December's An Album a Day
December's An Album a Day
Reflections on 31 days of listening and writing
Happy New Year readers! After a much-needed break from writing each day for the last month, I wanted to take the time to reflect on all of the listening and writing. From what worked, to the challenges, and what’s next for my Substack, this post will be a way of debriefing.
Let’s start with what was difficult.
The actual writing.
Going into December, I knew writing would be the most challenging part of my goal. I was right about that. Almost every night, even when I had done my due diligence of listening earlier in the day, I was up until 12:30 or so writing and publishing a piece. I can count on one hand how many times I had completed an album and my post before 9 pm. After a particularly late-night email blast, a friend texted and asked if my pieces were scheduled or published in real time. In case anyone else was wondering, yes, they were all written and posted in real-time and my sleep schedule was pretty messy because of it. Acknowledging last month’s posts were all done within hours, I hope you’ll excuse any typos and the informal nature of many of the posts. There was both freedom and anxiety in the way I approached the writing. I knew I wasn’t displaying my strongest work and some days were far better than others. The posts weren’t given the benefit of several drafts and revisions, but they were honest. Though the internet can be a harsh place to voice opinions, I reminded myself that this was meant to be fun and informal. If anyone had an issue with my approach, they could simply stop reading and take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Fighting the urge to fall back into my comfort songs
There were a few days when listening felt like a chore. On those particular days, I wanted to put on one of my personal Spotify playlists and listen to music I knew I liked. The connection between those days was usually me feeling down about something or laziness, but that’s the benefit of being held accountable. I didn’t miss a day and I thought about it this way, listening to an album would allow me to find something new I liked or had overlooked in previous listens.
Letting go of pressure that might not exist
As I mentioned in the introduction post to this series, I wanted to have more intentional listening time throughout December. I didn’t want music to only function in the background, I needed to break out of the habit so many of us have fallen into and really engage with the music I was consuming daily. There was also a need to continue enjoying music without guilt or pressure to listen to what other people were listening to. I was mostly successful with this, but the urge to listen to something “cool” or not “basic” influenced my selection process. I worried about what readers would take an interest in as well as what my selection of albums would say about my intelligence. If I admitted to not having a previous relationship with an artist or albums that are heralded as classics, what would that say about me? I found myself gravitating towards works that I had already heard before and liked particular tracks off of so my reflection wouldn’t solely be based on my first impression. I’ve always been an opinionated person, if I wasn’t would I be writing what I think on the internet? Even though my opinionated nature is true to myself, I still hesitated at times to pull back the curtain on what I felt were bad listening habits, an elementary selection of records that said something about my inexperience, or even a boring reaction to the music. Going forward, I don’t want to worry about those things as much, everyone who takes the time to read this does so intentionally, and we’ve all got to start somewhere.
Now for the fun parts.
The Listening itself
When I posted about an album a day on Instagram, someone DM’d me that I was taking on a lot of daily listening. I think about it this way, if you listen to music as often as I do, you’re already listening to at least 30 minutes a day. Instead of spending that time listening to the same songs you’ve been cycling through, you can put on an album instead. The listening mostly took care of itself. Yes, there were late nights, and often I gravitated towards shorter albums, but if I hadn’t held myself to writing something daily, and was only required to listen, I think I could’ve done two records a day. Often I started and stopped records thinking I found the one I wanted to write about for substack, and then pivoted because I was unsure of what angle to take in the writing. This dedicated listening time helped me hear new ideas in albums I was already familiar with and critically think about the music coming across my ears.
Recommendations and talking to people about music
I’m lucky to have a lot of professional musician friends, and being a part of a community of musicians can often lead to really great conversations about music, its building blocks, and theory. There will always be value in discussing how music is made from a theoretical lens, and I’m grateful for those conversations, but this month has brought so many conversations forward with non-musicians that spoke to me. Not only was I able to talk to family about the albums that impacted their lives and the memories they associated with them, but I was also able to connect with other music lovers on substack and hear their recommendations and opinions. Music isn’t made in a vacuum. Society, culture, and historical moments all influence what we listen to. I also knew that the majority of my readers would have little to no experience with music theory, so writing about chord changes wouldn’t be interesting. I’m grateful to write about music and how it affects me as an individual and uplift dialogues that center a listening experience. It’s a vulnerable way to approach things, but combining the personal, historical, and cultural context is something that has value. Listeners deserve credit for their perception, thoughtfulness, and dedication to music.
Writing Practice and fixed deadlines
I’ve always been a bit of a procrastinator, which is why this post has taken so long. Fixed deadlines and a little bit of pressure are key to my success and since I’ve left behind the manufactured deadlines of undergrad, giving myself a deadline, even though it was demanding, helped me so much. I enjoy writing, and as I work on finding my voice this exercise has been a fun way to write on what I care about. Practice is essential to getting better, so I hope there will be a time when I look back and cringe at these posts because I will be a better writer.
A question I’ve been getting a lot is if I will be doing this again. To be perfectly frank, No. I most likely will not do this again, at least not in this format. If I did want to take on this challenge in the future I would tweak it. Maybe listening to albums and posting a weekly summary with a short commentary on each listen, or listening to something every day for a month and picking my favorite albums at the end.
I do want to continue writing on substack about music, and think it will come in a few ways. One way is in connection to some of the other pieces written about family and life. Another is in deeper album dives where I take more time to research. I am also completely open to suggestions on what you lovely readers would want to receive from me. I know most of my subscribers joined after the publishing of my piece “117 W 90th Street” so if more memoir-style writing is your jam, I get that. Though it was somewhat of a surprise to me, there was a large subscriber jump with my daily listening posts, so many readers will want music content to continue. Regardless of why you subscribed, I can’t thank you enough for your engagement with my work, it truly means the world. The warm welcome to the substack community of music writers has been so uplifting as I navigate being an amateur writer. I hope to have a few pieces for you soon, including an introduction of sorts for the newcomers, but until then, thank you for reading!
Until Soon,
Emily