Let's Keep Dancing
The pandemic changed so many aspects of our lives and everyday routines, especially how we consume music. A few of us reflect on the music that helped us navigate the times of extraordinary measure this past year.
Marissa McCall - The patterns of how I listen and find new music are drastically different now. Pre-pandemic, I always was in touch with the latest music coming out, keeping my ever-expanding music library contemporary and on-trend.
I hopped from borough to borough, getting to know the streets of New York, seeing my favorite artists that were touring, and going to Dj sets that echoed the chaotic yet invigorating energy of the city. Once the pandemic hit, my energy went from finding the latest new music to focusing on music from the past that was new to me, digging through Spotify and record collections. I found an ease or lightless immersing myself in classic soul, funk, bossa nova, and R&B tracks. There wasn't a pressure of being the first to know of a band or a song, but a sense of comradery submerging yourself into a song that has brought people joy for years. I find it fascinating thinking of what the culture must've been like when the song was released and how culture impacted the sound of the music.
This playlist is a grouping of songs that I kept going back to throughout this year. Some of the songs take me back to sitting around a campfire under the stars in upstate NY, or a free-flowing state of equanimity on my yoga mat, dancing the night away under a living-room disco ball or enjoying the view on a rooftop overlooking the New York City skyline.
Reflecting on the past has given me a new appreciation of the artists and music that has shaped what music is today. I look to the uncertain future with excitement about what's to come because, through times of madness, upheaval, and uncertainty music will always be there.
Sean Lynch - When it comes to the music I am listening to now from 2020 into 2021; my habits have most certainly changed because of the pandemic. I used to use my subway rides to and from work to discover new music and different genres, but now that has changed to walks around Astoria as I do not have to commute to work anymore. I think in a time of despair and pain, I found myself listening to more upbeat music and avoiding all the upsetting storylines about COVID.
It became easy to fall into the same cycle of going to the same places on walks, but I forced myself to explore new places. This is the same energy I challenged myself to listen to more genres and explore new artists that I may not have listened to before. While 2020 may not have been the most ideal year, I’d like to think that we all took the opportunity to be introspective and take moments for ourselves.
Tierney McGilvray - 2020 meant pause. Pausing commutes, daily errands, but mostly, pausing to look within. Music never needed to be paused. I began quarantine listening to old favorites, like "Lazarus" by David Bowie, and then fun beats from television series like "I’m The One for You" by Push Pop after watching Ragnarok. Then my music taste turned more inward, analytical of how I felt then. I heard the pain of the world in June through songs like Lockdown by Anderson .Paak and White Foxes by Susanne Sundfør. I watched and read tons of Music documentaries and stories, like How Can You Mend a Broken Heart, a documentary on the Bee Gees, sending me further into a rabbit hole of old songs come reborn with new meaning.
Some amazing new artists came into my life like Black Pumas, Celeste and Diana Gordon. Through it remained my huge love for RHCP as I read and reread my favorite book, Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis. While the world was at a pause, my music never was; my breadth of favorite genres growing while sedentary. Collaborative playlists became a love language of mine in lockdown, and in hindsight, every song I shared was a reflection of my thoughts and emotions in a year most would rather forget. Now, I look back and listen back, in grace.
Jason Klaiber - Despite its somewhat deterring title, this narrowed-down sampling of some of my listening patterns over the past year or so is most assuredly more inviting and upbeat than it lets on.
The partially eponymous opener “Radiation Ruling the Nation” was chosen by John Cusack’s character in High Fidelity as a top-five side one/track one if I’m not mistaken, and like the live Taj Mahal tune toward the bottom, it’s on the longer side but altogether useful if you want some accompaniment for your study session.
Aside from those two, I’ve found myself returning again and again to Radio Birdman’s debut album, all the while diving deeper into the discography of the ever-prolific Brian Jonestown Massacre and playing regularly the energy-rich music of The Garden, not to mention the twin brothers’ side projects Enjoy and Puzzle.
It’s also worth giving a nod to a pretty interesting book about 1950s R&B and rock ‘n’ roll that I picked up at a Colorado antique shop last month, so on that front, it makes enough sense to go with Fats Domino as a representative here.
Moreover, since I started hosting a 1960s-themed radio show this past fall I figured I would, for good measure, toss in a few selections out of many possibles from that decade, including “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie,” which had come to suit the week of Thanksgiving quite well, similar to how The Misfits serve to usher in the ominous air of Halloween.
A pair of extractions from a grunge-saluting playlist I recently made called Flannel Fridays have been transplanted to this 30-song roundup as well, those being a Meat Puppets track that I seem to never tire of and a great if slightly lesser-cited Pearl Jam song with a mouthful of a name.
As for the rest, you can’t go wrong if I do say so myself (and yes, that goes for Smash Mouth too).
A note to end on: music has, through times of turbulence, uncertainty and dwindling hope, brought many—myself included—a reminder of beauty and things in their right place, however far off such ideals appear to be in the given moment.
To be sure, 2020 and 2021 have brought along a fair share of darkness, maybe even an extra dose, but we must not forget that rays of light and sturdy minds in the face of tough-to-suppress challenges will at the very least do some good going forward. Let’s hope anyway.