Another year-end music mashup

The video above is one of two music mashup videos I share each year, and like the first, there were a lot of songs I was unfamiliar with. Seems to be the way now.

The video above is the latest from Dj Earworm, “United State of Pop 2023 (Cut The Flowers)”, and it was posted a few days ago, a week or two later than usual, something that doesn’t matter, of course. I recognised two songs in this video, something I know for sure because he always includes a complete tracklist in the YouTube description.

My not knowing the songs is now a common thing. Earlier this month, I shared Adamusic’s mashup, and I said:

This year, I felt my familiarity with the songs was the lowest ever: While I recognised many artists, I was unfamiliar with the songs themselves—apart from Luke Combs’ cover of “Fast Car”, and that was only because I know the original.

That was also true of the Dj Earworm’s mashup, except that in it I also recognised Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers”. The reason is still the same: We don’t have pop video music channels anymore, and I never listen to the radio. This actually bothers me: For my entire life, I’ve been at least familiar with pop songs, no matter what I thought about them, and now that’s no longer true.

This isn’t just about me—I’m indisputably getting older, obviously, but another big factor is that the entire music industry has changed dramatically since I was a kid. The way people find and listen to music is nothing like it was back then, and I, for one, haven’t found a new way that works for me.

Ads and Reels on Facebook (in particular) have sometimes caught my attention, as have the recommendations of friends, but—then what? How do I find new and popular pop music?

I’d forgotten all about it, but back in 2018 or early 2019 I subscribed to the “Official Top 40 NZ Singles” Spotify Playlist. I haven’t listened to it in—well, years, probably. It’s precisely the sort of thing that can help me stay familiar with what’s popular, and a good reason to use Spotify more, as I talked about when I shared my 2023 “Spotify Wrapped”. That’s is a start, at least.

Maybe this is just the start of my version of the sort of distancing from pop culture that previous generations seem to have gone through as they got older. Maybe not, maybe I just have to find a way that works for me in the current reality of the music industry being so very different than when I was young.

I suppose next year’s end of year video mashups will tell me if my strategies have worked or not, and whether I’m familiar with more of the songs. That’ll be a year-long project and process—and it’ll have a soundtrack.