as his fall 2015 tour with D.R.A.M., Metro Boomin, Towkio (and Hiatus Kaiyote on select dates), is a rework of the Kanye West song "Family Business" from his 2004 album The College Dropout. A few days before this, a video surfaced online of Bennett performing a new song live, ending the song by saying the words "third mixtape", leading many to believe the wait might be coming to a close for his next release. On October 27, 2015, Bennett premiered a new song, titled "Angels" featuring Saba, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. On December 12, 2015, Bennett performed on Saturday Night Live, on a new song, titled "Somewhere in Paradise".
2016–present: Coloring Book and The Big Day
In 2016, Bennett was a prominent figure on Kanye West's album The Life of Pablo, co-writing and appearing on several tracks, including "Ultralight Beam", "Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 1", "Famous", "Feedback", and "Waves". According to West, the album's release was delayed due to Bennett's desire for "Waves" to make the album's final cut. Bennett was also featured on a track titled "Need To Know" on Macklemore & Ryan Lewis's album This Unruly Mess I've Made. The following March, Bennett was featured on Skrillex's remix of Hundred Waters' "Show Me Love". On April 16, 2016, Chance and other musicians, including Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Janelle Monáe, and J. Cole, met with President Obama at the White House to discuss the My Brother's Keeper Challenge initiative.
On May 12, 2016, Chance's third mixtape, Coloring Book (promoted as Chance 3), was released, streaming exclusively on Apple Music. In the first week, the mixtape was streamed over 57.3 million times, which was equivalent to 38,000 units sold, debuting at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart. It became the first release to chart solely on streams. The mixtape was met with widespread acclaim from music critics, and on review aggregator site Metacritic, received an average score of 89, based on 21 critics, which indicates "universal acclaim". On July 13, at the 2016 ESPY Awards show, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he performed a tribute song titled "I Was A Rock" for the late Muhammad Ali. On August 16, 2016, Chance wrote the single "We the People" paired in a Nike commercial titled "Unlimited Together", a film directed by Hiro Murai. A second commercial was released on October 4, by Nestlé, to promote the Kit Kat bar, with Chance starring in costume remixing their jingle. On September 15, 2016, Chance began his Magnificent Coloring World Tour in San Diego.
Bennett announced the Magnificent Coloring Tour with an event called Magnificent Coloring Day Festival at Chicago's Guaranteed Rate Field, with a line up including Lil Wayne, Young Thug, Skrillex, Tyler, the Creator and Lil Uzi Vert, taking place on September 24, 2016, being the first-ever music festival at U.S. Cellular Field. This one day festival event also featured a surprise appearance by Kanye West. Bennett launched a campaign in conjunction with rapperradio.com to get his music on the radio on August 17, 2016.
In September 2016, H&M solicited Bennett to headline their new campaign. In November 2016, he continued on the Magnificent Coloring World Tour, but cancelled the rest of his shows on the European leg due to personal reasons. In November 2016, Bennett announced during an interview with DJ Semtex that he was working on his debut album. Bennett was offered a chance to sign with Kanye West's GOOD Music in December 2016, though he refused due to his popularity as an independent artist and the freedom of not being attached to a label. In an August interview about his debut album, Bennett said he may sell the album, a departure from his previous projects' free distribution format. After a report was leaked claiming that audio distribution platform SoundCloud was close to bankruptcy and had laid off most of its workers, Bennett had a phone call with SoundCloud CEO Alex Ljung. Following the phone call, Bennett went onto Twitter, posting that SoundCloud is "here to stay". It was later reported that Bennett was just reflecting on what Ljung had previously published in a press release following the leak. Soon after, Bennett released a SoundCloud exclusive track with Young Thug called "Big B's" to benefit the platform, a surprise move that was planned in response to the SoundCloud bankruptcy leak.
In February 2017, Bennett performed at the 59th annual Grammy Awards, receiving 7 nominations and winning 3 Grammys. His performance featured Kirk Franklin and Tamela Mann, along with a gospel choir and orchestra conducted by Tom Brooks. On July 13, Bennett performed a NPR Tiny Desk Concert where he recited an original poem. The poem, entitled "The Other Side", was crafted on his ride from his hotel, in Washington D.C., to the NPR music offices and was written with black marker on typing paper. Chance also performed, "Juke Jam", a song off of his album Coloring Book, and a cover to Stevie Wonder's song "They Won't Go When I Go" released in 1974.
In July 2017, Bennett was nominated for an Emmy Award for his song "Last Christmas" that was performed on Saturday Night Live. He shares the nomination with Kenan Thompson, Eli Brueggemann, and Will Stephen in the category for Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics. In August 2017, Bennett headlined day three of Lollapalooza at Grant Park in his hometown of Chicago. His performance drew record crowds with some estimates making it the largest attended performance in the event's history. In November 2017, Bennett curated and headlined the Obama Foundation community event at the Wintrust Arena in Chicago. The event capstoned the inaugural Obama Summit event which featured special guests including former President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Andra Day, Gloria Estefan, Aziz Ansari, Lena Waithe, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and more.
In 2018, he featured on "Logout", a song from Saba's album Care for Me and "Best Life" from Cardi B's debut album Invasion of Privacy, and released 4 new songs in July. Bennett performed at Mac Miller: A Celebration of Life on October 31, 2018, a tribute concert celebrating the recently passed rapper Mac Miller. On November 29, 2018, Bennett released 2 new songs, "My Own Thing" and "The Man Who Has Everything", and announced on February 11, 2019, that his debut album would be released sometime in July of that same year. During Super Bowl LII Bennett appeared alongside The Backstreet Boys in a commercial for Doritos with the two artist performing a remix of "I Want it That Way" In May of that year Bennett was featured in Ed Sheeran's song "Cross Me" On July 26, 2019, Bennett released his debut studio album The Big Day.
In 2019, he wrote the song "True Kinda Love" for Steven Universe: The Movie alongside Rebecca Sugar, James Fauntleroy, Macie Stewart, and Julian Sanchez, with vocals being performed by Estelle and Zach Callison. In December 2019, Bennett cancelled his "The Big World Tour" for the second time in order to spend time with his newborn daughter.
In January 2020, it was announced that Bennett will be the host of the reboot of Punk'd that will air on the streaming service Quibi.
Artistry
Musical style
Bennett has stated in interviews with XXL and Complex that Kanye West, James Brown, MC Hammer, Prince, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Young Thug, Lil Wayne, Esham, Eminem, Souls of Mischief and Freestyle Fellowship have influenced him. When asked about the gospel influences in his music, he also has stated that Kirk Franklin is one of his favorite artists, and his favorite composer.
Bennett's music has been described as versatile and uplifting. His music generally contains jazz-inspired melodies and gospel influences. Bennett's lyrics usually have references to Christian theology, his struggles with his faith and his upbringing. Chance incorporates choirs into his music to attempt to maximize the gospel undertones. Sharde' Chapman at HuffPost has described Bennett's lyrics as "creative" and "colorful".
