The main reason I ask this is that, given these types of songs exist mainly to rile up a people in support or opposition to something, which leaves very little serious discussion to be had, other than the top comment offering some context. So what do you think? Given these songs are mostly more about nations, peoples, faiths, I'd probably post them in ~humanities inst of just ~music, but I want other opinions. I also generally make exceptions to sad music of this type, mainly because it's more meaningful.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

I've been thinking, and it seems like most genres are a love/hate thing (metal and punk are highly controversial for example, they have super hardcore fans but are largely disliked by the majority of people, pop is the opposite, most people like it but there's a very vocal minority that absolutely deplores it and wants to watch it burn, electronic music as a whole also tends to gather mixed reception, etc), but out of all music I pretty much never see any dislike aimed at r&b, funk, soul and jazz (except for smooth jazz, although a lot of people don't consider it actual jazz).

Is there some truth behind this? I personally don't like these genres (and neither do the people around me) and I've always had the feeling we were pretty alone in that sense.

The contest is still more than a month away, but all songs have been released, so let's have a listen and a discussion!

Eurovisionworld has links to all the songs (ordered by how likely the bookmakers consider it for them to win the contest). There's also a YouTube and a Spotify playlist of all the songs.

So which songs are your favourites? Guilty pleasures? Overrated, underrated? Most fun? Most excited to see performed live? Predictions? Etc.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

Might be a weird one, but I like the uh..... aesthetic? I guess?

Some examples would be:

This is just to kick start what I expect will be a very, very, small (if any) conversation to share our favourite radio stations.

I personally still love listening to radio stations, mainly as it's an easy way to find new music from people who understand the genre typically more in depth and more refined taste than myself.

One of my personal favourites is La Jazz Radio by France Musique, no ads, and all types of mostly new and strange jazz from around the world (but mostly, of course France) with a little bit of some old ones thrown in. Their other stations are also equally very good,

What are some you would suggest?

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

Maybe that atmospheric death metal band you like recorded an acoustic folk cover of a Rihanna song. Maybe that bubblegum pop artist you follow made an experimental post-rock album.

The goal is to highlight range: try to find two songs that are as "far away" from one another as possible while still being from the same artist.

Link the songs here, and identify what makes them so different.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

It might sound silly to most, but I have had one for years now.

I started to really listen to music on my own volition in the early 2010s when I was in my early 10s, and I was really big into EDM at the time (big room house, brostep, electro house, progressive house, etc).

At some point in 2014 I wanted to expand my tastes so I ended up on rateyourmusic.com which is the kinda place you always end up on at some point if you go down this path the way I see it, and at first I just checked the overall charts and shrugged since it wasn't my kind of music at all (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones, Radiohead, etc), but at some point it started bothering me; "why is all that crappy old music so highly regarded?" and I started giving the stuff a try. Didn't like it at all, but I somehow starting feeling compelled to try and understand/appreciate it.

Eventually, I fell down a sort of rabbit hole when I started reading discussions on how some music is "objectively better" than others and I completely believed it. Pushed around by the extremely harsh disdain towards the EDM I loved and godly praise of the type of thing I just mentioned, I just kinda felt like I was supposed to move on and basically listened to a lot of stuff like that.

Another while later I eventually realized that the whole "objectively good/bad" thing is one ugly sack of false shit, but I've been really burned out since then, and now I don't even really feel the music I used to like. Problem is, at this point the act of crawling through the charts looking for new music, constantly listening to new stuff, thinking about genres, etc, is so deeply ingrained in my behavior that I can't seem to stop. I have music on at nearly all times, and I force myself to listen to everything in full despite not feeling it at all.

Something that's also gotten me is the whole repeated listening thing, I've always really loved the idea of being able to enjoy something you initially didn't care for or were lukewarm towards by simply repeatedly listening to it. That also caused me to disregard my own impressions and force myself to repeatedly listen to almost everything. I'm mostly out of that phase now, but I sometimes still find myself digging through random stuff I've given low ratings and listening to it again purely to see if I suddenly like it, but it has literally never even worked once. I also think this has been a contributor to me being burned out on music.

At this point I kinda feel like I'll never truly enjoy music again like I used to and it's really sad. Sometimes it does return a little, but if have to explain it with a rating, I can't say I've ever really felt anything above a 7/10 again, most of the time it's between a 3/10 and 6/10. I totally realize I just need to take a break, but I simply can't seem to stop (through a lot of effort I have actually managed to take a full break last month, but I immediately relapsed when I resumed this month, and even without that it doesn't seem like it helped all that much). What a lot of people have with things like gaming and food, I basically have with music.

