200k Subscriber Q&A!

(upbeat music) - Hello, everyone. I hope you're all doing well after the Hi-C Orange Lavaburst fueled nostalgia high that was my 1990s video. It feels very nice to finally have that out in the world. And it's also just nice to be back in general. Thank you so much for being patient with me. And also, thank you for 200,000 subscribers. That happened right as I was about to go on break. I feel like just saying thank you when milestones like this are hit. It's just not enough to really encapshulate

how... Encapshulate? It's not enough to fully cover how much gratitude I feel for you all for watching what I do. But I hope that the gratitude comes through with the videos that I make because I try to make them as good as I can, as consistently as I can. So thank you all for joining me as I do my weird stuff on the internet. As part of hitting 200K, I wanted to do a Q&A. Bars. I also wanted to provide an update on a particular series of mine and why it has not been happening lately, but I wil

l be saving that towards the end and going more in depth on that. So let's get into it. What is your 17th-favorite album? I don't need to know the whole list, but which album feels the most like there are exactly 16 other albums that you like more than it? So this is weird because I feel like whatever this record is, it would have to be one that would be like in my top 10 of a given year, or even like of a whole decade. But just 'cause I'm looking at all of the records in all of history would ju

st naturally be 17th through no fault of its own. "Carrie & Lowell" by Sufjan Stevens, I like that record though. But at the same time, I gotta remind myself it's like 17th is not like throughout the course of history to be the 17th best album of all time. That's pretty high praise still. Yeah, I will go with "Carrie & Lowell" by Sufjan. What is your favorite King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard album that came out this year? Out of "Omnium Gatherum", "Timeland", "Changes", "Ice+Death", and "Laminat

ed Denim"? I was very surprised by "Ice+Death", so on so forth. I don't know, I think I was expecting something more like Infest the Rats Nest just based on the cover, but it was not that at all. It was way more of like a jam focused record. And I'm also a stickler for anybody who does like fun little bits with musical modes or the scales that they were using with each of the songs. I'm a nerd like that. I don't know if you could tell but I'm a nerd for music. But yeah, I think that's been my fa

vorite this year. "Omnium Gathering" is still probably second and then "Changes" I think would be third. "Changes", the opening track of that super good, one of of my favorite openers that they've done in a very long time. Yeah, those would be like my top three. Favorite Deep Discog Dive you've done so far? It would depend on the reason I would say. I think like the Beatles one is a favorite just because of like how much it required to do and how just like massive it was to tackle them and talk

about them, but also how rewarding it was to learn more about their history and to get that greater appreciation for what they did. On the other end, AJR was a lot of fun because it's just, I think it's so fun to like go into artists or bands that have a particular stigma about them and try to maybe not even like prove it wrong but just like try to find my own feelings in all of it and try to find greater nuances in it. So there was two, Chumbawamba was another favorite of mine just because like

literally that one started out as a joke, like one of my roommates recommended it as a joke and then I looked into them in their like overarching story and I was like, "I gotta do them." What other ones? Kate Bush was really fun, redoing the Strokes earlier this year, that was a lot of fun too 'cause it was just like that one came really easily like a lot of times the scripts I write don't come super easily but like that one in particular was really easy to write. So yeah, that was a good time.

What got you to change the style of DDD to be more long form videos? Not saying I dislike it, not at all. I'm just curious. It was sort of like a meeting point between people wanting it and me wanting it. I think I was just kind of getting, I was feeling like limited and not in like the fun creative way limited by the shorter format that it used to have and just giving myself more time to explain the band and their history and what I think of the records. Giving myself that freedom. And then on

the other end people were, I think also kind of getting frustrated by that limitation and I was trying to listen to viewer feedback when it came to that with most people being like, "Why is this called the "Deep Discog Dive"?" But then I changed the format and no one ever made that comment ever again. What do you think the 2020's musical thing will be, at least so far? You predicted that When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go would've defined the early 2020s but artists like The Weeknd and Oli

via Rodrigo seemed to be shifting against that. I could see it going more into pop rock or full on synth pop in my opinion. I agree with you on the pop rock, definitely. I think especially like the revival in the mainstream of pop-punk has been like one of the biggest movements of this decade with, I mean like you mentioned Olivia Rodrigo and this one might hurt to hear but Machine Gun Kelly. Like Tickets To My Downfall was a big record even though we don't like to admit it 'cause it's Machine G