Bennett often does traditional singing songs, and possesses a light-lyric tenor voice with an expansive vocal range that spans three octaves. Bennett's vocal range reaches its extreme low at the bass F♯ (F♯2), and rises to its peak high at the tenor high F (F5).
Fashion
Bennett's fashion style is a large part of his public image, and he has taken interest in the industry. Bennett has designed hats for the Chicago White Sox. The Hollywood Reporter has said that Bennett is "redefining fashion" with his style of generally wearing overalls and contesting traditional hip-hop fashion norms. Bennett wore a suit that was meant to imitate Michael Jackson at the 2017 BET Awards. Bennett was seen wearing Thom Browne clothing at the 2017 Grammys. Bennett has been known to wear a signature hat with the number three on it. “I’ve rationalized it to myself that it stands for the third mixtape, the Holy Trinity, and the three-pronged family of myself, my daughter, and my girl.” Bennett said in an interview in regards to the meaning of the number three.
Activism and politics
Bennett's father, Ken Bennett, has been involved in Democratic Party politics on the local and national level. Ken Bennett worked for Barack Obama as a presidential appointee and as an aide. Ken Bennett also worked on Obama's presidential campaign in 2008, and has worked as an aide to Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel and as 2019 Chicago mayoral campaign co-chair for Toni Preckwinkle. Despite his family's ties to the Democratic Party, Bennett has called himself an independent voter, though he has a history of supporting Democrats. Bennett volunteered with Barack Obama's reelection campaign by phonebanking in Hyde Park, Chicago and has given speeches at the University of Chicago Institute of Politics.
In November 2014, Emanuel named Bennett as Chicago's Outstanding Youth of the Year for his activism. Bennett's work to support Chicago youth includes hosting Open Mike nights for Chicago-area high school students in collaboration with Chicago Public Library, which drew the attendance of fellow Chicago natives and celebrities like Hannibal Buress and Kanye West. In December 2015, Bennett joined with Detroit-based nonprofit group Empowerment Plan to start an initiative called Warmest Winter 2016. The initiative raised money to give 1,000 specially manufactured coats, which doubled as sleeping bags and shoulder bags, and were manufactured by homeless citizens of Detroit, to homeless citizens of Chicago. In June 2016, he hosted the Teens in the Park event, a free youth festival on Chicago's Northerly Island that drew an attendance of 3,300.
Bennett co-created a new nonprofit called SocialWorks in September 2016, an extension of his Open Mike program which aimed to create youth programs for residents of Chicago, among other goals. Open Mike nights and the Warmest Winter initiative later became part of SocialWorks.
Bennett has actively fought to combat gun violence in his hometown of Chicago and in 2014, along with his father, promoted the "#SaveChicago" campaign. The campaign sought to stop gun violence over Memorial Day Weekend. During 2014's Memorial Day weekend, Chicago went 42 straight hours without a shooting. Bennett met with President Obama at the White House on April 16, 2016, to discuss My Brother's Keeper Challenge, an initiative of the United States Federal Government to promote intervention by civic leaders in the lives of young men of color to address their unique challenges and to promote racial justice, with other musicians, including Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Janelle Monáe, J. Cole, and others. Bennett started a Twitter campaign for May 23, 2016 using #May23 to stop gun violence for 42 hours.
On March 6, 2017, after a meeting with Governor Bruce Rauner that did not go well only days before, Bennett announced his intention to donate $1,000,000 to Chicago Public Schools in order to help offset the lack of government funding provided. Following this, a movement arose to try and inspire Bennett to run for mayor of Chicago. This was backed by fellow media personalities including musician Drake.
Bennett is an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, having criticized him numerous times and drawn comparisons to former President Barack Obama. During the 2016 Presidential election, Bennett said he was not scared of a Trump presidency. When asked why by GQ, Bennett said "You gotta just understand, like, shit has been fucked-up, right? Like, 'Make America Great Again', that's not a real thing because shit ain't really switched up for [white middle class]". Bennett endorsed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on October 6, 2016, expressing concerns about the way she was treated in the media and also expressing that she could "fix Chicago" and led a "march" to numerous polling stations with thousands of Chicagoans. Following the victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, Bennett said "Trump was going to win, anybody in the world who's surprised by the election of Donald Trump has been ignorant of racism, and the tides and patterns of American history and world history." In February 2017, Bennett posted publicly on Twitter that he was worried President Trump was going to change constitutional term limits. Bennett has compared Trump's fascination with Chicago to "going to war". In August 2017, Bennett claimed to have a "bigger voice than Donald Trump". Bennett also became an outspoken critic of Chicago Mayor Emanuel later in his term, though his father had worked for Emanuel and he himself had earlier accepted Emanuel's support.
Bennett has been an active Twitter user, with several of his tweets on social issues going viral. For example, Bennett garnered attention from Time magazine when he tweeted criticism of an article titled "In Wake of Weinstein, Men Wonder If Hugging Women Still OK". Following Kanye West's Tweets announcing his support of Donald Trump in April 2018, Bennett tweeted in support of West's freedom to choose to be Republican, sparking controversy among his fanbase. Trump later tweeted thanking Bennett for his support of West, though Bennett disavowed Trump's praise.
In July 2018, Bennett purchased the Chicago journalism website Chicagoist from WNYC. The website had been inactive since it was abruptly shut down by former owner Joe Ricketts in November 2017, and Bennett planned to relaunch the website later in 2018. Chicagoist did not relaunch in 2018, and it is currently planning a 2019 reopening, according to its website.
In the 2019 Chicago mayoral election, Bennett was an active supporter of Amara Enyia. Bennett initially endorsed Enyia at a press conference in October 2018. Bennett campaigned with Enyia and made major donations to her mayoral bid. Fellow rapper and Chicago native Kanye West also donated to Enyia's campaign. In the February 2019 election, Enyia finished fifth out of fourteen candidates, and did not advance to the mayoral runoff. Lori Lightfoot and Preckwinkle, who had hired Chance's father as campaign co-chair, instead advanced to the runoff. In the runoff, Bennett endorsed Preckwinkle, criticizing Lightfoot as having worked against the interests of Chicago's black community.
In 2020, Bennett will be honored by Unicef at their annual gala in Chicago with the UNICEF Chicago Humanitarian Award.
Personal life
Bennett lives in his hometown, Chicago. Bennett once shared a house in North Hollywood with James Blake. Describing his time in North Hollywood, Bennett called it "ungodly". After graduating from high school, Bennett attended a community college for a week before dropping out. Bennett has taken numerous recreational drugs during his lifetime, including LSD and Xanax, but has since stepped away from them.
Family
His younger brother, Taylor Bennett, is also a rapper. Both brothers began rapping at the same time and have a similar style. Both the rappers also draw inspiration from Chicago native Kanye West.
In July 2015, Bennett announced that he was expecting his first child with his girlfriend Kirsten Corley, whom he began to date in 2013. In September 2015, Corley gave birth to their daughter, Kensli. Kensli was kept out of social media until December 31, 2016, when Bennett posted a picture of her on Instagram. In May 2016, after they had stopped living together, Corley wanted the courts to declare Bennett as the father of their daughter, requiring him to pay child support.
