#i would listen to this so much more if it was spotify

[nartml]

To Pimp a Butterfly and 1989: a rant

Listen here, three things about me are that I'm a) white as snow, b) Greek, c) still a minor.

What does this mean? It means that I obviously wasn't raised with hip-hop, and I got into Kendrick Lamar's music pretty late.

As in, early this year.

I've known of him for some time, and the moment I found out he had a Pulitzer prize at some point in late-ish 2023, I decided I had to sit my ass down and pull out Spotify.

Now, as an avid reader of both fanfiction (ao3 raised me) and books [I feel the immense need to clarify that I don't associate myself with mainstream booktok. Capitalism's consumerism has overrun that shit and all I see are the same 20 books being recycled and recommended (a substantial amount of those are Colleen Hoover and her variants). Tropes and spice* are officially the defining factors of whether a book is worth it (*your porn addiction ain't cute) and quantity is heavily prioritized at the expense of quality. Also, diversity who?], I was, for a lack of a better word, hyped.

A Pulitzer prize is nothing to scoff at in general, more so in music, more so in hip-hop.

(Edit: Upon quick reflection, I realize that putting emphasis on hip-hop can come across as coded.

I am in no way, shape, or form trying to undermine hip-hop or say that it's somehow less 'sophisticated' than, for example, classical music. I'm very aware of the amount of skill and technique one needs to write a masterful hip-hop album, and I'm not doubting that there are hip-hop artists out there who are also incredibly deserving of such a prize. I meant it in the sense that I've unfortunately never heard of another hip-hop artist who won a Pulitzer before, which is quite telling.)

That's some huge shit, and I'd be a fool not to be intrigued.

Admittedly, I didn't get on that immediately. For a while I procrastinated, because I wasn't in the mood to hyper-fixate on anything new just yet.

Which of course meant I ended up forgetting about it for a few months, because of course I did.

But then I came across a TikTok that talked about how it was insane that '1989' won the Grammy when To Pimp a Butterfly was right there.

Now, a fourth thing about me is that I don't fuck with Taylor Swift.

And a fifth thing about me is that I'm not baseless in anything that I do, say or feel, and that includes annoyance.

Her immature understanding of activism and feminism leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The way she built up her fan base around this portrayal of her as a relatable girl's girl, her refusal to accept criticism, and always making a victim out of herself (even now when she's in her thirties and is a fucking billionaire) while never using her position of power and privilege for good are all reasons that serve to fuel my dispassionate dislike.

And before any Swifties get on my ass, no, I don't think that "But she's a singer! Why are you expecting so much out of her, she isn't even qualified to speak on XYZ—" is a good enough excuse.

She has always been rich, and now she's a billionaire. There are no ethical billionaires, and that includes her.

Fame is influence is power. Uncle Ben said it all: With great power comes great responsibility.

And let me tell you, I don't see her owning up to that responsibility, especially after all that talk about how she supports women, supports the LGBTQ community, and supports the BLM movement. Has she ever actually put her abundant money where her mouth is?

I've never seen her speak about anything that doesn't immediately concern her.

Don't get me wrong. She's not the only celebrity like this out there. I'm sure there are worse cases. I know it for a fact.

To wrap this segment up before I get even more sidetracked, I'll outright state that I don't hate her, because hating her would by definition mean that I, in some way, actually care about her, and that just sounds exhausting.

Best way to describe me is indifferent, leaning towards distasteful.

She's annoying.

And that's how I feel about both her as a person and her as an artist.

I'm not denying her talent, nor her impact on the industry, nor the fact that she does have good songs that even I like.

A select few, of course, but still.

Apart from those...what? Ten songs? I have never, ever been able to listen to any other song of her's all the way through.

I get bored. They do nothing for me. They sound empty. Hollow. Plastic. Repetitive.

Her lyrics, that are praised by fans for being deep and complex, sound pretty surface level to me.

Not all of them. But I'm a sucker for analysis. A literature nerd. Greek is my native language. I can tell when something's deep and when something wants to be deep.

(Not necessarily including Folklore and Evermore in that category. Her storytelling ability is actually great.)

Her music largely sounds like it wants to be deep.

Most recent example being her latest release, The Tortured Poets Department.

Anyway, back to Kendrick.

My initial plan was to listen to 'DAMN.' first, because that's what he won the Pulitzer for in the first place.

There was a change of plans after that TikTok.

I decided to compare the opening tacks.

I put on Welcome to New York, and predictably, I felt nothing.