Does anyone else have anything like this?

Tell us about an album that means a lot to you, and, most importantly, why it means so much.

What makes it resonant? Why do you connect with it so strongly?

To be clear, it doesn’t have to be literally applicable to your life. It could be, for example, an album that you listened to at a certain point in your life and thus connect it with that. I’m asking this question more to get at the stories than the music itself. Tell me yours!

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

The main reason I know musicals exist is Undertale, the Musical by Man on the internet. Out of the songs I have listened to (and aren't cliche), Star is definitely my favorite. There is a long review someone wrote on YouTube that was fixed by the creators of the video, and it describes why it's a good song in far greater detail than I could even imagine by myself.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

So currently I get most of my music from soundtracks ripped from games and from Bandicamp. However, quite a few artists that go through traditional publishers are not on Bandicamp.

Now, while I could go through the hassle of installing iTunes on Linux through WINE, I dont want to because:

• WINE can be a hassle, especially if the app does some strange things.
• Id rather not support apple in any way if I can

So, are there any major platforms that allow downloading .mp3 or better yet, .flac files, especially for artists going through bigger publishers?

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

The first roundup thread is right here.

This is the last thread before I make the playlists. If you've got any 2020 albums to share that didn't end up in the last roundup, please share them here in the new thread. Any album you like enough to spin repeatedly or buy released in 2020 should make this list. We're not collecting enough votes to matter on the albums, so don't worry about sharing multiple albums in a single comment this time. Plug as many as you like.

Since we're past Jan 1st, all the other music publications have their bestofs out there, and many forums and websites have long threads with people sharing their favorite records. I'd also appreciate links to any of those lists or threads you've found where people are sharing their favorite albums. Just leave them in the comments and don't worry if it gets messy, I'm quite used to it. :)

I'll let this float for a week to collect any late submissions and then build the final list with links for easy listening.

The final set will look something like this.

I sense some folks are chomping at the bit so let's get this party started.

Think of this thread as a gigantic pile of records. This is our pile - there are many like it, but this one is ours. Don't waste a second worrying about what anyone else thinks. Got a record, even an EP that you've been spinning since it dropped? Find some random album from a /mu/ sharethread that blew your hair back? Throw it on the pile. Tracks for the stacks, just keep dropping them in the comments. If it's enough for you to spin repeatedly or to buy, it's worth sharing.

Stick to one comment per album, so that each album can be voted on individually. All we need is the artist and album name, brief/generalized genre tag (folk, metal, rock, indie, etc) and a listening link. Oh, and just a short sentence-to-paragraph size plug telling us what you're digging so much about the record. No need to go all war-and-peace on it, listening is always better than reading. ;)

Don't forget to name a favorite track (or two, three) from the record so the rest of us can easily dip a toe in.

No singles as top level comments. I'll leave a special comment below (mark it as joke/noise to keep it at the bottom) and you can drop your singles in there. The circumstances around covid-19 have lead to an absolute glut of singles coming out this year, even from artists who don't usually bother. I have a hunch it's worth keeping track of this year.

What we need here is albums, ears, and votes. We've got two months until the next thread, these things are best done slow so people can fit the listening time with their schedules. Dust off your favorite listening nook and make a date with some excellent albums, you might even feel better. :)

Bookmark this post if you plan to keep tossing albums in over the next two months. Also bookmark it if you want to comment and vote on the albums, find the best. We need all the ears we can get, and there is no such thing as layman opinions in music - you know what you like and that's all you should think about when voting.

Ignore it if you don't, because this thing is going to bump a lot as it builds.

If the album is on Bandcamp then that's the preferred stream source. If it isn't, then go with whatever streaming link floats your boat. You'll find most albums are on youtube (as playlists) this year due to their progress replacing google play music with youtube music. Hardly ideal listening with all the ads, but it is the most accessible to people who aren't paying for streaming services.

Right now this is more about building the library than it is about voting and vetting on the posts. We'll have another thread for that during the first week of December, and to collect late releases. The goal is to get the final set up as nice easy-to-consume playlists on most streaming services, and that's a job for late December, not right now.

When voting - upvote if you dig it, simple as that. If after listening, you think it's epic as hell and should be at the top of the list (a must-listen pick) then hit it with your exemplary token and thank the folks who brought you all the shiny gems to brighten up this wreck of a year.