In February 2017, Bennett's child support case reopened in an attempt to work out child support terms and a parenting schedule as Bennett and Corley moved to separate residences. The Chicago Sun-Times published an article about a dispute between the two in March 2017. Bennett replied to the article saying "Y'all better do y'all jobs and stop worrying about how good my family is. Just a friendly reminder. Don't let anybody get between you and your family." On March 21, 2017, the dispute was settled out of court. Corley and Bennett reconciled, and on July 4, 2018, they became engaged after 5 years together. The two married on March 9, 2019 at the Pelican Hill Resort in Newport Beach, California with guests including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.
Bennett spends much of his free time with his daughter, and frequently takes her on outings. These have included a Chicago Bulls basketball game, meeting the Obamas and working out.
In September 2019, Chance's wife Kirsten announced they had their second daughter named Marli.
Christianity
Bennett is a Christian and refers to Jesus Christ in many of his songs. Bennett was raised as a Christian by his grandmother but later fell out of the faith. He rediscovered his faith when his daughter was born with atrial flutter. Speaking about the situation, Bennett said "[I just] pray a whole lot, you know, and need a lot of angels and just see shit in a very, like, direct way. And…you know, God bless everything, it worked out well." Bennett wrote on Twitter following the situation on January 31, 2016, "Today's the last day my old life, last day smoking cigs. Headed to church for help. All things are possible thru Christ who strengthens me."
Bennett has labelled himself as a Christian rapper following the release of his mixtape Coloring Book. Bennett believes that God is to thank for his blessings and his success. He has attended multiple dates for Kanye West's Sunday Service, most notably performing his verse on "Ultralight Beam" at Coachella 2019 and in his hometown at Chicago's Huntington Bank Pavilion.
Discography
10 Day (2012)
Acid Rap (2013)
Coloring Book (2016)
The Big Day (2019)
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Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God
Ever reliable in his artistically integrity, explosive former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman, Greg Puciato, has been pretty sonically and artistically adventurous since the honorable dissolution of the iconic mathcore outfit, his most notable music project being the ethereal, synth-heavy The Black Queen.
This year, however, Puciato has gone fully solo for a full-length project, and something told me to get ready for a wild ride, and boy was I right on that hunch. Borne out of an exponentiated process of songwriting that produced songs Puciato deemed unfitting for any of his current projects, what was planned as a small release to ship these songs out of the writing room eventually spiraled into a full-blown debut solo album clocking in at over an hour.
A lot of solo projects play like clearly indulgent amateur hour sessions from an artist whose ego has been boosted pretty well from significant success from their main project, leading them to overconfidently try their hand at music they have no business trying it at. And it’s often approached under the understanding that it is a victory lap, more or less, and a satisfaction of creative impulses for the sake of it. Sometimes the resultant material is clearly inspired and showcases a side of an artist that certainly deserves some spotlight. Other times it feels like being trapped in an awkward situation with an acquaintance where they just show you all their newest pedals and production software and you’re just stuck there watching them fiddle around while you nod along and offer the occasional “wow, that’s pretty crazy” every now and then while they don’t pick up on the obvious cues that you are just waiting for them to finish playing with their toys.
While Puciato was open about this album being borne from the very creatively borderless mindset that so often damns solo projects, Child Soldier: Creator of God is an actual realization of the type of grand, genre-spanning album that so many solo artists envision themselves making and set out to create, and it’s hardly a whimsical, amateurish crack at the styles within either. Puciato’s foray into sludge metal, industrial rock, harsh noise, darkwave, synthwave, and shoegaze, (1) makes for a hell of a dynamic and exciting track list, and (2) shows a much deeper than average respect for and relationship with the styles being played here.
This isn’t some frontman thinking his charisma can carry him through a whole rap solo album; this is a well-rounded artist (also a hell of a frontman, no denying that) giving the most comprehensive look yet into his creative mind. The album leaps around in patches of different styles, strung together mostly by ambient connective tissue of various types, all with a great attention to detail paid to both texture and progression.
We get early patches of smooth ambiance, but also aggressive industrial and sludge metal, eventually moving to more soothing and meditative synthy stuff around the middle, finishing with some serene, Have a Nice Life-esque shoegaze. But really there’s no way to sum up this album stylistically without breaking down every single song on here, and that would just ruin the fun and the experience. You really just have to experience it for yourself.
9/10
#greg puciato#the black queen#killer be killed#the dillinger escape plan#mathcore#electronic rock#electronic#new music#new album#album review#heavy metal#metal#sludge metal#post metal#experimental metal#experimental music#synthwave#new wave#darkwave#shoegaze#Child Soldier: Creator of God#noise#ambient#harsh noise
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1 year of my last.fm!
A year ago, on 20th of May 2019, I learned of last.fm from some peeps at a Carly Rae Jepsen Discord I joined because she had released her new album a few days ago and I wanted to discuss it with other fans. I’m a bit of a stats nerd, so it was really exciting seeing, like, analytics of the music I was listening to during the past year, and, now that I’ve hit the first important milestone, I’m doing this post so I can compile my observations!
Content:
General Stats
Month Recaps
Some observations
General Stats:
Total scrobbles (listens) : 33302 (Assuming an average 3 minute song length, this is 1665 hours, which is 69 days of music (nice). However, if we give 8 hours for sleep every day, that’s 104 days of music and sleep, which conveniently matches the duration of a summer vacation. Nice. This is 91 songs a day, AKA around 4.5 hours of music a day.)
Top 15 artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen - 6469 scrobbles (One fifth of all songs listened, around 323.45 total hours, which means around 53 minutes a day)
Ke$ha - 2150 scrobbles (around 107.5 total hours, which means around 17 minutes a day)
Marina & The Diamonds (I am gonna be referring to her as that because we don’t claim L+F) - 1741 scrobbles (around 87 total hours, which means around 14.5 minutes a day)
Taylor Swift - 1620 scrobbles (around 81 total hours, which means around 13.35 minutes a day)
P!nk - 1218 scrobbles (around 61 total hours, which means around 10 minutes a day)
Lorde - 968 scrobbles (around 48.5 total hours, which means around 8 minutes a day)
Tessa Violet - 697 scrobbles (around 35 total hours, which means around 6 minutes a day)
Tove Lo - 692 scrobbles (around 34.5 total hours, which means around 6 minutes 5.8 day)
Britney Spears - 684 scrobbles (around 34.2 total hours, which means around 5.6 minutes a day)
Halsey - 646 scrobbles (around 32 total hours, which means around 5.3 minutes a day)
Charli XCX - 588 scrobbles (around 29.5 total hours, which means around 4.8 minutes a day)
Kim Petras - 577 scrobbles (around 29 total hours, which means around 4.7 minutes a day)
Dua Lipa - 529 scrobbles (around 26.5 total hours, which means around 4.3 minutes a day)
Meghan Trainor - 492 scrobbles (around 24.6 total hours, which means around 4 minutes a day)
Ariana Grande - 485 scrobbles (around 24.25 total hours, which means around 4 minutes a day)
Top 15 albums:
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (1887 scrobbles, AKA around 94 hours) - Probably my favorite album ever.
