About NewYearsDayProject

Back in high school or college, you’ve probably given a mixtape to someone or received one from a friend or potential love interest. Depending on your age, it may have been on a cassette tape, a burned CD, or a shared playlist on a streaming site. Some music experts are calling playlists the future of music consumption, and that has its pros and cons. There are so many curated and auto-generated playlists available, but I found that I prefer to listen to my own music in mood-based playlists. So the idea came to me late in 2018, what if one song could encapsulate the mood of a day? What if a playlist could encapsulate a month? So in 2019, I started to make playlists based on what I thought was the best song of the day. In 2020, I started writing about those songs, but choosing songs based partially on how appropriate they sound and partially on which song that I listened to that day that I couldn’t get out of my head.

I decided to write a blog entry about each song because I love the stories behind the songs that I uncover, and if I can’t find a story, the song usually tells me a little about itself and it becomes my own story.  I write as a fan with rudimentary knowledge of music theory and virtually no knowledge about production. I find both of these aspects fascinating along with chart statistics. When I talk about these aspects in my blog posts, I try to cite YouTubers and writers who are much more knowledgeable on that subject.

My blog NewYearsDay Project comes from the first song of every year, "New Years Day" by U2. The idea was to make a playlist of songs that puts the listener in the mood for the month. I'll leave links for my general monthly playlist and the specific playlists from last year. When I write about a song, I try to tell an interesting story I've read about the artist around the time that the song was released. Sometimes a good story drags me into the artist in a way that the song alone does not. Another way that I get into music is through connections with other artists. Sometimes I want to hear a band that sounds like ______, so a streaming platform will recommend similar artists. Also, if bands tour together or namedrop, I'm more likely to check out the artist. 

Before I start the NewYearsProject I should lay down a few confines I'll try to adhere to. 

1) One main artist per month. For example one anberlin song per month.

2) An artist may appear multiple times as a guest/featured artist with another main artists. For example Troye Sivan's "Dance to This" ft. Ariana Grande doesn't disqualify Ariana Grande's "No Tears Left to Cry" from appearing later that month. 

3) Songs must contain lyrics.

4) I will try to provide an English translation for K-pop (or Spanish, German, etc) songs that appear on the list. 

5) I will try to leave readers with useful links to music videos, news articles, podcasts, etc.

6) I'll try to stick to about 500 words on each blog post. 

7) I'll write about myself and my history with the song/artist/album, etc. So please bear with the personal stories.

8) I'll try to link you to my YouTube and Apple Music playlist. Some songs may be available only on YouTube, particularly if it's a cover that really struck me. I don't have Spotify, but I'd welcome any reader to start a list.

9) The song should encapsulate the mood of the day. In other words, something about the music or the lyrics should sound like autumn if it’s autumn, should sound like summer if it’s summer, should sound Christmasy even if it’s not a Christmas song.

Now some disclaimers for my haters--this is me pretending like I'll have readers :)

1) My musical taste is eclectic. Feel free to disagree respectfully.  

2) Things may get personal. I need to be able to write about anything on my mind without censoring my audience. I want to reveal myself and my beliefs organically as the writing prompts me. I try to write respectfully toward others. I will not use the real names of people, places, or institutions unrelated to the music. 

3) My writing is the result of about an hour's work from start to finish. These are rough drafts. I hope to look over them when I have more time, and if I see something glaring, I'll update it. My research is imperfect, but I will continue to research and update the post later if I find something wrong.

4) Big disclaimer: My views do not necessarily reflect the views of the artists I write about.  There's going to be some problematic songs on this list and they will have been catchy enough for me to write about them. I fully disagree with them, but the song still has relevance to the day.