Tonight is the Grammy awards. I LOVE award shows and have been silently practicing acceptance speeches for all sorts of awards since I was a little kid. As a music fan, the Grammys have always been a favorite.
When I was younger, I swore I'd never become one of those adults who always liked the music of my youth better than the current stuff, and that when I grew up, I'd always be relatively on top of contemporary music. Neither of those promises have worked out too well. When I read over the list of Grammy nominees, I realized that A. I've become a geezer music snob and b. I had no idea what half this stuff was. I mean I'd heard of it, but If I had to identify it, I probably couldn't, and I was predisposed to dislike it.
And so I made a (very late? Chinese New Year perhaps) New Years resolution. I will spend the next 12 months being "on top" of contemporary music.
I will do this by familiarizing myself with the top 10 of (at least) one singles chart each of the following
Billboard chart categories
1. Hot/Pop (right now the Mainstream top 40 chart seems like a good start but so does the hot 100)
2. R & B/Hip Hop/Rap (chart still being decided, I may need to do two to really cover this category)
3. Country
4. Rock (this may require multiple charts too)
5. and the top 20 from the CMJ radio 200 chart
And the rules go like this:
a. I'm not going to overtax myself. I just need to listen to every one of the 60 songs or so at least once in a 2 week period,
b. listen with an open mind
c. report here (at least) once a week on anything I particularly like or don't.
d. I will solicit, and listen to any suggestion given to me for something contemporary that i MUST listen to.
And thats it. I'll see how I do. If anyone ends up reading this at any point, your input would be welcomed.
1 comment:
Yeesh. You're braver than me. Or at least you have a higher pain threshold.
I can barely stand the stuff the contestants on American Idol want to sing.
Looking forward to your reactions!
Oh, and BTW, my tastes are as stale as yours, but it doesn't bug me much. I get new music by listening to Pandora.
--Ken K.
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