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (1740 scrobbles, AKA around 87 hours) - A chill album that I really like!
Emotion: Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (923 scrobbles, AKA around 46 hours) - A collection of B-Sides that is better than other people’s main material and its parent album
High Road by Kesha (792 scrobbles, AKA almost 40 hours) - THE PARTY ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Melodrama by Lorde (642 scrobbles, AKA around 32 hours) - Masterpiece
Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen (642 scrobbles, AKA around 32 hours) - To be fair, all my streams from Kiss have been streams of its good songs, which are, like, 60% of the album
Electra Heart by Marina & The Diamonds (585 scrobbles, AKA around 29 hours) - An amazing concept album
reputation by Taylor Swift (476 scrobbles, AKA almost 24 hours) - I love the energy of this album
Bad Ideas by Tessa Violet (473 scrobbles, AKA 23.5 hours) - Amazing.
FROOT by Marina & The Diamonds (454 scrobbles, AKA around 22.5 hours) - This album really grew on me. It’s almost as good as EH.
The Truth About Love by P!nk (408 scrobbles, AKA around 20.5 hours) - My favorite P!nk album, filled with bops.
Manic by Halsey (407 scrobbles, AKA around 20.5 hours) - It has high highs and very low lows.
Animal by Kesha (396 scrobbles, AKA almost 20 hours) - Incredible
Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa (373 scrobbles, AKA around 18.5 hours) - Very consistent and very good.
Sunshine Kitty by Tove Lo (358 scrobbles, AKA almost 18 hours) - Filled with bops.
Top 15 tracks:
Happy Not Knowing by Carly Rae Jepsen - Carly’s songs are usually growers for me - I don’t like them immediately, but when they grow on me, I love them passionately for a very long time. Happy Not Knowing was an exception. It was the song that I fell in love with on my first listen of Dedicated. It’s my second favorite on the album, after Too Much, but it turns out that it managed to beat it, even if Too Much has an MV. Good for it. Also, my aro ass can very much relate to the sentiment (even if Carly’s doing this to not hurt herself, I can very much Frankenstein this into an aromantic song, thank you very much) - (294 scrobbles)
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen - This song might as well have been called “Carly Rae Jepsen violently comes for Tumblr user @ravenclawer‘s ass”. I adore it, the MV is amazing, and it’s one of my favorite songs ever. - (277 scrobbles)
Your Type by Carly Rae Jepsen - I have called this song a song that can turn an aroace into a girl desperate for love for a period of 4 minutes and I stand by my word. My favorite CRJ song ever. - (251 scrobbles)
Want You In My Room by Carly Rae Jepsen - This song is so fun. - (217 scrobbles)
Let’s Get Lost by Carly Rae Jepsen - Let’s Get Lost is pure joy. I honestly think it’s a perfect pop song, and I could go as far as call it a quintessential Carly song. Like, one of the biggest advantages Carly has over many other artists in my eyes is the fact that her singing is so full of emotion - of joy, sorrow, pity. And this song showcases that well. My face literally lights up every time I hear it. - (206 scrobbles)
I’ll Be Your Girl by Carly Rae Jepsen - One of my faves on Dedicated. I love the pettiness behind it. To be frank, I was sleeping on this song until I saw fanart about it, and that fanart made the song click in my head. - (194 scrobbles)
Cry by Carly Rae Jepsen - This song is incredible. One of my top 3 favorite CRJ songs. I can’t really describe it, but.... it’s Cry. I have literally seen people pray for Dedicated Side B to have a “Cry”. It’s Cry, and that’s enough of an explanation. - (184 scrobbles)
Now That I Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen - It’s fun! I love the MV, it makes me wanna dance! A nice song! I am perplexed over why I have listened so much to it, as I like every single song from #9 to #15 more than it, but hey, data doesn’t lie. Oh shit, it just got to the prechorus, I take it back, it’s amazing. - (179 scrobbles)
Party For One by Carly Rae Jepsen - Jepsies shit on this song, and this angers me. It’s a bop, the music video is iconic, and it’s classic Carly. I love it. - (177 scrobbles)
LA Hallucinations by Carly Rae Jepsen - THE MOST SLEPT ON SONG FROM EMOTION. THE MOMENT WHEN THE “PLANES I’M HOPPING CARDS I’M DROPPING” HITS, MY WIG IS INSTANTLY EVAPORATED AND I DIE ON THE SPOT. - (172 scrobbles)
Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen - You know, this is also surprising, because I’m one of the three (3) CRJ stans that does not worship this song. Like, it’s amazing, but I can name 10 better song on Emotion only. But still, it’s amazing. LET’S RUN AWAAAYYY I’D RUN AWAY WITH YOUUUUU - (171 scrobbles)
Fever by Carly Rae Jepsen - You have not lived until you have shouted this song at the top of your lungs while biking in the countryside. One of my three favorite songs from CRJ. The live performance is also amazing. - (154 scrobbles)
The One by Carly Rae Jepsen - This song finally fully clicked for me in August, and, Jesus, this song is truly one of her best. IF YOU WANT TO, YOU COULD HOLD ME TIGHT, I DON’T WANNA BE THE ONE - (152 scrobbles)
Cut To The Feeling by Carly Rae Jepsen - It’s Cut To The Feeling, come on, it’s literally one of the best pop, nah, best songs in history. - (150 scrobbles, however, if we count a certain cover, it jumps to #5 with 209 scrobbles)
Making The Most Of The Night by Carly Rae Jepsen - I remember first hearing this song and reading a comment that said “This song is literal pop perfection”. And, you know what? I’m inclined to agree. - (149 scrobbles)
ooookay, so that top 15 is super diverse, so I’m gonna do a second top 15 with the songs that are not from CRJ lol
17. Crush by Tessa Violet - This song is SO GOOD. It’s not special to me or anything, but it’s SO GOOD. - (134 scrobbles)
20. Delicate by Taylor Swift - One of my favorite songs of all time. It’s up there with “Your Type”, “Please Don’t Leave Me” and the others. - (114 scrobbles)
23. Tonight by Kesha - as a user on r/popheads described it: “THE TRASHY HOE ANTHEM OF THE YEAR” - (134 scrobbles)
24. Primadonna by Marina & The Diamonds - My mental state when I drink five cups of Coca Cola in a row and I get too happy about life. - (111 scrobbles)
25. So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek - I wanted to dislike this song SO HARD, cause she just kept popping in my recommendations, but once I gave in.... a masterpiece. - (110 scrobbles)
27. Stay Over by Tove Lo - What is with me and desperate bops? Amazing, a masterpiece. - (108 scrobbles)
28. Physical by Dua Lipa - LET’S GET PHYSICAL MISS DUA! The MV is a masterpiece. - (108 scrobbles)
30. Supercut by Lorde - One of my favorite songs of all time. A bop, a masterpiece, the moment. - (105 scrobbles)
32. Liability by Lorde - The only song that has ever made me cry. - (100 scrobbles)
33. Talking Body by Tove Lo - A sexy bop. - (100 scrobbles)
38. You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift - It’s catchy, I like it - (98 scrobbles)
39. Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa - DON’T SHOW UP - (97 scrobbles)
45. Convenient by Lo Lo - This song is so bitchy, it captures the exact kind of energy I’m striving towards. Masterpiece. - (89 scrobbles)
46. Between You & Me by Betty Who - A bop I discovered in summer! Amazing! - (87 scrobbles)
48. Green Light by Lorde - I’M WAITING FOR IT! THAT GREEN LIGHT! I WANT IT! - (87 scrobbles)
some fun stats (for me):
Top Artists:
CRJ has more scrobbles than #2, #3, and #4 combined and if she had a couple hundred more, we could add #5 to the equation.
