This will be the fiftieth post on Today I Heard. That may not sound like a particularly high number, but that is only in comparison to the overly saturated world of modern content. Blogs that need ad revenue pump out dozens of posts in the time I produce one. I hope the qualitative difference is apparent.
This whole thing started off as a whim. I had been delving into the world of country for a few years already and hadn't found an outlet that discussed music in the way I thought about it. Most of the current discourse is presented in a clipped fashion. Either tweet length posts, short screenshot sized paragraphs or video. There isn't much to be found that went more in depth outside of a handful of outlets. It seems that I missed the golden age of music blogs. Oh well, I guess I have anachronistic taste.
The determination to share my thoughts in writing came when I heard the song Stupid Boy by Keith Urban. I willingly admit I had not heard that song before and when it came up on a shuffle, I was transported. It really is a beautiful song. I wanted to share that feeling, both of the thrill of the discovery of a new song and the depth of enjoyment and personal meaning that the lovely song contains. I thought about how I’d tell a friend about it. That’s where both the idea of and name Today I Heard was born.
It took time for the blog to evolve into its current form. I'd like to think that my writing has gotten more interesting over time. You folks can be the judge of that. There are certain ideas that this project grapples with that have been part of things since the beginning. I’d like to break down some of the work I’ve done and will heavily link to various copies of the 50 posts as relevant. Looking back into the archive for this post, I was struck with how much feel and confidence I have gained in writing. I was very rusty and out of practice back in 2021 when I started this up and it seems the quality noticeably improves over time.
The first two pieces that appeared on Today I Heard are illustrative of the continuity of thought throughout the two years plus of the blog's runtime. The first one deals- briefly, I hadn't committed to long form yet- with music's relationship to medium. Like clockwork, technological advancements upend our musical consumption habits. From the portable CD, to the iPod, to Spotify, all these changes deeply affect our engagement with music. Technology is the story of our generation and it affects everything, even the arts. My first post!
I have often developed ideas that may not seem to be relevant to music and connected them to a broader narrative. Ideas such as Software development and The nature of the human perception of time illuminate our relationship to music. The second early piece I want to highlight, as befits a country music blog, is primarily about 1980's rock. Music is siloed into genre, and there are benefits and downsides to that arrangement. I understand the utility, but am not going to be held back from including other genres in the conversation when it helps the analysis. If discussing the emergence of an iconic hair metal band teaches us something about how commercial music is crafted, then it should be discussed. I've leaned more into this recently, covering a variety of country adjacent material and even outright pop and dance music when it felt appropriate to the broader narrative being drawn.
One thing I haven't done as much as I did is satire. Early on, I wrote a couple pieces that were expressly tongue-in-cheek. I’m particularly proud of the psychological analysis of the protagonist in Bubba Shot The Jukebox. I did something similar with Justin Moore and his song Why We Drink. I still toss in some small attempts at wit, but outside of some of the more outlandish end of year categories, it hasn't been as much a part of things as it was.
I don't know what the next two years will look like, but I am excited. I once heard a YouTube creator say that he wasn't willing to take the jump and create a channel until he knew he had enough video ideas to sustain the channel for a year. Similarly, I have a large document chock full of ideas. I sat down one day early on in the lifetime of the blog and wrote a list of topics I thought would be interesting. What the creator did not mention is that the act of creation begets more creative thinking. Even though I have made a sizable dent in the topic list, I have added even more ideas to the list. Simply putting pen to paper, or fingertips to keyboard jogs the brain into thinking in certain ways that you may not have done so beforehand. It has been a good experience.
One conflict that anyone in music media faces is having their coverage affect the way they listen to music. This isn’t about the more analytical lens that engaging in musical criticism will inevitably force you to adorne. The reason a figure like myself is attracted to criticism is because we feel it serves a purpose. Mark Grondin, from the Spectrum Pulse YouTube channel, broke it down in a very straightforward manner. To paraphrase; Music, like all art, is an emotional idea. We listen to music and it makes us feel things. We like those feelings and wish to replicate those feelings. In order to do that, we strive to understand what the triggers were in that original piece of art with which we connected. The study of trying to understand why something emotionally resonated with us is the core of criticism. We all do this. Some get more analytical than others, but at its core, the act of saying “I like this because it’s catchy and has good vibes” is not terribly different from “the syncopated rhythm structures add a non western undertone to the percussion that meshes excellently with the use of the clarinet harmonies”.