The rhythm is dance-y, I suppose. But there's nothing substantial about it. There's nothing exciting about it.

The lyrics are juvenile, and I get it, it's a pop song and she was in her twenties.

Nobody is expecting Shakespeare (no matter how much you scream or kick your feet, the only reason Shakespeare couldn't write Taylor Swift is because he's in another league entirely) or Odysseus Elytis. Nobody is expecting mind-blowing lyricism.

But it's the opening track to an apparently Grammy-worthy album. The very least I'd expect from it would be some additional levels of artistry.

Am I being harsh? Probably. Do I care? No.

Disappointed but unsurprised, I put on Wesley's Theory.

I ascended within the first minute.

Don't get it twisted, I barely understood shit.

Not only am I white, I am also entirely removed from America and its culture as a whole. I don't know what's going on there in y'all's daily lives.

And this was baby's first proper introduction to hip-hop as a whole.

My untrained, white-ass ear barely caught two references. I got what the gist of the song was about, and that's about it.

I had to look up analyses of the track to fully grasp what Kendrick was on about, and even then, there was obviously still a disconnect.

And I expected all of that.

I didn't expect to get hooked on that song within the first listen.

I swear to fuck, the beat is addictive. I swear to fuck, even when I was fighting to understand what the lyrics were referencing, I was having the time of my life.

Even I, an amateur in every sense of the word, could tell that there was depth and there was quality and there was intentional meaning in every line of that song.

It didn't matter that I couldn't understand it. It mattered that I knew it was there. Not because someone told me that was the case. But because it was audible.

I listened to the next track. And the one after that. And the one after that. I had listened to all of the tracks, before I knew it.

And the evident permeance of quality, of substance, carried on throughout the whole album.

It had exactly the type of lyricism I'd expect a Grammy-worthy album to have. It had exactly the amount of artistry I expected a Grammy-worthy album to have.

Even better, it had all the ingredients I expected a timeless album to have.

The poetry Taylor Swift fans insist hides in her discography, I found in plain sight within Kendrick Lamar's.

After meticulously reading the lyrics, I watched video essay after video essay, searched for analysis after analysis on this album, each time understanding the meanings behind it a little better.

Needless to say that the Grammy's are rigged and I love Kendrick Lamar.

Hip-hop is gorgeous.

#tpab #to pimp a butterfly #kendrick lamar #he's awesome #hip hop #1989 #taylor swift #just to be safe #anti taylor swift

[mastersprogram]

*Sigh* Everyday I WISH “That beautiful sound reprise” was on the Beetlejuice Album…

#beetlejuice #beetlejuice the musical #beetlejuice musical #beetlejuice broadway #bjtm #I would listen to this SO MUCH MORE If it was Spotify #same with the other songs #which I’ll make another post about if you guys want #I have TONS Of beetlejuice clips of both the songs and general of the show #brain rott #this song may or may not be underrated IDK

[breakbeatbun]

apropos of nothing i don't wanna see your goddamn spotify wrapped this year. i do not care what quirky new genre boxes spotify made up to put your fav musicians into. send me a playlist of ur favs via .zip file & buy your music on bandcamp or smth where possible

#hell you can even make your own little promo images for “artists & genres i listened to the most this year” #imagine how much cooler & more personal it would feel if u just make that shit urself. so cool #& fuck spotify i've fully switched over to musicbee & i sort & tag all my music myself now. it is so freeing #SO MUCH of this stuff was not on streaming

[synthshenanigans]

Finally has been a full year since I started listening

Fuckin hate that guy eugh

#/j #but anyway I've finally been jashing for a year #i wasn't fully kidnapped into it yet but by like dec 20th-23rd i had his VoaC cover on loop #which was annoying to do cos there was no spotify & the youtube app wouldn't let me loop videos #so everytime i finished the song i had to reset the vid myself #my sanity was truly saved by these songs being on Spotify #same goes for his moss cover too #bro of i had last.fm then i would have SO much more counts for those two songs #the bidding too #oh fun fact. i made a very rough sketch of an OC of mine using his TME video & HMS ideas in general #but i was stupid apparently an swapped heart & souls colors which looks cursed now to me #also whats funny is that ibis paint says i started the art on Mar 1st. Which is literally the day before TfaR & TMR an the rest came out #good timing me lol #i need to stop ranting sm in these tags i swear #chonny jash #moss post #hey jash what if you like. post the next power hour today. gift for listening for like 82000 minutes or whatever my Spotify wrapped was /j #don't actually i wanna sleep #speaking of. I should go do that. its like 3am rn