I’m honestly surprised Halsey and Charli XCX even made it to the top 15, considering I don’t think of myself as a fan of them.
Britney at #9 is a welcome surprise.
It’s very curious to me how I have listened more to Meghan Trainor than Ariana Grande
Also, the small gaps after #7 are really funny. Like the gaps in #1 - #6 are in the hundreds, and the gaps in #7 to #15 happen to be something like 15 scrobbles lol
Top Albums:
I didn’t expect Electra Heart that high, but good for her
I am pretty sure I listened to reputation enough to help TS get to #5 of my Top Artists.
Just Emotion’s scrobbles would have been enough to get CRJ to #2
Top Tracks:
40% (6) of the top 15 all-time tracks are from Dedicated, 33% (5) are from Emotion, and the rest 27% (4) are from Emotion Side B (if we count Cut To The Feeling)
60% of the top 10 all time tracks are from Dedicated, 30% are from Emotion and 10% are from Emotion: Side B
Month Recap:
I will be treating the statistics like charts cause it’s fun lol
May 2019:
May 2019 in one sentence: Carly Rae Fucking Jepsen.
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (404 scrobbles, AKA around 20 hours, AKA 2 hours a day) - CRJ released her new album a few days before I started my last.fm, so I was obviously listening to her a lot.
Sara Bareilles (65 scrobbles, AKA around 3 hours) - I was just discovering her hit songs.
Ke$ha (36 scrobbles)
Paramore (34 scrobbles)
P!nk (30 scrobbles)
Top Albums:
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (184 scrobbles, AKA around 9 hours, so probably one listen of the album a day) - It just came out, and I am a slut for CRJ.
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (64 scrobbles, AKA around 3 hours)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (63 scrobbles)
Kaleidoscope Heart by Sara Bareilles (29 scrobbles solely from Gotta Get Over You)
Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen (27 scrobbles)
Top Tracks:
Want You In My Room By Carly Rae Jepsen (37 scrobbles) - You know, I’m kinda surprised it’s on top, since it’s not in my top 3 in Dedicated, but, to be fair, I probably listened to my top 3 a lot in the three days the album was out and I didn’t have last.fm. A bop.
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen (33 scrobbles) - My favorite song on the album. Legendary.
Gonna Get Over You by Sara Bareilles (29 scrobbles) - I had forgotten exactly how much of a bop this song was. I discovered it around the time I set up my last.fm.
LA Hallucinations by Carly Rae Jepsen (21 scrobbles) - One of my faves on Emotion. Deserved much better.
The Sound by Carly Rae Jepsen (19 scrobbles) - You know, this is kinda surprising, cause The Sound isn’t one of my faves, but, hey, it’s a bop.
As there were only 10 days of tracking, there is less material. On to the first full month of tracking!
June 2019:
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (990 scrobbles, almost 50 hours, so about an hour and 40 minutes a day) - Miss Carly Rae Jepsen continued her dominance over my ears and my heart during June. As she should.
P!nk (+3) (245 scrobbles, around 12 hours) - P!nk was my favorite artist of all time until 2019, and now shares that title with CRJ and Kesha. Dunno what I listened from her during June yet, but she is very much a summer artist.
Kim Petras (+16) (107 scrobbles, around 5 hours) - Kim Petras has bops, and released her debut album in late June, so I listened to quite a bit.
Taylor Swift (+33) (95 scrobbles)
Ke$ha (-2) (90 scrobbles) - Love her
Top Albums: (Carly Rae Jepsen Dominating My Life Part 2)
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (303 scrobbles, aka 15 hours) - Oh, wow, Emotion managed to outperform Dedicated? Surprising, but, to be fair, this album is timeless and it has so many bops, I adore it.
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (230 scrobbles, aka 11.5 hours) - Dedicated is very much a spring album in my eyes, so as summer gets closer and closer, it seems to give some place to Emotion. I remember being really obsessed with Want You In My Room in June.
Emotion Side B (=) by Carly Rae Jepsen (164 scrobbles, aka 8 hours)
Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (63 scrobbles, aka 3 hours)
The Truth About Love by P!nk (+23) (54 scrobbles)
Top Tracks:
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (48 scrobbles, AKA around 1.6 times a day) - I mean, are we surprised.
Want You In My Room by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (46 scrobbles)
Cry by Carly Rae Jepsen (+7) (44 scrobbles)
You Need To Calm Down by Taylor Swift (debut) (41 scrobbles) - I was obsessed with this song when it came out. Don’t know why people don’t like it.
Happy Not Knowing by Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (36 scrobbles) - The first appearance of what will eventually become my top track of the year.
July 2019:
July was the month of my internship and my sea vacation. I love July.
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (803 scrobbles, around 40 hours, so about an hour and 20 minutes a day) - Third month in a row!
Taylor Swift (+2) (245 scrobbles, around 12 hours) - I actually don’t remember what I was listening to from her during July, we’ll get to that in the Top Tracks section.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Cast (+8) (119 scrobbles, around 6 hours)
P!nk (-2) (118 scrobbles) - I always listen to P!nk when I’m on a sea vacation, it’s rules. Like, I associate Funhouse with the amusement parks near the sea.
Ke$ha (=) (106 scrobbles, around 5 hours)
Top Albums: (Carly Rae Jepsen Dominating My Life Part 3)
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (229 scrobbles, aka 11.5 hours)
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (226 scrobbles, aka 11 hours) - Dedicated out there giving Emotion a run for its money.
reputation by Taylor Swift (+12) (127 scrobbles, around 6 hours)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (85 scrobbles, aka 4 hours)
Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (74 scrobbles, around 3.5 hours)
Top Tracks:
In My Bed by Sabrina Carpenter (debut) (41 scrobbles, aka 1.3 times a day) - Wow, Carly has finally been dethroned on one chart! I remember discovering the MV for this song in July and really enjoying it. It’s a bop!
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (38 scrobbles, aka 1.3 times a day) - Too Much ain’t going nowhere for a third month straight.
Now That I Found You by Carly Rae Jepsen (+54) / Your Type by Carly Rae Jepsen (+4) / I Did Something Bad by Taylor Swift (debut) (I had just discovered this song, and god, it’s amazing) (33 scrobbles, aka around 1 time a day)
Run Away With Me by Carly Rae Jepsen (+30) (31 scrobbles)
Between You And Me by Betty Who (debut) (This song is so summery, I adore it!) / Right Words Wrong Time by Carly Rae Jepsen (+106) (29 scrobbles)
August 2019:
I spent half the month biking in the German countryside, singing my heart out to Carly lol
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (544 scrobbles, around 27 hours, so about an hour a day) - Third month in a row!