I think this mindset is paramount in today's culture. Bite sized opinions don't give enough space to dig deep into the collective psyche and attempt to untangle the boundless mysterious tangle of the human experience. A tweet only allows the surface level opinion of “I like this” to be expressed. The maze of complicated factors beneath are not as easily transmitted and therefore sink beneath the surface of the sea of information we swim in daily. I find myself constantly engaging with what lies beneath the sea. The bigger questions just appeal to me. I don't think readers would be nearly as engaged if I simply discussed my personal opinions (you know, Frankie Ballard bro country good, Jason Aldean bro country bad) without any sort of deeper grappling with the Why (Ballard engages with the contradictions of youth (Young & Crazy) and illustrates his characters with surprising depth (Tip Jar), Aldean sticks to shallow generalities and does not convey complexity of emotion (literally any album he’s put out in years). Human emotion is messy and complex and if simplified enough, it turns into a caricature.
One post that I think best captures this dynamic of digging into our personal relationships with music is my first of many posts surrounding Aaron Watson. In this piece, the idea of the Album Experience is discussed and how it is that I found myself delving into this unfashionable artistic medium. You can find that here.
Other posts question long held assumptions like; Should singers write their own songs and Why not pop country isn’t necessarily an attempt at chasing a dollar bill.
Obviously the biggest exploration of this was my three part thing that covers nuns, Top Gun, Tim McGraw, urbanization, the monsters underneath Eric Church's bed and so much more. It’s the piece that I feel captures the spirit of this blog at its most in depth. This is where one of the underlying themes of the blog is most discussed. There’s a deep universality to the musical experience that transcends the assumed boundaries of genre. Over 150 million people in the USA listen to country music (based on radio metrics), far more than live in rural areas. The universality of country music is what gives it the salience and relevance in culture that it possesses. Every other genre that was popular in pre-WW2 America has mostly fallen off the radar except for country. I think the ideas discussed within this post sheds light on this question. The exploration under the hood of music and taste has been rewarding.
However, thinking about music with this analytical lens in combination with a platform to share these ideas leads to a conflict of interest. If left alone, I would not cover nearly the amount of material I do. The need to have a best of year list and the fear of missing out something big and obvious, means that I spend less time with music then I once did. The desire to properly cover the state of the modern scene means that my focus gets aimed more towards higher profile releases. The resulting coverage ends up highly correlated with my taste and preferences but not entirely so. This isn’t a problem per se, but it could have knock-on effects. Getting jaded is a concern. I have seen too many people fall into the 5/10 trap. When you have listened to so much music, all music starts to blur together. The first time I heard a trap drum kit in a country song (Thomas Rhett’s Grave), I was intrigued. Now it has just merged into the generic sound of modern music and I don't find it to add any distinction in the way it once did. For one who has not listened to the dozens of attempted country hip hop amalgamations as I have- from Willie Jones to Niko Moon, countless attempts by anonymous attempting TikTokers, Jelly Roll and Morgan Wallen and so many others- the sound may feel fresh and transgressive. To me it’s passé. That is the result of engaging with music in an “unnatural” way. I hope being self aware and cognizant of the potential issues in combination with the broader focus of the blog will allow me to successfully surf that wave. I don’t think I have found the proper balance between music reviews or discussion, as I prefer to call it (I rarely do a classic review, but prefer to highlight what stood out to me), and the more idea based topics. Some of my favorite review pieces strike a good balance between the review/ big picture analysis angle. Discovery is a big part of what this whole thing is based on and I want that to continue to be the case.
It has been a successful run thus far and I am very happy with how 2023 has turned out. Fresh ideas have been discussed leading to an expansion of the blog. Expansion is necessary. I can’t keep banging on the same three basic ideas forever. I think there’s some real fun ideas coming down the pipe and I hope this mid-year recap State of the Blog address whets the appetite for the reminder of the year. I would love feedback from readers. What posts have been your favorites? What do you think I could improve on? One of the best pieces of advice I received from a reader was a short comment about not burying the lede as deeply as I was doing. I’m only 50 posts removed from being a complete beginner so anything that you think would be helpful would be appreciated. Either leave a comment or reach out at todayiheardblog@gmail.com.
If anyone is curious, there are three pieces in rough draft form at this current moment. No guarantee they will ever make it to the publish line but I am actively putting in the work. One is musings on AI. It’s cliche but now that it has been a few months since the initial hype, my thoughts have had time to crystallize. The second was inspired by listening to Dierks Bentley’s most recent album. It touches on the specifics of his career trajectory. It will be best read in tandem with the other post I’m slowly working on (Sorry Burd, it’s been in my rough draft folder for ages). I’m going to keep the details a surprise, but best believe it’ll cover some music you will be surprised to see.
Until next time,
Joe