Outside the Bubble
We have a popular end-of-year music list in the Netherlands, called the Top 2000. It's a user-driven list of the best two thousands songs ever made, at least if it was up to the average of the users who listen to the radio station that hosts this list.
I was listening to it yesterday and was very to pleased to hear a song from Porcupine Tree coming on (Arriving Somewhere but Not Here). All was good an well, until the DJ mentioned that this was the only song from this band. In the whole list.
Looking at the live stream of the cafe where people can join to listen to the music of this list together, I understood why. Where everyone had just been singing along to the mainstream of Passenger and Coldplay, the room fell silent upon the first notes of what I would call actual music. Not because everyone tuned in to quietly listen to proper tunes, but because they had no idea what they were listening to.
My wish for 2026? Let us all dive into the music we don't know yet. Walk into a record store and buy music. Not the latest Taylor Swift or Chappell Roan, but a unique record from the mystical musical lands. Something you wouldn't listen to normally.
Let's all try to go out of our bubble a little more. There's a whole world to discover outside its boundaries.