Taylor Swift (=) (156 scrobbles, around 8 hours) - Her new album came out in late August, so I listened to it a bit.
Katy Perry (+6) (59 scrobbles, around 3 hours)
P!nk (=) (51 scrobbles)
Ariana Grande (+6) (48 scrobbles, around 2.5 hours)
Top Albums:
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (140 scrobbles, aka 7 hours)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (125 scrobbles, aka 6 hours) - August 2019 was the moment Emotion Side B fuly clicked for me. Fever and The One got promoted to masterpiece level in my mind. Also, Side B is such an August album. I adore it.
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (85 scrobbles, aka 4.5 hours)
Lover by Taylor Swift (debut) (78 scrobbles, around 4 hours)
Kiss by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (72 scrobbles, aka 3.5 hours)
Top Tracks:
Fever by Carly Rae Jepsen (+19) (THE MOST MEMORABLE SONG FROM AUGUST, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UNTIL YOU HAVE SCREAMED “SO I STOOOOLE YOUR BIKE” WHILE RIDING A BIKE WHILE THE AUGUST SUN SETS AND THE SKY IS PINK) / Happy Not Knowing by Carly Rae Jepsen / Small Talk by Katy Perry (26 scrobbles, around 1 time a day)
Too Much by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (25 scrobbles)
Party For One by Carly Rae Jepsen (+8) (24 scrobbles)
Queen Of Mean by Sarah Jeffrey (debut) (23 scrobbles)
I’ll Be Your Girl by Carly Rae Jepsen (+36) / Your Type by Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) (this particular song hits really different in August) (22 scrobbles)
September 2019:
Summer dies and I go back to school.
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (398 scrobbles, around 20 hours) - CRJ really said “y’all ain’t taking my spot on the top artists chart”
Marina & The Diamonds (+31) (107 scrobbles, around 5 hours)
Taylor Swift (-1) (103 scrobbles)
P!nk (=) (76 scrobbles) - P!nk is #4 for the third month in a row lol
Britney Spears (+1) (64 scrobbles)
Top Albums:
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (141 scrobbles, around 7 hours) - As summer dies down, Dedicated manages to outperform Emotion for the first time since the month of its release. Good for her.
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (87 scrobbles, aka 4.5 hours)
Electra Heart by Marina & The Diamonds (reenter) (74 scrobbles, aka around 3.6 hours)
Lover by Taylor Swift (=) (36 scrobbles)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (-3) (30 scrobbles)
Top Tracks: (AKA Marina and Lana teaming up to finally kick CRJ out of the top 2)
Doin’ Time by Lana Del Rey (debut) (31 scrobbles) - This is such a September song, it’s amazing.
Starring Role by Marina & The Diamonds (debut) (29 scrobbles) - This was around the time I realised this song is actually a masterpiece. Fuck me up, Marina.
Want You In My Room by Carly Rae Jepsen (+73) (28 scrobbles) - The MV came out in September, and I, naturally, adored it.
Obsessed by Mariah Carey (debut) (26 scrobbles) - I discovered the MV on Youtube and it was and still is, a bop.
Happy Not Knowing by Carly Rae Jepsen (-4) (25 scrobbles)
October 2019:
My biggest memories from this month: Discovering Melodrama and Bad Ideas. (Also Body Talk by Robyn)
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (420 scrobbles, around 21 hours)
Taylor Swift (+1) (252 scrobbles, around 12.5 hours) - I’m calling it: this is from my autumn listens of reputation + the song Red
Lorde (debut) (214 scrobbles)
Marina & The Diamonds (-2) (151 scrobbles)
P!nk (-1) (127 scrobbles)
Top Albums:
Melodrama by Lorde (debut) (200 scrobbles AKA around 10 hours) - Carly finally gets kicked out of the first place by a masterpiece of an album. Discovering Melodrama in autumn was a fucking experience. A masterpiece.
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (196 scrobbles AKA around 10 hours) - It’s amusing to me exactly how close the two are lol
Bad Ideas by Tessa Violet (debut) (100 scrobbles, AKA around 5 hours) - I adore this album.
Turn Off The Light by Kim Petras (debut) (88 scrobbles, AKA around 4.5 hours) - I mean, it’s the Halloween month, you expect me not to listen to it?
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (-4) (79 scrobbles, AKA around 4 hours)
Top Tracks: In a shocking turn of events, CRJ is completely kicked out of the top 5. Autumn sadness (or, dare I say, melodrama)’s impact.
Graveyard by Halsey (debut) (42 scrobbles) - A bop. I also really liked the summer-autumnish aesthetics in the MV.
Supercut by Lorde (debut) (40 scrobbles) - Masterpiece.
Liability by Lorde (debut) (39 scrobbles) - When I listened to it for the first time, I cried. I never cry.
Do You Miss Me At All by Bridgit Mendler (debut)/ Clementine by Halsey (debut) (Ugh, this and Graveyard’s aesthetics. Me love it.) (35 scrobbles)
Red by Taylor Swift (debut) (34 scrobbles) - An acquaintance had the nerve to say it’s better than Delicate, so I gave it a listen. Spoiler Alert: It’s not, but it’s a good song.
November 2019:
Warm autumn is gone. Seasonal depression.
Top Artists:
Tessa Violet (debut) (256 scrobbles, AKA almost 13 hours) - And so, the artist who has the honor to end CRJ’s 6 month streak at #1 is revealed. I love Tessa. I continued to listen to her album in November, it’s amazing.
Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (248 scrobbles, AKA around 12.5 hours) - She ain’t giving up without a fight, your honor.
Lorde (=) (179 scrobbles, AKA 9 hours) - *screams in Melodrama*
P!nk (+1) (154 scrobbles, AKA 7.5 hours)
Britney Spears (+7) (126 scrobbles) - I think I was discovering Britney in autumn.
Top Albums:
Bad Ideas by Tessa Violet (+2) (179 scrobbles, AKA around 9 hours)
Melodrama by Lorde (-1) (178 scrobbles) - THE GAP addjajdasla
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (101 scrobbles)
The Truth About Love by P!nk (+4) (95 scrobbles)
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (72 scrobbles, AKA around 3.5 hours)
Top Tracks:
So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings by Caroline Polachek (debut) (62 scrobbles)
Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa (debut) (54 scrobbles)
Haze by Tessa Violet (debut) (47 scrobbles)
Back To You by Selena Gomez (debut) (37 scrobbles)
Crush by Tessa Violet (debut) (34 scrobbles)
I feel like my variety of songs I get obsessed with shrinks as winter approaches. Or, you know, those five songs are that good.
December 2019:
*insert mental image of me desperately ignoring my final thesis project*]
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (495 scrobbles, AKA around 25 hours) - Aaaand she’s back :)
Tove Lo (+43) (199 scrobbles, AKA 10 hours) - I think I discovered Sunshine Kitty around December, which was my introduction to Tove Lo after discovering Glad He’s Gone in the summer.