un Kelly. The other thing that I've been noticing too is this like increase in sampling and I mean I guess it's been kind of a holdover from the 2010s, but you have like artists that are interpolating melodies in a new way. Like just this year we've had that David Guetta/Bebe Rexha song that samples or interpolate Eiffel 65. So it's already the greatest song ever made. What else? There was Charli XCX's "Beg For You" and then there's one recently that I heard, I think it was Leah Kate interpolati

ng Kylie Minogue, I wanna say? So I think that's going to continue to be a thing too. I feel like when it comes to that it must be like a response I think another person asked this later on, but like to jump to like the TikTokfication of music where it's like people wanna be able to hook you in the first like second or two of their song. So maybe one of the strategies they are leaning into is like, let's just get a song that people already know and enjoy and then put our spin on it. Maybe that's

part of why they're doing it. And the other thing I'm interested to see is the economy right now because like there have been reports over the months that we might be going into some kind of recession of some kind and if that does happen, my first thought was that maybe we'll go back to like late 2000s, early 2010 synth pop like you mentioned in your tweet there. But at the same time, I don't know if we as a collective culture are in that same place and maybe we'll see something like, kind of l

ike what we're already seeing where it's like maybe party music but it's a lot more low key and down tempo, or maybe it's just a continuation of just music that's like Billie Eilish kind of, where it's like very much meant to be enjoyed, at least in the recorded medium, enjoyed alone and with headphones and stuff like that. We will see but also that's been shaky, that's been something that people have been saying for a few months and things are okay, I think. That's what I think. I'm not an econ

omist, I'm no expert. I'm Mic The Snare, not Predict the Economy. Who's the most popular artist you've never heard an album from? Elton John I wanna say. Yeah, yeah I think Elton John. I mean I know songs of his of course and I love a good amount of his songs but I don't think I've ever heard an entire full album by him. I should get on that. I should also watch Rocket Man, I still haven't watched Rocket Man. Do you collect any vinyl or CDs? If so, what was your first vinyl/CD you ever got? Yes

to both. I'll put up some footage right here of me showing it off but I've got an entire CD collection on my tower over there. I've been building that up for the past few years and then I started collecting vinyl back in like 2011 I think. And I did that for five years, stopped in 2016 but only recently have I invested in a new turntable and started building back up my record collection. And then to your other question, my first CD I wanna say was Black Eyed Peas' "Elephunk". I think I mentioned

that in a past Q&A but yeah I think it was Elephunk. And then the first vinyls I ever got, I got back in 2011 with the first turntable I ever had, which was one of those portable suitcase looking ones. Don't judge me, okay? And then the first two records I got were, The Strokes' "Is This It," and then a Sinatra record, a Frank Sinatra record. I wanna say it was Songs for Swinging Lovers. I'm almost positive it was Songs for Swinging Lovers. What equipment do you use to listen to music and how m

uch of an impact do you think that has on how you enjoy an album? So over at my desk I've got this MOTU M2 interface and then I've got these Audio Technica headphones, the M50Xs I wanna say. This is for, if I'm listening at my desk, if I'm on a walk or something and I just need earbuds, I will go for the AirPods Pro Second generation, I got these like a month ago. And then for Bluetooth headphones, I loved my pair of Sony X M 4000 5 terrible name Bluetooth headphones and those are very good, but

those were like starting to break down, like pieces of them are like held together with tape now. So recently, like a month and a half ago I got the AirPods Max. I know that they're kind of contentious and I would not recommend them for everybody. If you are not part of the Apple ecosystem, do not get them at all. And they do add a bit more of EQ processing than you might want from headphones. But personally I like the sound signature that they do have. And honestly like Bluetooth headphone aud

io quality is a bit of a oxymoron to me. I know that the Sonys have their LDAC processor that is supposed to render things in higher quality, but if I want a really good sound for what I'm listening to, I'm going with a wired connection every time. With that in mind, these AirPods Max, they feel nice on my head. I like the build quality, case is godawful. Case is godawful. Not ever gonna defend that. It's bad, really bad. Then for my turntable... as I'm recording this, I'm literally looking at m

