Secondhand Setlists

There’s plenty of music I know nothing about – and knowing that is part of the process.

A dear friend of mine, one whom I met through music Twitter but wisely avoids it, not too long ago texted me asking my opinion on Harry Styles’s Harry’s House. To her surprise, I replied I had not heard it. As of writing this, I still haven’t. Style’s music remains a bit of blindspot to me. Though I could hum melodies from “As It Was” or “Watermelon Sugar,” asking me to recite a melody or pull a deep cut of his or One Direction’s music would leave you disappointed.

I am not the only one coming up short with their pop star knowledge these days. Last week, Mean Girls actress and singer Reneé Rapp, on a press tour for the ages, revealed that she doesn’t know who Kylie Minogue is. Her exact quote was “Who is this queen?” This was not a case of “I don’t know her,” nor did Rapp give any dismissive follow up when given info by her English interviewer. Upon being enlightened, she responded, “I love her then! Let me get right.”

This sparked a bit of conversation and surprise, much of it I found interesting considering the facts at hand. Reneé Rapp was born in the year 2000. The last time Kylie Minogue ever appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 was 2003, at the 91st spot. Even among the gay community here in the States, it’s taken Minogue up until the last four years to truly reenter the public consciousness in a way that isn’t restricted to communities where the members refer to pop stars as Dula Peep or Poot Lovato. Rapp probably never suffered through dialup; she’s had more information available to her than any other generation in history. There’s plenty for her to explore, and as a result plenty to overshadow all the rest.

To me, Rapp blanking on Kylie Minogue feels refreshing. As a person “in the music industry,” I encounter an immense Wall of Sound every day I unlock my phone or boot up my laptop. This din roars in my ear as news blasts, PR emails, weekly Topsters, zip files sitting in my Downloads folder – there’s a fuckton of music out there, and there’s a lot of pressure to hear it. So Rapp calmly revealing one of her blindspots, and leaving herself open to being educated, should remind us that for every album we can name, another fan can name 20 more we can’t even spell, much less identify the genre, and that it’s not always our fault.

I come back to this tweet from Jacqueline Codiga with some sage advice: “the desire to be an ‘I listen to Everything’ reviewer results in half assed takes from people who don’t know what they’re talking about.” What a pill to swallow. I’ve certainly engaged in critiquing art that I lack the interest in or knowledge of, resulting in takes that give me no pride to share (so won’t be sharing those here, Google me if you need to read them). The older I get, the smaller my scope of knowledge seems to be – an overwhelming yet ironically thrilling reality. I will never hear all the music that I could love, meaning there will never be a shortage of new music to find for the first time. In the past year, I’ve fallen deeply for artists like Haifa Wehbe for the first time, songs of old entering my personal Hot 100 with the rotation stats of a new Adele single.

It’s become an exercise to embrace the vast, impossible-to-cover library of music, to turn my lack of knowledge into a sense of adventure. I decided during #MWE 2021 to tackle landmark albums I’d never heard, in the process making me a new fan of 50 Cent, MC Lyte, and Linda Ronstadt. Despite doing much to fill the gaps in my musical knowledge, there remain numerous artists whose sound escapes me. So, I wrote some of them out below.

The blindspots I’ve included are more contemporary artists, ones more applicable to my generation and groups I’m a part of (musicheads, millennials, the gays). Obviously my overall blindspots are far greater than those listed, but I don’t care to delve into why I don’t know anything about the Velvet Underground (that music is literally not going anywhere).

Oneohtrix Point Never

I do not know how to pronounce Daniel Lopatin’s chosen artist name; I know much less of his catalog. R Plus Seven is one of those records I always see on social media. It’s is a project I suspect I might enjoy immensely if I gave it the time, but I simply do not want to at the moment. As a listener, I am impatient and am not always the most receptive to the avant-garde, heady, or honestly, music I write off as “slow.” I can admit this limits my exposure to artists I would likely enjoy; another part of me would like to refer to the timeless advice “stop calling bad music ‘experimental.'”