2020 releases only, of course. Some albums may have been released in 2019, then pulled down and re-released in 2020. Those are just fine too since we didn't do one last year. Generally best to err on the side of inclusion.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

Inspired by the recent LFG thread I figured it would be good to start a thread to get some musical collaboration happening. :)

Reply with your instruments and skills, preferred musical styles, and availability.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

I thought maybe we'd play this game again? This time the "iron chef" ingredient is good singing, but in a language that you don't understand.

Ground rules:

• One song per comment, so we can vote for them individually.
• One top-level comment per user, so pick your favorite song.
• If you want to post more than one song, reply to yourself to add more comments.

Previously in this series:

• Happy Songs
• Cover songs with an an unusual instrument

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

This time the "iron chef" ingredient is storytelling. What's a song you know that tells a good story?

Ground rules:

• One song per comment, so we can vote for them individually.
• One top-level comment per user, so pick your favorite song.
• If you want to post more than one song, reply to yourself to add more comments.

Previously in this series:

• Happy Songs
• Cover songs with an an unusual instrument
• Good singing in a language you don't understand

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

A bit over a week ago, I posted share a link to a happy song and it seemed like fun, so how about we play again?

The “iron chef” ingredient this time is that it should be a cover song with an unusual instrument. (How you interpret that is up to you.)

Ground rules:

• One song per comment, so we can vote for them individually.
• One top-level comment per user, so pick your favorite song.
• If you want to post more than one song, reply to yourself to add more comments.

I'm curious to know what music is out there that:

• is explicitly about the world's current COVID-related situations, or
• had its recording/production significantly influenced by those situations.

Examples of the former would be Koffee's "Lockdown" or Chromeo's Quarantine Casanova, which have their influences right there on the label.

An example of the latter would be Charli XCX's How I'm Feeling Now (mildly NSFW album art), which was created in self-isolation while collaborating over Zoom with producers and fans.

I'm interested in seeing what's out there, not necessarily getting specific recommendations for music, so you don't have to consider anything you post an endorsement.

Two parts to this topic:

• What music have you grown out of? (This is music you used to love but that you now find it very hard to enjoy)

• What, if anything, caused/spurred the separation?

• What music has remained resonant throughout the years? (This is music that still speaks to you like it did when you first listened to it, years or even decades earlier).

• What do you think gives it such staying power?

"Music" can refer to specific songs, albums, artists, labels, genres, etc. -- whatever best fits the questions and your musical preferences.

Here's a couple of examples of what I mean from The Voidz' 2014 album Tyranny:
Father Electricity
Take Me In Your Army

Mainly looking for electronic and rock, but any genre from any century is welcome.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

This is not so much an ask thread as it is a task one. The idea is simple: for any/all of the categories below, identify music from your library or experiences that fits the bill, and explain a bit about why.

You can choose any from the list, or do all if you like, but please do NOT just list items with no explanation! Your thoughts are the exciting parts of this exercise, not just the music itself, so please share!

For the purposes of this inventory, "music" can refer to a specific lyric, a song, an album, an artist, or even a concert or event -- really anything that you think fits the bill. If you want to go into multiples per category, that's fine too -- just remember to explain them!

Inventory Items

Tell me about music that:

• Is an instant mood lift
• Is emotionally devastating
• You've cried to
• Reminds you of someone you love
• Reminds you of someone you used to love
• Brings you back to a specific memorable moment/time in your life
• Helps you relax
• Amps you up
• Makes you feel safe
• Could put you to sleep (in a good way)
• Makes you feel like you're on an adventure
• Reminds you that there is beauty in this world
• Impresses you
• Makes you smile
• Makes you laugh

You don't have to do all of them -- only the ones you feel strongly about or that have interesting stories behind them. Also, feel free to add on new categories in the comments that people can also respond to.

What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)

Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.

You can make a chart if you use last.fm:

http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/

Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.

My aunt is moving to a smaller apartment and her piano does not fit there, so I offered to take it. Not because I intended to play, but she wanted to keep it in the family out of nostalgia and emotional attachment.

It is under renovation and should arrive perfectly tuned.

But now that I have it, I ask myself: why not play it? I had piano lessons as a kid, and I like classical music.

Is there a straightforward way to learn piano by myself that doesn’t feel like much of a chore? Otherwise, the piano will just linger in my living room.