Tessa Violet (-2) (113 scrobbles, AKA around 5.5 hours)
Britney Spears (+1) (98 scrobbles) - It is most amusing to me how she keeps popping up in this chart, when I’ve never fully listened to an album of hers, and she doesn’t appear on the other two charts lol. Love her.
Taylor Swift (+1) (97 scrobbles)
Top Albums:
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (+4) (174 scrobbles, AKA around 8.5 hours) - Okay, I figured it out: Dedicated is a winter and spring album, Emotion is summer and autumn.
Sunshine Kitty by Tove Lo (debut) (170 scrobbles) - I discovered it that month, a solid album. Stay Over is my fave on it.
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (131 scrobbles)
Bad Ideas by Tessa Violet (-3) (75 scrobbles)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (+14) (73 scrobbles)
Top Tracks: (wow, this top 5 is both diverse in terms of artists and immaculate in quality)
Happy Not Knowing by Carly Rae Jepsen (+117) (51 scrobbles) - Okay, so I’m pretty sure this is the point in which Happy Not Knowing began to gain on Too Much to eventually overthrow it as my most listened-to song.
Stay Over by Tove Lo (debut) (49 scrobbles) - I was and still am obsessed with this song.
Out Of Touch by Dove Cameron (debut) (41 scrobbles)
Crush by Tessa Violet (+1) (38 scrobbles)
Feeling of Falling by Cheat Codes feat. Kim Petras (debut) / I’m Fakin’ by Sabrina Carpenter (debut) (37 scrobbles)
January 2020:
I was in a trance between the middle of January and the middle of February. Music related things I remember: Listening to Selena Gomez’s singles and Halsey’s Manic in the beginning, being obsessed with Kesha’s new album High Road and Dua Lipa’s Physical at the end.
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (753 scrobbles, AKA around a whooping 37 hours, which is the highest scrobble rate since June and July lol)
Ke$ha (+10) (538 scrobbles, AKA 27 hours) - Her new album came out in the end of the month, I think she would have topped the chart if it was in the beginning lol
Halsey (debut) (291 scrobbles, AKA around 14.5 hours) - Her new album came out in the middle of the month. I enjoyed half of it, but that half was amazing.
Tove Lo (-3) (201 scrobbles, AKA around 10 hours)
Taylor Swift (=) (189 scrobbles) - I didn’t realise I listened to her that much lol
Top Albums:
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (301 scrobbles, AKA around 15 hours) - Emotion and/or Dedicated almost constantly beating new albums every month will never fail to amuse me
Manic by Halsey (debut) (249 scrobbles, AKA around 12.5 hours)
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) (214 scrobbles, AKA around 10.5 hours)
Animal by Kesha (debut) (128 scrobbles, AKA around 6.5 hours) - OOH, I remember that, I was relistening to Animal to get ready for High Road. A great album.
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (124 scrobbles, AKA around 12 hours)
Top Tracks: (This entire Top 5 outperforms every single song that has charted in the Top 5 yet, save for Caroline Polachek’s So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings, which is only outperformed by the Top 2)
Talking Body by Tove Lo (debut) (a WHOOPING 89 scrobbles, which is very close to 6 hours. This has to be a record) - I discovered this song in the beginning of the month, and gods, it makes me feel so empowered and cool. It’s amazing.
Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA (debut) (Again, a WHOOPING 65 scrobbles, which I think beats every single #1 on the Top Tracks chart yet save for Talking Body) - I discovered this masterpiece on the second day of the new year, and, I don’t know, this song is so fitting for the timeless period in January. I can’t describe it, but it’s amazing.
You Should Be Sad by Halsey (debut) (59 scrobbles) - Such a nice song, I love the MV too.
True Romance by Ashley Tisdale (debut) (58 scrobbles) - I discovered this song along with the top 2 on this chart and it’s amazing, I love it.
Cut To The Feeling by Elijah Mann (debut) (this CRJ cover is probably the best one I’ve heard yet. Amazing) / VIP by Kesha (debut) (54 scrobbles)
February 2020: The trance continues as I do the majority of the work on my thesis project in the last three weeks. As one does.
Top Artists:
Kesha (+1) (663 scrobbles, AKA around 33 hours) - Kesha joins Tessa Violet as the only artists who have managed to dethrone Carly on this chart. (Both of them were riding off the wave of their new albums which I adore)
Carly Rae Jepsen (-1) (564 scrobbles, AKA around 28 hours)
Marina & The Diamonds (+7) (256 scrobbles, AKA around 13 hours) - And so we enter the so called “Marina” period. When I discovered Marina in early 2019, I listened to her constantly from February to April, and then I slowly stopped listening to as much. I resonate most with her during these months.
Meghan Trainor (+2) (166 scrobbles, around 8 hours) - Meghan’s album came out on the 31st of January, along with Kesha’s, and, in a criminal offense to the entirety of the Internet, I am proud to announce I’m a casual Meghan fan. Don’t come at me.
Taylor Swift (=) (157 scrobbles, also third month in a row where she’s #5)
Top Albums:
High Road by Kesha (+6) (549 scrobbles, AKA around 27.5 hours) - High Road joins Melodrama and Bad Ideas as the only albums that have managed to dethrone CRJ’s Emotion and/or Dedicated on this chart. (With a gigantic lead, mind you)
Electra Heart by Marina & The Diamonds (+19) (143 scrobbles, AKA around 7 hours) - Aaaand Marina barely manages to outperform Emotion. Good for her!
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) (142 scrobbles, AKA around 7 hours)
Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (115 scrobbles)
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) / Treat Myself by Meghan Trainor (debut) (106 scrobbles) - THE WAY Meghan’s album could barely tie CRJ’s third highest album on the chart lol
Top Tracks: We have some insane numbers again due to my self-isolation to work on the thesis project.
Let’s Be Friends by Carly Rae Jepsen (debut) (76 scrobbles) - Y’all can obviously see what a new CRJ song can do to me lol
Physical by Dua Lipa (debut) (64 scrobbles) - It’s a bop with an incredible video!
Tonight by Kesha (+13) (61 scrobbles) - BITCH WE’RE GOING OUT TONIGHT
Kinky (feat. Ke$ha) by Kesha (debut) (58 scrobbles) - Dare I say, iconic.
BFF (feat. Wrabel) by Kesha (debut) (57 scrobbles)
March 2020: I attempt to get my life together and a global pandemic says “bitch you thought”
Top Artists:
Marina & The Diamonds (+2) (627 scrobbles, AKA around 31.5 hours) - Marina’s power over me during “Marina season” is unmatched
Carly Rae Jepsen (=) (477 scrobbles, AKA around 24 hours)
Lo Lo (debut) (222 sctobbles, AKA around 11 hours) - Lo Lo is an indie artist, whose music I discovered during March. She’s amazing, I DM’d her on Instagram to tell her so and she responded!
Dua Lipa (+6) (196 scrobbles, AKA almost 10 hours) - Her album “Future Nostalgia” came out at the end of the month. Amazing.
