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🎵 What I Listened to This Week

2023-10-10

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#What I’ve Listened to These Seven Years

I discovered that Apple Music keeps a record of my favorite music from each year, which probably reflects how my music taste has evolved over the years, haha.

In 2017, I was still into a lot of pop music, mainly Mr.A-Z, Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Mika, mixed with a few other good songs.

In 2018, around the time I graduated, I got hooked on musicals. I started listening to Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera obsessively, and the more I listened, the more I loved them. I even went to see them live several times. Interspersed were some Cats and a few stragglers from my 2017 music preferences. Les Misérables has a stronger humanistic touch compared to The Phantom of the Opera. Javert’s tragedy is the most heartbreaking; every time I hear him roar as he throws himself into the Seine, I can’t help but cry. As for The Phantom of the Opera, it took me years to realize that Christine never loved the Phantom, and never really did, at least not in the musical.

In 2019, things got purer. I’d say it’s a case of: less is more. I had “Bohemian Rhapsody” on a one-month loop. I listened to every version of Les Misérables I could find (the 10th-anniversary edition is the best in my opinion), as well as the original Phantom of the Opera and its 25th-anniversary edition. In the second half of the year, I got addicted to Hamilton. I even finished reading Hamilton’s autobiography. That book, along with Frank Lloyd Wright’s autobiography, formed the most important cornerstones of my spiritual home during those years. That year was still before the pandemic, so I had the chance to go to the theater a few more times. From the live performances I attended, the rotating stage and the cast of Les Misérables were a bit better than those of Phantom of the Opera. Hamilton tickets were too expensive, so I didn’t go out of reluctance (I regret it now). The rest of the time, I listened to a bit of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 5–8. Among them, I love the fourth movement of Symphony No. 6 the most. You can almost see the originally calm fields gradually clouding over, then thunder crashing as a storm suddenly hits. The fierce wind and rain don’t last too long, and eventually, the sky clears, revealing a rainbow.

In the fall of 2020, I changed jobs. After going through some upheavals, I realized I wasn’t very good at resisting workplace manipulation (PUA). I started having insomnia, and when I couldn’t sleep, I would listen to “Weightless,” so I played it a lot. When I felt tense or anxious, listening to Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto would calm me down. It felt like walking on a forest path at night, unable to see the ground, with moonlight shining on the branches and nightingales singing in the distance. My heart would wander through the mottled space and time, accompanied by the nightingale’s song. The rest of the time, I listened exclusively to Hamilton. Not just listening—the filmed recording of the musical was released that year. “I wanna build something that’s gonna outlive me.” After Hamilton’s death came three consecutive presidents from the Democratic-Republican Party (six terms, lasting 24 years), but together they failed to dismantle the system that the founding Treasury Secretary had designed for his ideal nation.

In 2021, it was still mostly Hamilton, but I started listening to Bach, mainly some violin pieces—they can be described as neat and abundant. The remaining time was given to some songs by Aurora and Lorde.

In 2022, it was still mostly Hamilton. The rest of the time was split equally between Aurora’s new album, two albums by YOASOBI, and Bach.

Up to this point in 2023, I’m still trapped in the Mili universe. About 5% of the remaining time has been spent listening to other things. I still really want to listen to Hamilton.

(I don’t know if it’s a new iOS issue or the Gcores app’s problem, but if I type too much, it keeps freezing. The good thing is that drafts are saved, so I had to keep the later years short. Even with that, it froze three times just writing this sentence. 😡)

  • 🎵 What I Listened to This Week