What was listening to music in the 2010s like?

So, I made a “songs of the decade” playlist. My choices, frankly, hew pretty close to “canon,” or what you’d see on any of the many other “best of the decade” lists. So, what’s more interesting to me is not the songs, many of which have been discussed at length for their groundbreaking qualities and cultural significance, but our memories of listenership in the last decade.

Looking at my own list, I’m thinking about taste and joy, and how my tastes were shaped by those cultural movements that people have been writing about. I was a very different listener at the start of the decade, and at various points throughout it, than I am now. I feel a little self-conscious about my susceptibility to the power of gatekeepers, but I also feel like I understand, better than I ever have, what thrills me in music. So this playlist, for me, shows me what has changed, and what hasn’t, about my own taste from ages 15 to 25.

What has reflecting on your own decade of listenership taught you, or maybe reminded you, about yourself? If you want, I can put some responses on the blog alongside my own thoughts. E-mail my dumb, dumb, dumb Jamaican ass: criticalpartystudies@gmail.com.

I literally curse the river of time,

Adlan