2019 Music Goals - Phase 1 completed

You may remember that I set forth some musical goals for 2019 about a month ago:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2019/01/2019-my-year-for-music.html

Reviewing what I call my "new emo" bands was not the first goal mentioned, but I decided it would be the first one to do.

At some point it may be great to go over how Twitter has sent me down different paths, and each project has led to the next, but that has been partially documented. The relevant part for today is that around the same time that I started studying emo and seeing the passion that fans had for it, I was finding many younger friends who had that same kind of passion for other bands, though I wasn't really sure how they were musically. Some of them might have been called emo, but most of them did not sound much like the various stages of emo that I have listened to. However, now I know what they all sound like.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/07/going-emo.html

I will write some notes on that, but I want to take a moment to be glad that it went so quickly. It helped that so many of my January reviews were for live shows, and for bands with small catalogs. Some of the musicians I am reviewing in February have huge catalogs. I will not start the next phase - bands from the Nothing Feels Good book that I want to get back to - until March.

In March I am also going to start giving these bands a song of the day. I don't think there are any of them that I dislike so much that I can't, though one comes close.

Until then, I am finally going through my Stevie Wonder tribute.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/02/band-review-stevie-wonder.html

After I reviewed him, there were so many good songs (talk about your large catalogs!) that I knew I wanted to do something special, but I wasn't sure what. I decided the perfect thing would be to have him play from Martin Luther King Day through to the beginning of Black History Month, but I couldn't make it work last year, and I still would have had to trim too many songs. He is playing through Valentine's Day, and I have some requests from people and it is meaningful and good.

For the rest of the month, I started thinking of all of these classic songs by other Black men, so I am going for that. I wondered if I should worry about not representing any women, but there was that time I was doing only Black women and girls, and it went from February 1st through July 23rd, so I think it will be okay. I will keep listening and reviewing, and it will all work out.

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2015/07/musical-black-girls.html

Mainly, finishing one of the goals up so early makes me optimistic about finishing all of the other goals. Of course I can do it. I mean, I already made it through the Nothing Feels Good bands (the first time) and the Stereogum comments on the Greatest Guitar Songs; I have shown my ability to get through things!

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/greatest-guitar-songs-trouble-with.html

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on listening to these bands.

One thing to remember is that sometimes the true size of the following gets clouded. I think I only had one Twitter mutual who was really into Lana Del Rey, but I believe she retweeted many people.

Technically, I probably should have included Demi Lovato, because I am connected to many of her fans. However, I had listened to her before in connection with the pop princesses listening, so that felt like enough.

I did not fall in love with any songs or bands, but I was impressed at the variety. I was a little afraid they would all be screamo, and that wasn't the case.

I swear there was someone else like Ed Sheeran, but I can't remember him now.

My favorites were probably Avenged Sevenfold, Black Veil Brides, and Falling in Reverse. I don't know that I like them enough to do full reviews of them. If I do, I will decide that after their daily song.

After listening to both Sleeping With Sirens and Bring Me the Horizon, I think I better understand the spirit of Oli Sykes' criticism of Kellin Quinn, but that doesn't make it right.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/08/and-dialogue-begins-with-kellin-quinn.html

After listening to Blood on the Dance Floor, I totally get why Morgan was always making fun of them. She was not wrong. Still, I am pretty sure I will give them one song of the day.

Then there is the complicated band, Lostprophets.

They disbanded when their lead singer turned out to be a pedophile. I don't think I will do a song of theirs, but the rest of the band reformed as No Devotion, whom I have reviewed and given them a song, and I can do that again:

https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2017/01/band-review-no-devotion.html

The thing I want to say about that now is that when the other band members were asked about the abuse, they said they had no idea (which I believe) but that he was horrible to work with. A lot of things have come out about abusers since then, maybe more in film and television than music, but a lot of people who abuse in illegal ways tend to be horrible in legal ways as well. We accept it - often excusing it on account of "genius" - and we need to stop that.

No Devotion sounds great. Great movies can be made without Weinstein or Tarantino or Spacey. Just keep on going down the list, we don't need abusers, on any level.