M.O.M. KNOWS BEST: WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE IN A MUSIC RUT

Part of the reason I haven’t been posting much lately is because I’ve been in a music rut of sorts. If I’m being totally honest, this rut has been more than just a music rut. It hasn’t been quite the rut the Killers describe on their song “Rut” off their album Wonderful Wonderful, but it’s a big enough rut that if you’re riding your bike and you’re not paying attention, it’s definitely going to do some damage to your balls.

This right here is MOM’s GUIDE ON WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE IN A MUSIC RUT (please read that as me yelling at you).

This guide is pretty much summed up with one idea: drift away from your usual habits. The following are suggestions on how you can do this:

1. Put the smallest amount of effort in. Do you usually listen to the same thing all the time? Most people do. I’m assuming people who read this fall more in the category of routine music explorers but if not, this is probably the easiest thing you can do. As I will describe below, there are so many basic ways to branch out now.
2. Do you rely on discover weekly? Do something else. That might sound incredibly judgmental of me, but I usually don’t rely on Discover Weekly. You know that one meme where it’s like “Spotify: Here, I carefully curated these 8 playlists just for you. Apple Music: Have you heard the new Drake song? Lol” Great verbal meme. Totally nailed it. But I feel like Discover Weekly is your  drunk uncle who remembers that you liked cars when you were eight, so he gets you something car-related for Christmas at eighteen and you’re just like what the fuck, dude? Discover Weekly will be like hey remember how you listened to that one song your friend stumbled upon and sent to you as a joke because he thought it was the worst song ever and wanted someone to suffer with him? No? Well, here are 50 songs that sound just like it. I exaggerate, but you know it’s true. Honestly, Discover Weekly is only the bane of your existence if you genre jump like crazy, which I do (sick brag, I know). I've learned my lesson. Now, I will check it out and there might be two good songs in the first five or ten and the rest is my drunk uncle. When Discover Weekly fails, I check out the daily mixes. Though these can sometimes have the opposite problem and rely too heavily on one artist and not mix things up enough.
3. Ask friends. It’s how this blog was started. Though to be fair we don’t ask all of us just send unsolicitedly. Thank god that’s the only thing we send without solicitation. This is a dick pic joke. I know I should be better, but do you really expect more from me?
4. Do a YouTube deep dive. In the dark days of pre-streaming, my friends and I would hop on YouTube to discover music. The related videos on the side were great, especially for indie music. You’d just go and go and go and before you knew it, you were listening to one of the most obscure indie songs you’d ever heard, and in this moment you thought you were the pinnacle of culture. Just be careful not to be polarized politically during you’re YouTube trip down the rabbit hole, and pretty soon you’re an advocate for every conspiracy theory to the point you have now joined the fight against the lizard people.
5. Go to live shows. Things are opening up! Go to live music! They miss you as much as we miss them. I always love going to show to discover new music. Don’t be that person who only shows up for the headliner. That guy sucks.
6. Go back and let yourself be nostalgic. Hell, you don’t even have to let yourself be nostalgic. I can get so obsessed sometimes about finding new music that I forget to give an album a proper listen. Go back to albums that released earlier this year that you thought you should give another chance. Or do let yourself be nostalgic and listen to nothing but pop punk emo music as you sit in front of the mirror putting heavy eyeliner on and scream at your roommate that he wouldn’t understand and that he’s not your real dad when he just asks if you’re almost done in the bathroom. Find your inner Gerard Way circa The Black Parade. Or, if you’re Ed, find your inner Jack Johnson and john Mayer and be that guy. Heads up, you don’t want to be that guy.
7. Usually only listen to indie music? Peruse the Top 40. I do this when I’m bored. Sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised, just like how if you regularly read this blog, this is a pro Harry Styles pro Olivia Rodrigo blog, and if you push back on those two, I will find you and fight you. Other times it’s at least good for a good laugh and you will remind yourself that your taste in music is better than the rest of the world and that this does actually make you better than others. If anyone else tells you otherwise, they are big big liars. That’s two bigs.
8. Wait it out. New music releases on a 24/7 cycle now. Something will come. Just wallow through your misery and maybe this Friday something will break you out of the rut.
9. And If things really get desperate, read a Pitchfork article.

Now I could definitely try to talk about how these same basic principles that underlie my recommendations could be applied to life in general, but that seems a bit of a stretch. Wouldn’t want to be considered a tryhard.