[usareiis]

#seriously seriously one of the most beautiful pieces of music i have ever heard #i feel so conflicted thinking about this but i was always afraid to get more into shinee because of jonghyun #i remember the exact day he died when i was in high school and i remember feeling slammed with the news even though he was just guy from... #...clue + note to me and as i have gotten more into kpop in the past few years i have been there for all of shinee's comebacks from don't... #...call me on and i always kept them at a distance bc even though i thought they seemed so cool i was worried to get into them and always... #...feel like someone was missing. and now that my little sister has gotten so into them i have too #and it does feel like someone is missing all of the time and we watch so much content of jonghyun together that sometimes it hits me all... #...over again how unreal and bad it is that he isn't in the world with us anymore #i am so sad too thinking about how i almost didn't hear some of the most beautiful music out of the fear of grieving him #one of the most beautiful voices and i click with his words so so much #like he's my friend and i almost never got to know him :( and that thought it so much worse than the worry of having to miss him :( #it also makes me sick bc if it would have changed anything for him at all. he's still making so many people happy. he's still there for me. #i don't get this emotional every time i listen to him but sometimes it all hits me #music #Spotify

[eggmeralda]

I wish there was a way you could put like. every song in the world on shuffle

#spotify playlists made for you are not enough #bc they're based on music i already like and i don't Wanna Hear Music I Already Like #god i need a hyperfixation that is Stable and also New (not a revival of one I've had since I was 16) #bc they introduce me to music i wouldn't have even thought of ever going near #not to compare everything to the highs of my tflu obsession but like? #that introduced me to So Much Music (some related. some not) #i probably listened to more genres in 2022 than i have ever listened to in my life #but idk. i could just listen to some random genre i have no interest in but what would be the point? #there needs to be a sort of 'hilda would've liked this in the 40s' 'this reminds me of swagtre' 'this is literally the plot of nddp' etc #sort of connection #but all i have right now is the endless cycling continuation of the south park obsession i had in 2016. which makes it very easy to just #listened to the music i listened to back then #also it's like. I've seen everything in that fandom there's nothing new i can really get out of it? #it's more just a mix of nostalgia and it's like. easy to get into bc idk. a lot of characters and storylines so you don't get bored in one #place for so long. almost the perfect obsession if it wasn't literally South Park #but surely i can just type in a character's name on spotify and find new music that way? #hahaha No #bc every single sp playlist I've looked through only seems to use like the same 10 songs. and i don't really like any of them #also 'he would not fucking say that' except it's 'he would not fucking listen to that' #most of the time. idk #i need new Vibes that's the problem #there's always a new vibe going on at all times but it seems to have stopped around the start of this year #maybe i just need a job. once i have a job there'll be a location i go to regularly. and I'll have to travel there in some way. and that #will be a new experience. and there'll be new vibes #I'll probably stumble across a new hyperfixation in the process. and then find new music from it #but for now everything is so stagnant and all i really listen to is 80s/90s indie pop and then just music i've listened to since I was 14 #i can't even ask for recommendations bc even if i like a song it has nothing to stick to in my brain #i'll be like ''this is a cool song i like it'' and listen to it on repeat and then go off it like a day later #oh fuck tag limit #ramble

[match-your-steps]

unpopular opinion but I hate michael buble's christmas album. least favorite album ever in the world that I can think of. I would prefer objectively bad music, christmas or not, and I am not kidding or exaggerating, nor was that a hard choice to make

#ok it's true that I do not like a lot of recorded christmas music #like the kind you might hear on the radio #because it feels so arbitrary and like a capitalistic grab #which is not a 'true spirit of christmas' thing actually #i just. they're so inauthentic. #like are you singing these songs to make money or because you like them? #idk and tbh it feels like you're just showing off #so no thanks #and a lot of other songs feel like. you just put christmas in there to say this a christmas song but it's literally not #jingle bells make this a christmas song but they also really do not #having said that I feel like I shouldn't be making sweeping statements because #uncle pat by the amoeba people literally says christmas once and talks about eggnog in the chorus and there are jingle bells but i love it #I like singing christmas music like. at church in the congregation. feels better that way #but this does not mean I like listening to recorded choir arrangements. I do not except if it's fun then I am much more likely to #heck I liked being in choir significantly more than michael buble's christmas album and I hated being in choir #anyways yeah I would rather listen to camron crowe (61 monthly spotify listeners but it used to be like 4 and that was the right number tbh #(sorry for you camron crowe but your music is not very good and there is a reason that career did not take off) #but yeah I'd rather listen to his stuff on repeat for like a week straight than have to sit down #and actually listen to michael buble's christmas album more than like two and a half times #I think that's my limit #so. yeah #those are my strong feelings about michael buble's christmas album #michael buble #michael buble's christmas album #christmas music #unpopular opinion #music #camron crowe #bad music #objectively bad music

