Episode #200: Did I Actually Listen To That?

Yes, this is the legendary late kitty of mine, Holly, who tripped across the rainbow bridge during the pandemic year of 2020.

The other day, I was perusing my socialized media platform of choice, YouTube, when I noticed in the comment section of a cover band that I follow {Broken Peach} that someone mentioned that the band was in their 2023 YT music recap. I didn't think much of it until a FB friend happened to mention/post her top ten Spotify list, then presto, blog post topic.

I've been commenting on YouTube for the past five years, simply because out of all the socialized media platforms that I'm familiar with, this one seems to be the most stable of the bunch. In short, because of the variety of the channels that I subscribe to {57 and counting}, 99% of the commenters I come across are the type that don't engage in flame wars or any of the kind of trolling that permeates those other platforms.

Normally I do not bother with the yearly music recap, because I really don't care to review what I listen to. I listen to what intrigues me the most. However, because I needed something to blog about and because Little Brother is a trade-off when your digital life is controlled by the Alphabet Company, it was a match made in Purgatory.

~~~~~~~

So to start things off, according to YouTube, I listened to 1,456 minutes of music, contained in 297 different songs that were performed by 129 different artists. For genres, this breaks down to 23% Rock; 16% Indie; 9% Heavy Metal; 7% Pop and 4% Country, with the remaining 41% classified as Other. 

I'm like, "Okay....", like, apparently listening to Classical or any other now predominately niche genres like RPG/Fantasy didn't register on the YT Algorithm Scale? Whatever. How about we look at what the top 5 songs where that piqued my interest that were played?

1} South Side by Moby;

2} Life Is A Rock by Reunion;

3} Bad by Royal Deluxe;

4} What Would You Do With A Bernie Sanders by The Cog Is Dead;

5} Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy) by Big & Rich.

Ummm....Okay? Like, I really can't believe that those were my top 5 tracks listened to for 2023. Granted, they were good, but "South Side"? Really? I'm sure there were a lot of other tracks that got heavy play that should've made this list.

Well, how 'bout my top five artists? That should be a good one, right? Right?

1} Leo Moracchioli aka Frog Leap Studios;

2} Broken Peach;

3} Violet Orlandi;

4} Ami Kim;

5} Moby.

Okay, I get the first four listed, as they are prolific cover artists whose videos are a must watch, and who are now branching out into original music, but Moby? Moby? Really? There are so many other artists that I have watched on YouTube that are so much more worthy, like Sina, whose drum covers are spot on and who is branching out into original music as well.

Sigh.

Well, let's try to see what my particular music mood was. Uplifting was 25%; Upbeat was 24%; Energizing was 22%; Dramatic was 15% and Happy was 11%. Who knows what the remaining 3% was. And I have no idea on how to even remotely interpret this particular glob of info. Does it mean that all the music that I had decided to listen to was just one big fat Venn Diagram for positivity? I find that very odd indeed.

It looks like that overall, the stats that YouTube came up with were woefully short of meatiness, but overflowing on vapid empty calories. If anything, it just solidifies my belief that ignoring my yearly YouTube music recap was a very good move on my part, and that paying attention to it this time was an exercise in bewilderment. Like the commercial where the waiter brings out prawn for a customer who clearly states that he has a shellfish allergy.

To sum it up, for 2023 I listened to, allegedly, 24 1/4 hours of music that was collectively produced by 129 different artists who created 297 different songs. To be honest, I have to disagree with the total amount of time spent listening to music, because I'm almost certain that I'd listened to more than 24 1/4 hours of YouTube music. But what do I know, I'm only the actual user of the product, so my opinion means as much to YouTube as a politician who swings right or centrist with their opinions.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this little weird breakdown of my YouTube music listening endeavors, because this is what you have to look forward to if you spent even a scintilla doing the exact same thing. And please check out those artists links, they really have put out some outstanding quality music videos on their channels throughout 2023.

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved