New Year, New Project

As I've been hinting at for the past couple of months, I've been itching to take this blog in a different direction. The theme format has been working for the past year and a half and I've taken a lot of great lessons from working with it. I've learned how to focus in on patterns, broadened my knowledge of lesser known musical genres, and generally have had a lot of fun ranting on the various topics explored. My new project, in a way, is a natural evolution of that. Before I get into it though, I did want to go over the success (as I define it) of the past year. My goal was to write more and I have accomplished that. Prior to December, I was hitting an average of 10 posts a month, or roughly 2 a week, which I believe is a very sustainable rhythm to be retained this year (in fact, in order for my new project to really work, I need to try to hit that average again). During December, I didn't quite hit my goal of writing a post every day, but I did hit 21 posts in a month. This is a personal record for me and is pretty good considering how busy I was during December. Overall, my writing style has evolved considerably. The goal is always to develop and become more confident in my own voice and I think I've moved the goal posts a fair distance in that respect.

Now, for the project. I intend to write and research the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. There are many lists that recount and rank all the albums, so to keep it simple, I'm using Rolling Stone's list. Say what you will about them regarding their current direction as a publication, but Rolling Stone has been the standard for music writing since the '60s and that's something to be respected. I considered going in order from 100 to 1 but, that's really not my style and it's not really important for the goal of this project, so the album choice will vary in ranking from week to week. My goal for this project is to expand my musical knowledge in a more structured way. Each album has been shaped by events on both the micro-and-macro levels. I plan to research what was happening at the time of the album's development and release in the artists' personal lives, the historical backdrop of the era, and in the skies up above in astrological regards. These won't really be reviews - as far as I'm concerned, my opinion is insignificant. These were listed as the greatest albums for a reason - even if I'm not completely in love with the music, there is probably something there I'll appreciate and respect on an intellectual level. At most, I may interject any stray thoughts, emotions, or images that were evoked while I was listening. For the most part, I want to focus on the historical aspect and why these albums had the impact they had.

Additionally, I have a few music-related movies and books I've been meaning to watch/read. I may do some short reviews on them throughout the year. I'm not going to say this year will be completely Song du Jour free, but they will be few and far between. Thank you for your continued readership and I'm super excited to see what 2020 brings.