[rotisseries]

i think my zelink playlist is my only good one like this shit is devastating genuinely

#the one exception on there being I would do anything for love by meatloaf #which is a classic case of “I like this song so much that I'm gonna black out and insist it goes here anyway even if it maybe doesn't” #lyrically that song is fine its just that the rest of the playlist is sad indie shit so it fucks with the vibes a bit #anyway this post is kind of a lie my el and max ones are also good and also probably better than the zelink one #it's just that 99 percent of the time if I make a character/ship/feeling playlist I get like 4 songs in it #go “hmm I'll work on this more another time” and never touch it again. so. most of them suck #and that's part of the reason my entire spotify profile is private #but the zelink one. well it's technically also not done to me hence why I made it in may and then never sent it to gloomy #hi gloomy sorry gloomy #but it's like 2 hours long which in retrospect is I think a normal length for playlists but not to me not if it's you #2 hours is normal if you curate that shit I don't curate my ideal playlist is an 8 hour monstrosity with every song #that even briefly induces character feelings #so um. georgia by phoebe bridgers though #anyway I was actually listening to the zelink playlist today bc I was thinking about ANOTHER couple. um😐 #and it was genuinely getting rancid awful radioactive in my brain so I was like “FUCK THIS!! I NEED TO THINK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE” #and forcibly induced a zelink breakdown #prescribed 500 ml of zelinkism to combat The Diseases

[astarab1aze]

#➥ Kaede. #☿ || Music. #/ hold on i'm sobbing over kaede again #/ he's so- #/ i wish and i hope to high heaven #/ that others would love him as much as i do #/ not that anyone doesnt but listen #/ he is easily my saddest muse #/ even more so than vayn #/ and that's *hard* to do when you consider my other muses #/ they're *all* sad for one reason or another #/ but kae....oh kae #/ he's just...he's just a boy #/ he's always just been a boy #/ a child with a broken heart #/ that no one on this earth wants to even try to fix #/ and he's made his peace with that but good golly god FUCK #Spotify

[skyburger]

i know their asses are fake music fans i know wamuu has never heard a single george michael song hes never even heard wake me up before you go-go. esidisi doesnt even KNOW about highway to hell. kars is also there

#SORRY IDK ANY CARS SONGS #i did look them up on spotify and like i listened to it and its good music!!!! but ive never heard it before LOL #anyway. i feel like ive sinned spelling acdc and wham like that #but i always spell kars with a k he looks stupid with a c... Automobile? your name is fucking automobile? #anyway as much as i just wanna call them wham and acdc. if i write them the official localization way #its easier for me to make clear when im talking about wham! (the pop duo) and AC/DC (the rock band) #anyway im allowed to post this because like well firstly why wouldnt i be #but secondly george michael is my moms fave singer #and before i discovered mcr i would say ac/dc was my fave band cuz that was like the first real artist i would just #sit down and listen to all their music you know #like before that i didnt have a fave!!! i would just say i liked 80s music #cause tbh all i listened to was video game songs and the radio #and i feel like half the radio was and still is one hit wonders #so id listen to one song by someone on spotify and like it but then i just wouldnt care for any of their other stuff a lot of the time #anyway ac/dc and eventually mcr were my gateway drug into like becoming a Music Guy (aka having more of a taste in music than i did + #when i was 12 years old.) #tldr wham is my moms fave band (''pop duo'' technically i guess but stfu its a band) and ac/dc was my first fave (and i still love em) #so im rightfully furious (jokingly) that these faker jjba villians dont even listen to their music!!!! THAT MUSIC IS BICHIN!!!! #stop killing people and listem to everything she wants by wham! please. please. it will fix you #also heres my formal apology to santana because like i have beef with kars for being kars #but santana didnt do shit i just dunno any songs by santana #like the band. sorry to mr. santana himself i will listen to your music one day i promise #anyway sorry for the ramble i looooove talking #muffin mumbles

