PopGoesTheYear RETURNS 3/20

AN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF BELOVED INTERNET MUSIC REVIEW WEBSITE POP GOES THE YEAR DOT COM

Hello all! It’s been a minute! After PGTY season three concluded, I was promptly besieged by, among other things, HOLIDAY ACTIVITIES, abandoning this project almost entirely for weeks at a stretch as a result, and as 2023 has settled into itself I’ve found the mental energy I normally allocate to PGTY dispersing much differently than before (especially after a couple early drafts weren’t quite coming together to my satisfaction). At what might be called the midway point of this undertaking, I’ve been soul-searching a lot about what PGTY is at its core, what I want it to be and not be— I’ve always written with the notion that a stranger is reading, but a few actual strangers actually do read this now and I find myself unsure if I ought to adjust my voice in response (these are the kinds of niggling considerations a writer must indulge with personal projects like this). Long story short, I want to refocus the series as a review series, with historical contextualization playing more of a support role outside the introductory blurbs. I think the best stuff I’ve come out with for this series has consistently gotten to the heart of what works or doesn’t work about a song for me personally, and the worst has consistently imparted “expertise” that makes my takes appear more authoritative than they really are. Especially given that we’re rapidly approaching the point where shared cultural experiences start to go away for even the most ubiquitous popular media, going forward I want, first and foremost, to dig deep on where my own reaction to a song comes from, and to learn about the music I cover with the goal of better understanding that reaction— As fun as it can be to go long on a song’s backstory, you can get that from Wikipedia if you want! It’s a fine line to walk, and I love trivia way too much to not drop some where applicable, but I prefer the idea of chronicling a personal journey of musical discovery to educating the uninformed from any kind of pedestal. We are staying HUMBLE and following naught but our own JOY in 2023!!!

PRACTICAL UPSHOT: While I have been hard at work on the 90s lists and have some stuff I’m really excited to share already locked and loaded, progress has been slow and, until recently, largely nonlinear. PGTY is still on hiatus but will DEFINITELY FOR REALSIES BE RETURNING on March 20th AKA the first day of spring! Back and better than ever, baby! I am also going to tentatively set an update schedule of one list every TWO weeks rather than every ONE week- Now that I’m committed to not filling my write-ups with easily-obtained-elsewhere factual information, I want to give myself room to bring you all the best, most hard-hitting analysis I can! This is subject to change as I might end up with a huge buffer of posts and start going faster or neglect my ever-precarious mental health for a bit too long and have to go even slower- fingers crossed for the former. see you in three weeks for a dive into the nineties, and until then, happy listening!