In Defense of Dewy!

I can't get into podcasts. Or audiobooks. Something about listening to recorded spoken words to me just grates in my ears (live lectures are fine). So, instead, I listen to music. A lot of music. During the last Spotify wrappup, I was informed that I'm in the top 1% of Spotify listeners by volume (as in I listen to a lot of songs, though I also like to crank the volume in that way too). I grew up with classic and modern rock, but now I listen to just about anything, both in the mainstream and well outside. The stranger the better.

With the publishing of this post, you can now listen to my Dewy! playlist via Spotify. Currently sitting at about 800 songs and over 2 full days of music, there's something interesting in there for everyone. The mix is inspired by whatever I'm feeling, from songs I grew up with to songs I just randomly encountered in the wild and thought they sounded cool.

Pictured: The playlist!

I'll probably do an underrated/non-radio artist roundup at some point (spoiler alert, Spose and Sin Shake Sin will make an appearance).

As I mentioned briefly in a few places (example, another example), I listen to and perform songs that have both questionable lyrics and creators. My playlist is quite the illustration. So let's go through some of the different, unorthodox categories of horrible songs you'll find.

1: Historically Problematic Songs

Examples from the Playlist:

Walk a Mile in My Shoes - People's Temple Choir

That "Old Time" Religion - Polk Miller

We must remember the past to stop making the same mistakes. I've previously written how real villains don't make oppressive sounding songs. They make happy songs that people can sing, dance or march along to. These songs easily slip into a playlist with other songs. And that's the point of having them here.

2: Songs from Actively Terrible Situations

Examples from the Playlist:

Let's Go to Mount Pektu - North Korean Archives

Shadilay (Radio Edit) - P.E.P.E.

Same reason as point 1. It's important to know what hate/oppression sounds like, but I'd argue that is especially true of what I'll call "contemporary hate/oppression" (heck of a genre name).

3: Songs That Make More Sense with Context

Examples from the Playlist:

Get Dat Fetus Kill Dat Fetus - Jesse Novak, Daniele Gaither & Manus

Take Control - Old Gods of Asgard

As I go through watching shows or just living life, I add songs as I feel inspired. Taken on their own, they can be quite shocking. These songs can come out of nowhere on shuffle and completely change the vibe of the room. Sorry in advance.

Though shocking, they are still important. For example, Get Dat Fetus Kill Dat Fetus is from an episode of the TV show BoJack Horseman that is one of the best commentaries on the right to abortion that I've seen to date.

If this happens to you and you want more context, look at the songs that surround it or Google the song. You might get a hint there as to where it came from.

4: Songs I Like But Don't Actually Know Because I Don't Speak the Language

Examples from the Playlist:

Barbaras Rhabarberbar - Bodo Wartke & Marti Fishcer

Et Puis Juin - Rose

So Yo - Bomba Estéreo

Elvis - AOA

The only barrier to entry to this playlist is whether I liked it. And some songs just sound really cool, even though I have no idea what they're saying. So, for the purposes of this list, these songs could actually be horrible. I just thought they sounded cool. I'm not sure if this makes me more worldly from listening to music in other languages or less worldly in not really diving in.

Also, I do speak Spanish (barely). But I put Soy Yo on the list because the Spanish gets so fast I lost track and just haven't tried to understand it. There are also a few songs that fit into this category with non latin characters that I can't type because I don't have that kind of keyboard (you'll just have to find those).

5: Songs From Friends

Examples from the Playlist:

The Animal - Dinan

Lose Control - In Stride

Wishing Well - The Yellow Jacks

Hope - Idle Friend

danger - DYLBABY

This isn't really a bad thing. I just wanted to give my friends a shoutout! I'm actually on bass and backup vocals in Wishing Well (as well as a few other songs on that album).

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Lastly, as a reminder, when you listen to songs on Spotify or other digital streaming services, you barely are giving anything to the artist. The music business ironically doesn't make money off of the actual music anymore and instead focuses on merchandise.

Happy exploring and listening!