Welcome to JamWise!
My newsletter about how to become a better music listener.
Music fans are at a unique point in history. There’s an impossibly huge and ever-growing amount of music out there. Even though we’ve got access to nearly all of it at the press of a button, there’s just too much. We’ll never get through it all.
For the younger generations, this presents a problem. Our elders proclaim the greatest music ever made, most of which was old long before we were born. Our peers wade into the fray to discover the best music of today, which is a larger task than ever before. How do we balance the respect for the music that came before with the current voice of the music world? How can we avoid the inevitable FOMO that comes with missing great music that we just don’t have time to find?
To me, it’s straightforward: we become better listeners.
We only have so many minutes to listen to great music - there has to be a balance between appreciation for what’s new and what came before. History is important, as is staying in touch with today’s world. My goal is to connect the history of music with today’s best jams, and to find a way to navigate between them.
I’m not here to recommend the best music - I’m here to educate myself, and to provide a roadmap for other young people to educate themselves on music, seeking a balance between old and new. Being a great listener takes skill and effort, especially when navigating such an insane amount of music.
And so, I have a plan. This newsletter will be where I work through these steps to achieve musical balance.
After some introspection, I decided to take the following steps (currently on steps 1 and 2)
Educate myself on the musical canon across genres and decades
Find out what traits make me love certain songs, artists, or genres
Catch up on the current canon and find the links to the past
Build my philosophy as a music fan - discover balance between old and new
I’m embarking on a series of projects to achieve these goals. The goal of each project is to listen both critically and for enjoyment, develop my knowledge of my own musical taste, and become a better listener.
Currently, I’m listening my way through several “Best Albums Ever” lists to raise my awareness of the mainstream canon of great music. My current list is the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and I have several more in the pipeline if that’s not your favorite list - my philosophy is that no list will be perfect, and it’s better to start than to nitpick the rankings. I chose this list because it includes relatively modern artists, and that seemed more interesting than listening decade by decade.
You can follow along with all of my music ratings and reviews at RateYourMusic.
I believe there’s an art to being a music fan, and Jamwise is my journey to master that art.
And I can’t do it alone.
Why subscribe?
Music discovery is a communal endeavor. I’m sharing this journey in order to find others with similar goals. The discussions I’ve had around music with other people - real people - have been more impactful than any recommendation algorithm or list of music. People love music for many reasons - learning those reasons helps me get more in touch with my own listening tendencies and habits.
Jamwise is free! Payment in the form of comments and music recommendations is encouraged, however.
And you may have noticed that I used .org for my website. This is on purpose - I plan to use any future proceeds from this newsletter to support music-related causes. We’re not there yet, but every new subscription helps get closer to the goal of generating money for good causes. More will come on that as we grow.
Subscribe for free to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives, and help us reach our goal of creating a generation of music lovers!
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