Introducing #MyYearInMix for 2005, and Why it Was a Formative Year for Me and Music in General
According to the “Date Added” column on my Apple Music app—which I, the last holdout who refuses to subscribe to a streaming service, still use to organize and play my collection of precisely 21,120 digital music files—everything changed at 11:30 p.m. June 9, 2005. That’s the moment that I ripped a recently purchased Decemberists CD so that I could load it on the used iPod that one of my dad’s work buddies had bequeathed me. Approximately 48 hours later, I purchased the new single by an R&B singer named Amerie from the iTunes Music Store.
Soon I was carrying hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of songs around in my pocket, adding them to playlists, hopping from my new favorite System of a Down track to my new favorite Aimee Mann track. Some songs quickly ascended the ranks to my Top 25 Most Played. Others were ignored, regularly skipped, and forgotten. The importance of albums as a cohesive artistic medium began its long slow decline. For me, 2005 was an entirely new era for the discovery of and interaction with music—establishing habits and patterns that I basically still follow today. Many of those tracks I added in those first few months of the iPod age are still among my most played and most beloved songs.
Skip ahead 19 years, two months, and 21 days later, and I find myself increasingly drawn into the #MusicChallenge community on BlueSky. Along with other Twitter refugees, we use our accounts to share music according to certain prompts. There are a dozen or so accounts that without fail like whatever I post. I think they like everything everybody posts, but my dopamine receptors appreciate the attention regardless. They, in turn, are introducing me to new music. And I like the quote-unquote challenge of finding the perfect song in my collection that fits the prompt of the day.
One of the many active challenges for September 2024 is #MyYearInMix organized by @begoodjohnny84.bsky.social. Users were encouraged to sign up on a first-come-first-served basis for a particular year, and then starting at 6 p.m. EDT (the universally agreed upon magic hour for a #MusicChallenge) on Aug. 31, post a song a day from that year for the next 30-40 days, creating a digest of your musical relationship with that particular annum.
As you may have guessed, I selected 2005. There was actually quite a lot going on that year.
YouTube launched in February 2005 and, with an early assist from The Lonely Island, the concept of viral videos was born. Pitchfork, The A.V. Club, Stereogum and a blogosphere of independent writers were just coming into their own, forging a new style of music criticism. The first bubblings of Poptimism were starting to shift the conversation away from rock and guitars and pretentious authenticity. Don’t discount the advent of satellite radio, which allowed drivers to tune into entire channels devoted to strange sub-genres even in the most rural terrestrial-radio wastelands. Generationally, the crest of the Millennial cohort—the 10 million people born in 1990 and 1991 that form the peak of America’s population chart—were getting their driver’s licenses and setting the pop culture agenda.
Me, I’m a few years older, stuck in the grey area between Gen X and Millennials. My self concept always aligned me more with the cooler, ironically detached older kids, but any honest survey of my favorite music screams “2000s indie pop kid” way more than “1990s grunge slacker dude.” In 2005, I was a few years into my first real job, learning how to write about music, playing in a band, and generally honing what would be my adult pop-cultural identity.
That year, there were not one, not two, not three, but FOUR albums that still rank among my Top 10 of all time and are all pretty easily categorized as hyper-literate folk-rock. You’ll find them all represented among the 40 tracks I’ve prepared for my #MyYearInMix, along with a lot of melodic, guitar-driven indie rock and a smattering neo-traditionalist country and Americana, underground hip hop, abrasive metal and garage rock, and inventive covers. You won’t find any Black Eyed Peas, Fallout Boy, or 50 Cent, I’m afraid, but there are a couple of genuine radio hits, along with one novelty fundraising track. I’m excited to share it with all 12 of my BlueSky buddies.
As the challenge goes on, I’ll embed posts here and a playlist.
OK, let’s do this. #MusicChallenge #MyYearInMix #MyYearInMix2005 1. “Caterpillar Girl,” Lou Barlow Barlow made his name pioneering lo-fi indie rock in Dinosaur Jr. & Sebadoh. His first solo release is … not that. It’s all lush instrumentation and polished production. youtu.be/DTcbImxnIfw?…
— All The City Lights (@atcl.bsky.social) Aug 31, 2024 at 5:31 PM
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#MusicChallenge #MyYearInMix #MyYearInMix2005 2. “Choctaw Bingo,” Ray Wylie Hubbard (James McMurtry cover) Hubbard slowed the tempo and sleazed up this 8 1/2-min. alt-country epic a/b a dirtbag family reunion full of crystal meth, surplus ammo & lusting after cousins. youtu.be/YX4o6-5h7vM?…
— All The City Lights (@atcl.bsky.social) Sep 1, 2024 at 4:58 PM
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#MusicChallenge #MyYearInMix #MyYearInMix2005 3. “Fake Palindromes,” Andrew Bird If ever there was a year for a talented violinist/singer/songwriter but a virtuoso *whistler* to break through and make a bunch of critics’ best-of-the-year lists, it’s 2005. youtu.be/l01rGqgzHLQ?…
— All The City Lights (@atcl.bsky.social) Sep 2, 2024 at 10:25 PM
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