[moldwood]

it being 75F in march and receiving the stupidest news about an old somebodys thoughts has me lighting a cigarette on the back porch and lookin out at the woods. its just factually incorrect is all

#do i feel like addressing it?? i dont talk to them. i cant imagine its worth my time. #do i care what someone thinks that badly?????? im thinking no #it would take so many paragraphs. its just bullshit. but its lots of piles of small bullshit that would take so much more work to clean up #than one big pile. #yeah nahhhhhhh i aint gonna do all that. aint like theyll listen anyway. ill have another piece of apple pie yknow it dont feel riiiiiiiigh #porch time done i go back to drawin now #save me butterfly weed. butterfly weed save me #Spotify

[ereborne]

Your song posts are very fun! Will you ever share the playlists you talk about?

Thank you!! I spend a lot of time with music, which means I talk about it a lot, so I'm really glad it's entertaining!

Honestly, it hadn't really occurred to me before that I could share any of my playlists themselves--I make them in my media player (foobar) so they're just hosted locally on my laptop. I do have a spotify account, though. I could make playlists there to share. I'd have to decide on an order (mostly I save stuff in alphabetical order and then just play it on shuffle) and figure out names and descriptions (maybe headers?) but it could be a fun project. Would--oh shit can I embed a poll here.

Sometimes I think tumblr updates are always bad and then I remember how for months I couldn't respond to asks at all, and now here I've got a poll in my answer. So fancy!

#asks #anon #thank you for the compliment and for the question! I hope you're still around to see the answer #not that I guess it's much of an answer? truly I am thinking this through as I go. but it could be fun! #unless you mean the CoD playlist I was listening to that had 'Who the Fuck is Alice' on it? I think this ask maybe came in before that #in either case I was already planning on sharing that playlist! I think it's set to come out of the queue on Monday #edit: I was so caught up in the poll euphoria I didn't actually put in a 'no that would be dumb' option so probably I sound very cocky #please tell me to put the polls down if you would prefer I not bother you with more musical speculation #and also I guess let me know if anybody has a better (free) suggestion than spotify? #I do miss 8tracks :/

[medicasino]

LOSING MY FUCKING MIND RIGHT NOW

#affie txt #musicposting #JHARIAH JUST CANNOT PUT OUT A BAD SONG I HAVE DECIDED. IM GOING TO LOSE IT #THIS SONG IS EVERYTHING TO ME I KNEW FROM THE SNIPPET IT WOULD BE AMAZING #BUT HOOOOOOOOOOOLY SHIT I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR HOW GOOD THIS SONG WOULD BE #PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LISTEN TO IT IM BEGGING YOU ITS SO FUCKING GOOD #i haven't heard much from Save Face besides Preoccupied (which i ADORE) and this song but i WILL listen to more from them #because this was just. OH MY GOD. OH MY GOD. ITS INCREDIBLE IM LOSING MY MARBLES #PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE LISTEN TO A LESSON IN DRAMATICS ITS SO SO S O GOOD #Spotify

[pr1nc3-0f-d4rkn3ss]

Speaking of shuake, this song is so them, I can't take it >_wᡣ𐭩

#why couldn't they play more music like this today? #I would have worked so much harder if I had some pop punk #to be fair we listened to last resort by papa roach 3 different times #shuake #pierce the veil #emo #god damn they are so emo #Spotify

[smallboyonherbike]

this is a curated selection of my all time older faves, yes i am an expert (source: my parents exclusively played country CDs and radio my entire life)

my women country playlist (mix of 90s-today) if ur interested

#polls #poll #megamazing #no my parents aren't southern i've asked why they only listen to country and never gotten a clear answer lol #some classic rock and 80s too but they don't play that much #there are so many awful male country songs burned into my brain that i never wanna hear again #like the proud to be an american and i love this bar horseshit #but as an adult i can collect the ones i love and it's great #it did hurt me to only put one the chicks song on here bc they're everything to me #but i wanted a range #ALSO i would have included dolly but her hits are older #honorable mention to something more by sugarland i booted her off for i hope you dance #Spotify

[arthyritis]

I call this the special interests took over my listening

#spotify wrapped #spotify wrapped 2022 #natewantstobattle #jacksepticeye #and more lol #I knew Nate would probably be number one lol #and I listened to zetlys ego songs album just. so much that it’s also no surprise #the devil and underground surprised me though #into the unknown and phantom are just Nate songs ms the deep down dark deep is Jack lol #this was a fun one ^^