In Search of Smash Hits

Mary Thain - 14 May 18

Dear Dinner Party DJ

I love listening to all my old favourites tunes but feel like I need some new music. In my heyday I was reading music magazines and keeping up to date with what was going on in the hit parade. Now I’m just feeling out of touch. Where in the world do you find new music these days?

“I’m interested in the new….I know all the old (music), I love the old, it’s all in my head….I love to play new music” – Elton John

On a slight side note, I’d highly recommend a new podcast that I’ve started listening to recently called ‘George Ezra and Friends’. During the podcasts, Ezra chats with other musicians, they share stories, talk about their time on the road and their thoughts on music today. Ezra has quite a natural, easy-going chatty manner that makes for an interesting conversation despite the fact I’m not a fan of his music. In the most recent episode, Ezra interviews Elton John who has a real passion for new music. Every Friday Sir Elton gets a fax (people still use these??) from his office with all of the new releases on (new releases come out on a Friday by the way), he highlights what he wants, faxes back, telling his staff what house he wants these new CDs and records sent to and they arrive that day. He also looks on Amazon to see what new music is due to be released and looks at www.pauseandplay.com, an American music site that is another place to visit if you want to find out release dates for new music.

Assuming you don’t have a fax machine and a team of staff, Spotify and their Discover Weekly playlists  are a great place to start if you want to find some new stuff to listen to.

“Spotify playlists are becoming more important than radio in bringing new music to the masses” – The Guardian

Every Monday you’ll receive a ‘mixtape’ of 30 songs designed to keep your music collection fresh, it’s like a ‘gift from a music-loving friend’ (@adampasiak). These playlists have received loads of praise over the years both on social media and from friends of mine who are into music. Of course it’s all down to something I really don’t understand…….

Algorithms!!!

Let’s say you’ve been reminiscing to Madonna, ‘Holiday’ but also trying to stay down with the kids and listening to Rita Ora’s new single ‘Girls’. The algorithms will look at all other playlists of the 70 million subscribers on Spotify from ones that Spotify create to a friends playlist of ‘BBQ Banger’s’. They’ll look for these songs together in playlists and if there’s another song sandwiched in between that you’ve not heard they will put it on your ‘Discover Weekly’ playlist. Spotify will also have created a ‘tastes profile’ for you based on the songs you listen to and save and they’ll throw this in to the melting pot too before sending you your personalised weekly ‘mixtape’.

“Discovery can feel like work….it can be exhausting to just listen to stuff you’ve never heard of before” – Matt Ogle, formerly of Spotify

And that’s why they also throw in a few songs that you’ve already heard and some of your favourites to make the ‘Discover Weekly’ playlists feel like fun. You’re not going to like every song on there though. This week a Liam Payne song popped up on my playlist which means I’m going to have to listen to some cooler stuff over the weekend to influence what turns up on Monday or I just need to be quicker at skipping songs I don’t like. Do it within 30 seconds and the algorithm interprets that as a ‘thumbs down’!

Luckily, for parents whose kids take over their Spotify account there are some genres that are filtered out so it’s unlikely The Wiggles will be spoiling your listening pleasure and Christmas songs disappear after 25th December. It’s all far too clever for me to understand but I urge you to give it a go.

Sticking with Spotify, another great way of discovering new music is to follow what your friends are doing especially if they’re into current stuff rather than still stuck in the 80s. This does feel a bit like spying but it’s fun and you can also share playlists. You can make your Spotify sessions private for those (far-too-often) occasions when you just need to blast out some guilty pleasures. Hit the down arrow in the top right hand corner to do this.

Spotify is just one way of discovering new music. I know it’s a bit old school, but I’m a big fan of the radio and love reading reviews of new singles and albums in the newspapers. Follow @playlistgame on Instagram and the Dinner Party DJ recommends a new tune to listen to every Friday.  Would love to hear how you discover the latest smash hits.

Mary Thain

I have created a music sharing game called Playlist Game which is made up of 60 music provoking category cards. It's best played in conjunction with a digital music streaming site and some good friends. Players put on tunes relating to the categories and before long have built up a unique playlist and are sharing memories and stories based on the music they have chosen. It's such a fun game and a great way of keeping your music fresh. I've also started writing a blog, 'The Dinner Party DJ' for parents, well anyone really but mainly aimed about people in their late 30s and 40s who feel that they have lost touch with recent music. My game is all about music sharing and that's the angle I wanted to take with the blog too.

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