Conan Gray (debut) (175 scrobbles) - ALERT! ALERT! A MALE HAS APPEARED! The public is shocked. Anyways, his album Kid Krow also came out in the middle of the month - amazing.
Top Albums: (first time CRJ is kicked out of the top 3, and, hell, even the Top 4)
FROOT by Marina & The Diamonds (+8) (236 scrobbles, AKA around 12 hours) - That month, FROOT finally fully clicked for me. An amazing project.
Sweater Collection by Lo Lo (debut) (186 scrobbles, AKA around 9 hours)
Electra Heart by Marina & The Diamonds (-1) (167 scrobbles, AKA around 8.5 hours)
Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa (debut) (157 scrobbles, AKA around 8 hours)
Emotion by Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) (150 scrobbles, AKA around 7.5 hours)
Top Tracks:
Convenient by Lo Lo (debut) (a WHOOPING 88 SCROBBLES, only 1 scrobbles below Tove Lo’s Talking Body, which currently holds the record of the most scrobbled track in a month) - This song is fucking amazing.
You & Jennifer by Bülow (debut) (I discovered this from one of Conan Gray’s vlogs, they are very relaxing to watch. Amazing) / Can’t Pin Me Down by Marina (65 scrobbles)
Solitaire by Marina (debut) (62 scrobbles) - I can’t believe I used to find this song boring before March.
Yours by Lo Lo (debut) ( (56 scrobbles)
Femmebot (feat. Dorian Electra and Mykki Blanco) by Charli XCX (debut) (50 scrobbles)
April 2020: Bored.
Top Artists:
Carly Rae Jepsen (+1) (212 scrobbles, AKA around 10.5 hours) - The Presiding Angel Of Pop returns to the top for the first time since January. As she should.
Marina & The Diamonds (-1) (194 scrobbles, almost 10 hours)
Kylie Minogue (debut) (176 scrobbles) - I really got into some of her singles, and I also listened to her album Fever. Sadly, it wasn’t good, so the majority of the scrobbles are from the singles.
Dua Lipa (=) (155 scrobbles)
Kesha (+3) (154 scrobbles)
Top Albums:
Future Nostalgia by Dua Lipa (+3) (141 scrobbles, AKA around 7 hours) - A great album, it was also my workout music.
Pure Heroine (Extended) by Lorde (debut) (110 scrobbles, AKA around 5.5 hours) - I discovered this album in April and, Lord (e), it really is as good as Melodrama.
Fever by Kylie Minogue (debut) (85 scrobbles)
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (69 scrobbles (ayyy))
Pang by Caroline Polachek (debut) (68 scrobbles) - I really got into some of the songs.
Top Tracks:
Fever by Kylie Minogue (debut) (52 scrobbles)
I Will Always Love You by Dolly Parton (debut) (50 scrobbles) - I discovered this song that month and Jesus, it’s so much better than Whitney’s version.
Levitating by Dua Lipa (debut) (41 scrobbles)
XS by Rina Sawayama (debut) ( (38 scrobbles)
Cool by Dua Lipa (debut) (35 scrobbles)
May 2020: Spring approaches.
Top Artists:
Rina Sawayama (+3) (184 scrobbles, AKA around 9 hours)
Charli XCX (+28) (165 scrobbles, AKA around 8 hours)
Carly Rae Jepsen (-2) (162 scrobbles, AKA around 8 hours)
Kesha (+1) (130 scrobbles, AKA around 6.5 hours)
Lorde (+1) (127 scrobbles, AKA around 6.5 hours)
Top Albums: (this is the first month in which Emotion and Emotion Side B are dropkicked into oblivion out of the Top 40 lol)
Sawayama by Rina Sawayama (+27) (182 scrobbles, AKA around 9 hours) - Okay, so, after having r/popheads scream at me indirectly and after getting obsessed with XS, I finally gave this a listen and, man, this is such a stellar record.
Dedicated by Carly Rae Jepsen (+2) (85 scrobbles, AKA around 4 hours) - I discovered Dedicated’s true calling as soundtrack while cooking. Amazing.
Pop 2 by Charli XCX (debut) (74 scrobbles) - You know, the irony here is that I dislike, like, 60% of the album. Like, these scrobbles are solely from Track 10, Backseat, Out Of My Head and Femmebot.
Pure Heroine (Extended) by Lorde (-2) (70 scrobbles) - Because it’s spring and we’re in a pandemic and I’m 19 and I’m on fire
WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? by Billie Eilish (debut) (44 scrobbles) - I first listened to this album when it came out and I found it boring. Then, I participated in a rate on r/popheads which made me do a relisten, and this album is actually really solid!
Top Tracks:
Track 10 by Charli XCX (debut) (48 scrobbles) - I am not a Charli XCX fan. Like, I feel like a big part of her experimental tracks drop the ball. This, however? This is a masterpiece.
Queen Of Disaster by Lana Del Rey (debut) (42 scrobbles) - I heard this song from Tiktok lol. First unreleased song on the chart!
Bad Friend by Rina Sawayama (debut) (28 scrobbles) - I do not want to comment on the ways miss Sawayama brutally called me out in this song.
Dead Horse by Hayley Williams (debut) (27 scrobbles) - A bop.
XS by Rina Sawayama (-1) (25 scrobbles)
Some Observations:
Carly Rae Jepsen has spent 9 months on top of the Top Artists chart.
There has been a CRJ album in the Top 5 Albums every single month, with Dedicated only being kicked out in March, and Emotion in April and May.
The only Top Albums yet: Emotion (4 months), Dedicated (3 months), Melodrama (1 month), Bad Ideas (1 month), High Road (1 month), FROOT (1 month), Future Nostalgia (1 month), Sawayama (1 month)
The only male artists that have appeared on the chart are Conan Gray as #5 on the Top Artists chart in March and Elijah Mann on the Top Tracks chart in January as #5
The lowest place CRJ has been kicked to in the Top Artists chart is #3.
The lowest place CRJ has been kicked to in the Top Albums chart is #5.
The songs with the most scrobbles on the monthly Top Tracks Chart: (also, just noticed #1 and #2′s artists have Lo in their names lol)
Talking Body by Tove Lo
- 89 scrobbles in January (#1). That correlates to around 3 listens a day.
Convenient by Lo Lo
- 88 scrobbles in March (#1)
Let’s Be Friends by Carly Rae Jepsen
(#1) - 76 scrobbles in February
Lay All Your Love On Me by ABBA
(#2) - 65 scrobbles in January.
You & Jennifer by Bülow
and
Can’t Pin Me Down by Marina
- 65 scrobbles in March, tied for #2 in March
The only artists who have managed to briefly dethrone CRJ on the Top Artists chart: (The longest wait between CRJ’s #1s is two months: she didn’t have the top spot in February and March)
Tessa Violet (after the release of her new album and by 8 scrobbles)
Kesha (after the release of her new album, and with a healthy lead of 99 scrobbles)
Marina & The Diamonds (out of nowhere, and with the biggest gap yet, with 150 scrobbles)
Rina Sawayama (by 20 scrobbles) / Charli XCX (by 3 scrobbles lol)
This was fun, I might edit in some more observations later!
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