Melissa Recommends Music For the First Time Ever

Just kidding, I'm not recommending any music...YET.

OMG, I Love Music!

That’s what a sticker my sister Michelle recently gifted me said. It’s important to note that she also sent it to our two other sisters, Marina and Raquel, because we all OMG love music! And as three of the primary figures in my music-sharing network, I’m sure they’ll come up in many newsletters to come, whether I’m referencing them in a story attached to a song or just giving credit where credit is due.

Sticker (by Okay Kaya!) that now adorns my water bottle :)

That’s because a lot of the best music that I listen to comes from recommendations— from friends, family, acquaintances, strangers, and algorithms (although you could argue that algorithms as manifestations of our demonstrated likes and dislikes are really just extensions of ourselves with some AI thrown in…so really I’m recommending music to me? But I digress.)

As much as music is a form of self-expression or communication, for me it is ultimately a form of connection. I love to listen to the music that my friends share. I love to share music with my friends. And I’m so excited to start sharing music with you!

So what am I signing up for?

Every other week, I’ll send you a ten-song playlist I’ve curated, along with some commentary on the songs I’ve chosen. That’ll probably take the form of anecdotal backstories, random or not-so-random associations, and maybe (if I’m lucky enough to have a critical thought) some track analysis, history, or my own music theories.

I’ll alternate between two playlist themes outlined below:

LR, or Latest Roundup

The main way I listen to music is through a playlist I have on Spotify called “latest.” Before streaming services, I (as many of us did) downloaded music onto my iTunes library, which had an automated, self-regulating playlist called “Recently Added” where all the music you had downloaded in the past 30 days appeared and then disappeared after the 30-day mark. When I switched to Spotify, I tried to recreate that with “latest.” Unfortunately I can’t program Spotify playlists to function in the same way as “Recently Added” did, so I manually organize “latest,” which at any given moment is usually between 250-400 songs. It’s like I’m trimming my lovable unruly hedge—every week it grows, so every few weeks I have to cut it down to size.

to my 7 likes…I aint never gonna stop lovin you, bihhhh

Anyways, Latest Roundup is exactly what it sounds like. I’ll wrangle some of my most favorite songs that I’ve been listening to in the past two weeks and corral them into a neat playlist for your listening enjoyment (or at least your listening consideration). Yeehaw!

DFGAS, or Don’t Forget: Good-Ass Songs

This idea evolved from a playlist of the same title that I had going for a few years and that eventually became a wasteland of hundreds of unlistened-to songs.

Before I delete a song from “latest,” I see if it fits into any of my other playlists, fearful of losing it to the void that is my “Liked Songs” library, never to be listened to again. For a couple years, when I REALLY didn’t want to forget a song, I’d put it in DFGAS, so of course it grew into a void of its own.

currently pouring one out for the original dfgas

To make it more digestible, I abandoned the monstrous original sin that was DFGAS and started making bite-sized 10-song DFGAS playlists. So now, when I’m bored of “latest” and shuffling through my entire “Liked Songs” library, if I come across a song that makes me stop and really listen to it, I’ll add it to a DFGAS capsule.

(I have to admit I don’t really like the full “don’t forget: good-ass songs” name… it’s kind of lame to me now. But the acronym “DFGAS” stuck, and what’s the harm in being a little lame amiright?)

Phew that was a lot of background!

Thanks for sticking around, and HUGE thank you for listening to the music I recommend! Even if you listen to 5 seconds of a song, I appreciate it. And while over the course of this project you’ll likely get to know my taste and takes intimately, you can always count on an at least diverse roundup of music every other week. Get ready for VARIETY BABY!!!

And just because you made it to the end… here’s a sample playlist so you can get a taste of the kind of music I might share.

P.S.

Did my jokes make you chuckle? Perhaps they fell flat. Or maybe you disagreed with my POV… or preferred I talked more about this or that (holy shit I’m Dr. Seuss and I SWEAR that was accidental). Whatever you’re thinking, I WANNA HEAR IT! And this will be especially true once I start sending out music next week (!!!) Please feel free to share any opinions, suggestions, recommendations, questions, etc. etc. in the comments below—I’ll be very happy to hear from you.

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