To be clear, this is not a New Year's resolution.
A friend of mine passed this little pledge around, and it seemed like an interesting thing to do, with a small community of like-minded people to talk about it with. Beginning on Feb. 1, I am pledging to take part in proposition 365. This is not a political proposition, or a spin-off of the Occupy movement. It's simply a pledge to listen to one great artist each day for a year.
The goal is open yourself up to music you have passed off as poor quality or refused to listen to in the past. The artists are already chosen, with a compilation of 365 of the most influential musicians of the past 100 years. It's not necessarily about the best musicians, but bands, solo artists and even orchestras that have been popular for a certain length of time.
The pledge states that the goal is to familiarize oneself with the most influential musicians from the last 100 years, with the sole exception being Mozart. The argument could be made that just because his work was all composed before the 20th century began doesn't mean his influence wasn't felt in the last 100 years, so I'll let that slide and listen to him without kicking up a big stink about rigid time frames.
It isn't about how much of your favourite music has been included in the list of artists, as though if you had more of your favourite music chosen you won the game. It's about having a second listen at music you once disregarded as boring or compared to cat screeching, or listening to something for the first time you never really paid any attention to before.
Sure there are some days I think I'm already dreading, but I will be able to get Celine Dion over with in the first week, since the first week of artists has been released and she is on there. I just dread the moment I have to give Tim McGraw a first chance, with an open mind, of course.
Other days I'm really excited about. I have only really listened to the odd Bill Withers' song, and while I've never been compelled to explore his work, this does give me an interesting excuse to listen to something other than Use Me Up or Ain't No Sunshine. Those are great songs, and I'm sure he's got plenty of other worthy tracks to listen to.
While there aren't any rules about what songs to listen to, I think it would be more interesting to listen to the non-classics over the No. 1 singles of these artists. I've probably already heard the big hits from the artists I don't listen to, and they clearly haven't done it for me. Actively going back with a fresh head to explore some of the lesser known songs might be one of the best ways to go about listening a lot of these groups.
The artists feature lots of different music, from the Beach Boys to the Beastie Boys, from ABBA to AC/DC and from Faith Hill to Faith No More. Absent from the list is Justin Bieber, because he hasn't earned his keeps yet, but includes Joni Mitchell right next to Limp Bizkit. It's going to be an interesting year.
I'll let you know if there are any surprises, and you can take part too by heading to proposition365.wordpress.com. If anything surprises you, send me an e-mail: jbaker@estevanmercury.ca
