I Miss My Music Guy

Music discovery is hard for me, like, impossibly difficult.

Throughout middle, junior, and high school, I had a friend that knew what he was doing. By no means was he a music major, but he had an appreciation for the stuff that could outmatch the music majors I do know. A vinyl collection, a plethora of lengthy and vast playlists for different moods and activities, merch from a bunch of concerts, pictures with artists, memorized trivia, he just oozed musical fandom.

He wasn’t shy to give recommendations, either. Mid-conversation he could just mention an album and what he thought about it. He could give opinions on individual tracks on an album from memory, no need to listen back or anything, whether the piece came out hours or years ago. I spent 20,889 minutes listening to Kanye West last year, and still can’t recite most of his songs from memory. Sometimes it seemed my friend knew the lyrics for everything he’d ever listened to by heart.

And the music he recommended was always good, to me. Anything from any genre was on the table, though it was often rap. I like rap! Anything he’d mention, I’d listen to when I had the time. Always, always, a pleasant experience, and an entirely organic method of expanding my palate.

But we’ve graduated now, don’t keep much contact. And I’ll tell you now: I’ve been floundering.

Spotify’s Radio feature is “nice,” but it doesn’t compare to the always natural recommendations of another human who had a genuine sense of your tastes. The Radio lacks that pleasant randomness, and I feel it mixes in too many tracks I’ve listened to before, as well as ones by the same artist. All the listening data one could think of, and I feel Spotify misses the mark a bit in recommendations. In its attempt for appeasement, it misses that infinitely human unpredictability.

I have put effort into expanding my musical palate. Turns out I’m also into alternative/rocky/folky stuff, too. Poppy, Japanese Breakfast, Rina Sawayama, Kero Kero Bonito and Danny Brown are some of my recent favorites. It’s definitely harder to keep up with new album releases without somebody to remind you about them, though: I didn’t know 070 Shake dropped a new album until a week after it was out.

I have plenty of time (re: 21,000 Kanye Minutes) to form my own music taste. Robert was my friend for innumerable other reasons, the music was just a nice bonus.