Music in 2018
List season is here and it's hot y'all. I use Google Play Music for my music streaming and it doesn't have any fancy schmancy Spotify features that tell you how your year in music was. What it does is an excellent library that I can fill basically endlessly, so I'm happy with that. Still, can't help but be a little jealous of everything they have over their on that green grass…
Someone online wrote an awesome little tool start closing the feature gap. It's pretty fascinating to see my results, although I don't think they're fully correct. Some gaps seem to be present in the export, or rather the collection of said export? Regardless, it's super fun to see. Below, I've listed my top 100 Artists and Songs that I listened to in 2018. I'm hoping I can parse through and turn this into “Favorite Albums of 2018” thing later, but this will do for now. Note The Song was not written by The Artist. They are two parallel, separate lists.
Takeaways at the bottom.
Lists
| Rank | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Menzingers | On & On |
| 2 | Direct Hit! | Transgender Dysphoria Blues |
| 3 | Against Me! | White Robes |
| 4 | RVIVR | The World Is Ending (No One Cares) |
| 5 | Mitski | Buried Alive |
| 6 | The Dopamines | I Don't Wanna Be An Asshole Anymore |
| 7 | The Naked And Famous | Bank of Elevators |
| 8 | Andrew W.K. | We're Fucked |
| 9 | The Joy Formidable | Heaven Is a Black Hole |
| 10 | Kanye West | Getting What He Asked For |
| 11 | Green Day | Dimed Out (Single Version) |
| 12 | Dear Landlord | Crash |
| 13 | FIDLAR | Damn You, A Box |
| 14 | Modern Baseball | Fast Slow Disco |
| 15 | The Hotelier | My Body's Made of Crushed Little Stars |
| 16 | Spraynard | Home to You |
| 17 | The Front Bottoms | I Told You a Lie |
| 18 | Tiny Moving Parts | Back to the Tower |
| 19 | PUP | Shut Up Kiss Me |
| 20 | Jeff Rosenstock | Baby, I'm an Anarchist! |
| 21 | blink-182 | A Message to the Angels Pt. II (Brainless God) |
| 22 | Titus Andronicus | In Remission |
| 23 | Rainer Maria | Thrash Unreal |
| 24 | Hop Along | You'd Make A Good Horsecop |
| 25 | Antarctigo Vespucci | Sometimes |
| 26 | The Go! Team | High Fives |
| 27 | Grimes | Get All Your Ducks In A Row |
| 28 | Sorority Noise | Cincinnati Harmony |
| 29 | Dirty Projectors | EH4-800 Phase Shifter |
| 30 | Frankie Cosmos | I Am a War Machine |
| 31 | Lemuria | Irish Goodbyes |
| 32 | Remember Sports | Black Me Out |
| 33 | Joyce Manor | Landlocked |
| 34 | CHVRCHES | Fireworks |
| 35 | LVL UP | Bad Things |
| 36 | Free Throw | Kill V. Maim |
| 37 | Star Fucking Hipsters | A-Punk |
| 38 | The Strokes | Trouble |
| 39 | Passion Pit | Inside The Rain |
| 40 | Vampire Weekend | Grandma |
| 41 | HiNDS | Two Beers In |
| 42 | Screaming Females | Guilt Trip |
| 43 | Waxahatchee | Borne On The FM Waves Of The Heart |
| 44 | Parquet Courts | Rodent |
| 45 | Worriers | Secret Makeout Factory |
| 46 | Wavves | Rosa |
| 47 | Mixtapes | Park Bench |
| 48 | Diarrhea Planet | Soup's Whatever |
| 49 | El Ten Eleven | California |
| 50 | American Steel | Real Mean |
| 51 | Banner Pilot | October 24th |
| 52 | Japandroids | Night Vision |
| 53 | Metric | Melos |
| 54 | Palehound | Your Deep Rest |
| 55 | The World is a Beautiful Place & I am No Longer Afraid to Die | The Talk |
| 56 | White Reaper | Voice Of The Turtle |
| 57 | Bully | Floating in the Forth |
| 58 | Beach Slang | Kids |
| 59 | Kero Kero Bonito | June 4th |
| 60 | Diet Cig | Straight Papers |
| 61 | Modest Mouse | Public Domain |
| 62 | St. Vincent | No Going Back |
| 63 | Laura Stevenson | Last Time I Checked |
| 64 | Pkew Pkew Pkew | Zombie |
| 65 | Tigers Jaw | A Lesson In The Abuse Of Information Technology |
| 66 | Shakey Graves | Intro |
| 67 | Julien Baker | My Friend Kyle |
| 68 | Cap'n Jazz | Basket Case |
| 69 | Iron Chic | Apocalypse |
| 70 | Latterman | A Heavy Abacus |
| 71 | Cults | If You Met Her |
| 72 | Múm | Back Against the Wall |
| 73 | The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die | Minneapolis |
| 74 | Greta Van Fleet | Music Is Worth Living For |
| 75 | Sleigh Bells | SCREAM |
| 76 | Skating Polly | Edge of Living |
| 77 | The Sidekicks | Smells Like Teen Spirit |
| 78 | Beyonce | Lost Cause |
| 79 | And The Kids | Thankyouverymuch |
| 80 | Pinegrove | Dick Simmons |
| 81 | Japanese Breakfast | My Friend Chris |
| 82 | KIDS SEE GHOSTS | The Scope Of All Of This |
| 83 | Fleetwood Mac | In Framing |
| 84 | Municipal Waste | Mabu |
| 85 | The Cranberries | White Noise |
| 86 | Moose Blood | Two Cups of Tea |
| 87 | Soccer Mommy | Immigrants & Hypocrites |
| 88 | Thin Lips | Cradle |
| 89 | Cloud Nothings | Nothing |
| 90 | Frightened Rabbit | When You Died |
| 91 | Kali Uchis | Sentimental Physics |
| 92 | Dollar Signs | Pints of Guinness Make You Strong |
| 93 | Carly Rae Jepsen | 40oz. On Repeat |
| 94 | The Flatliners | Good Things |
| 95 | Giraffes? Giraffes! | Say It Ain't So |
| 96 | David Byrne | The Knock |
| 97 | Chumped | WTF Is Sleep |
| 98 | Snail Mail | I Was a Teenage Anarchist |
| 99 | Slaughter Beach, Dog | Joe Gallgher's Fantasy Fun Camp |
| 100 | The Album Leaf | Homies Where the Heart Is |
Takeaways
Well, it basically speaks for itself. Lots of tightwound, anxious, music. Some people think punk music is just all about shouting, but where is that shouting coming from? For me, that's usually pent-up frustration that you just need to get out. I hope you didn't come down here expecting some big old piece of wisdom, sorry!