Giving Your Ears to the Living

For years I listened to the same music. 90s hip-hop. Fleetwood Mac on repeat. An embarrassing amount of 80s pop. If you'd asked me why, I had a ready answer: modern music just isn't as good. The classics are classics for a reason.

Then a few months ago, something shifted. I don't remember exactly how it started. An Aurora song in a playlist, maybe. Then Pomme. Then Lana Del Rey. Properly, not just the singles I'd half-heard years ago. Then more.

Aurora sings like someone who never agreed to the terms and conditions of being a normal person. Pomme writes in French about love with a precision that makes you feel it in a language you may not even speak. Lana Del Rey built an entire universe out of nostalgia for things that (perhaps) never existed, and somehow made it feel more honest than most people's autobiographies.

I'm in complete awe of these artists. The talent, the authenticity, the rawness. You can hear that the songs cost something to write.

I've been listening while I work, for months now. And I've enjoyed my work more than I have in years. Not because the music makes me productive. But because it makes me feel something while I'm working.

The old music is still great. Rumours is still a perfect album. Biggie is still untouchable. But those artists had their time. They got the arenas, the magazine covers, the decades of cultural real estate. They've been heard.

The people making music right now haven't had that yet. Some of them might never get it. And there's something that feels right about giving your attention to the ones who are still building.