Bursting the Bubble on Sub-Genre Overexposure
speaking in music-tech industry tongues
a place for personal stories, self-care, reflection, and healing. refreshers for the soul.
A week before brat summer got fully boomer-ed, a Gen X friend asked me, “Is that like ‘Cruel Summer’?” I stared at him and blinked, “What’s that?” It vaguely registered as, something… Taylor Swift?
I unexpectedly stray from obvious mainstream fare, while embracing pop culture all the same. Like, last month I was shocked to learn the decade-long Kesha and Dr. Luke lawsuit wasn’t general knowledge (?!).
Music is unifying and brings people together: Tonight I’ll be at a 37,000+ capacity venue. It may not be my preferred show size but how incredible to be part of such a large-scale production.
Yet, how is it that my overexposure to music has become an alienating experience? Shouldn’t it be the opposite? More importantly, where do I go from here?
The combo of working in music for 17 years, coupled with living in NYC for 12 of them held me in a bubble—inside it, Charli XCX has been known since 2016. Everyone at work spoke like me and cared about attending a broad range of live shows, almost nightly.
Lately, I’m not all that social but when I am, I’m an oddity, a niche person with worthless, musical sub-genre knowledge and a music-tech industry tongue—playlisting! tracks! DSPs!
Example: Two nights ago, I dreamed I was enthusiastically shouting, “This track is highly sync-able!” I was encouraging friends to pitch their song for a commercial (a sync placement). “Highly, highly sync-able!” I smiled and kept telling them they were gonna blow up when they got it in an ad.
I’m out of the NYC bubble and I’m leaning into my music obsessiveness which gels nicely with my “internet person” persona (born from an early aughts community ambassador role, if not ‘90s AOL chat rooms!). It fits the overall desire that we all have of applying a “shop local” mindset to our internet consumption (hello, Substackers).
I can’t be passive in how I engage with my online or offline worlds. And I won’t settle as an alienated lurker. Over the past few months, I’ve found spaces that feel like the right online communities. I’m in the comments trashing Spotify’s UI (ha!). Repeating it and adding it to my Story along with, “I’m leaving for Tidal ‘now-ish'!’” I actually get a Like for that one, thanks to trauma-bonded music industry friends ;)
Who cares if it’s occasionally stifling in the real world? Everyone lives online now anyway. I’m already this deep into onlinehood. IRL, I come in handy as a real-time Shazam—that Enya song is called “Orinoco Flow.”
Where do you find your spaces? And how? Is it within Substack? Reddit? Discord? Patreons that lead to Discords? I’m on the lookout for more since I’m never not online.
"Everyone lives online now anyway." This is a relatable feeling for me, but it is the world of dance that's part of my past. Substitute "[dance] sub-genre knowledge and a [dance[] industry tongue...." And thanks for the reminder; it's been a while since I've listened to Enya. “Orinoco Flow.” was always one of my favorites to move to.