All this to say, it could be that one day I’ll look back on this and shake my head. But that’s later.

Boygenius (and their members)

At the risk of sounding dismissive, most rock, indie, and/or “band”-centric music fails to grip me the way it did in the 2000s. The meshing of guitar, bass, percussion, and vocalist is a combination that’s more than half-a-century old – it can feel dated, especially when there’s no shortage of it these days. I skew more towards the shimmering pop rock of The Aces or Muna ahead of what (I presume) Phoebe, Lucy, and Julien are putting out, which my mind compartmentalizes as sad guitar indie.

Again, this is a blindspot of mine, so for all I know they make beautiful music, and incorporate more than the typical four instruments named above. Maybe one of them plays the piano or bassoon in a way that would enjoin me to dance, and dancing is ultimately all I ever want music to make me do. If someone wants to point me in the direction of a Boygenius song that sounds like “Strong Enough,” my inbox is open.

Elliott Smith

Mr. Smith has been on my list since my best friend Kaylee, the coolest person of our middle school years, made mention of him. In the situation of someone like Smith, or like the aforementioned National, his presence looms large across the music world. When murals of him are defaced in LA, they make headlines. Artists commonly cite him as an influence. Additionally, like the Boygenius crew, I assume Smith’s music to be more downtempo and somber. Again, I am drawn to uptempo music, often especially the sad songs. Due to my presumptions and my taste, Smith has become someone I’ll “get around to.” Since he’s also tragically deceased, it’s not like I have to worry about the catalog getting any larger.

The National

I am proud the National hail from Ohio; I have very few opinions on them past that. Change my mind (positive)!

MF DOOM

This one is embarrassing to admit. A rapper wrote an entire album around the King of Terror (who is in fact one of my favorite vocalists of all time) and I’ve not gotten around to it? Unfortunately, no. I find the facts around DOOM quite fascinating – the mask, the concept of Take Me To Your Leader, Madvillainy‘s status as among musicheads, the fact that we learned of his passing nearly two months after the fact. And yet, here I am, ignorant to the material that made him the figure he is today. To be honest, I listened to Madvillainy once, but it failed to click with me. That perhaps has to do with other habits I want to work on as a fan – I am not a patient listener and lyrics are usually not the first thing that appeals to my ear.

Radiohead

Whatever, okay? One of the classics tuned in to during my aforementioned #MWE, OK Computer just made me want to revisit Muse, which I know is a backwards way of thinking. I did like the Atoms for Peace project, particularly “Default,” which a dance instructor played for me in a modern class many years ago. If memory serves, Radiohead also soundtracked a trailer for the original Skins, a formative visual that’ll stick with me probably forever. And this is all I really have to say about one of the most important bands of the last 30 years.

The Spice Girls

This one puzzles even me as a strident fan of other girls groups ranging from Kara to the Chiffons to Paradiso Girls. But when I hear “Wannabe” come on at the club, I take my cue to leave the dancefloor and get in line at the bar. There is nothing more irksome to me than hearing this song. Part of that stems from the reactions it elicits – you all will go up for this but when I get the aux you want me to turn off After School? It bewilders me that folks hold reservations on other iterations of pop yet lose their minds for this very annoying song. My dislike of “Wannabe” definitely keeps me from diving any further into their discography, at my own expense I’m sure. Though to be frank, I don’t care for “Say You’ll Be There” nor “Spice Up Your Life” either. Sorry to the girls and gays.

Maybe the above gaps in my knowledge changed your opinion of me. They certainly make me reflect on my own interests and habits. Hopefully they give you some insight into who I am. Our blindspots reveal where we come up short, but they can also tell others about what catches our eye and appeals to our ears. Now, I think about how Renee Rapp gets to experience the rush of “Too Much” or “Wow” for the first time; on the flipside, her not knowing Kylie Minogue outside of her branded champagne tells me she might not be the person to play those types of tunes for. All of it’s fun to think about and even more fun to discuss with another person. Maybe one of you know just the way to get me into one of the artists listed, which I invite you to do. Let me get right.