y turntable stuff and the speakers I use and I'm forgetting literally all of the brands. I will put them up on the screen right now just so you can see what what they are. But yeah, this is what I use for my vinyl listening. And then to your other question about how much of an impact do you think that has on how you enjoy? I don't know if the gear itself has an impact, but I will say the gear implies a context and the context can imply how I enjoy an album. So like the context of say, listening

at my desk over there versus, taking my AirPods and going on a walk or something. 'Cause I am oftentimes just in different moods depending on the context, like maybe I'll be working on something at my desk and I might be tired and then I listen to an album and that impacts me. Or maybe I go out on a morning walk with my earbuds and I'm feeling I just woke up, I'm energetic, I'm rejuvenated and then that's impacting my experience of the record. I remember I did that with my first listen to Mr. Mo

rale. I just like wandered around town listening to it and that was a good time. So yeah, I would say the gear maybe not so much, but the context definitely that the gear implies or that the gear facilitates, that definitely can have an impact on my mood and thus how I am processing a record. So, yeah. What's a passion project that you hope to be able to do in the future? So there's one thing I made recently and I don't know if it counts necessarily as a passion project because it wasn't somethi

ng I was like working on for a very long time. It was like I had the idea recently I made it and then that was kind of it. I do plan on sharing it at some point and I would tell you what it is. The only thing is that if I tell you what it is, it would spoil the next Deep Disccog Dive. So for right now, I gotta keep quiet on it but you'll see it eventually and you'll either love me for it or hate me for it or both. What's a video that you've been wanting to do for the longest time but can't for s

ome reason? And congrats on the 200K subs. A well-deserved feat, clap emoji, clap emoji, clap emoji. Thank you very much. And then there's a different question unrelated to this, but the answer's going to be similar actually. So I'm gonna combine these two questions together. Would you ever do something like your Glee essay again, I loved watching it after finishing the show this summer for the first time and you pointed out so many interesting things. Thank you so much. There is one video I hav

e been wanting to do ever since the Glee video and it's not that I can't do it necessarily, but it's just other things have come up since then and they take up my time and I can't devote the energy that I want to for that video. If you're familiar with musical TV shows at all, you might be aware of one called "Crazy Ex Girlfriend" and I wanna do a video on it because I do really like that show. I think that show offers an interesting counterpart to Glee as it kind of tackles a lot of the same th

ings that Glee does. But I also would wanna talk about it because of the original music. All the songs were written by Rachel Bloom and the frontman of Fountains for Wayne and there's some really good stuff in there that I would love to highlight and also just talk about the show and how it came to be. The thing holding it back is that I've already seen it all the way through, but I wanna re-watch it again and take notes for it and sometimes I just don't have the time to sit down and watch multi

ple episodes of a show. But that is in progress. It is happening and hopefully at some point it will, it will happen. Coming from someone who knows absolutely nothing about mixing terms, what's something that's done in the mix of a song that is Chef's Kiss? I have a whole bunch of them that I'll rattle off. Two of them, I know I've mentioned in videos before, there's a song by Oasis off of their record, "Don't Believe the Truth". I think it is, it's the one from like 2005 or 2006. It's called "P

art of the Queue" and it's a point halfway through the song where a piano enters and the way that it enters into the mix is just like, I don't even, it just fits so beautifully and it like the mix was the whole time was just waiting for it. But you don't realize that until the piano hits and it's beautiful. (D'you know what I mean) The other one I'll mention is the War on Drugs' "Strangest Thing." The two different parts where the guitar comes in when the solo first comes in and then like toward

s the end where it's just like distorted to all hell, but somehow it's not like overpowering anything in the mix, that's beautiful (every life decision being validated) For some more recent mix things that I love, granted, some of these are musical decisions, but I personally believe that the best mixed decisions also enhance the music. Like the best mixed decisions are themselves, best musical decisions, if that makes sense. Some more recent ones that I love, Kendrick's United in Grief. There's

one bit in the first chorus I think where it's like the drum pattern is the (imitates) but then it changes into (imitates), I love that it only happens once in the song, I love it. Then there's Gang of Youths' "the kingdom is within you." There's a part in the second verse where the guitar enters and it's literally like just playing a note for the whole time. But the way it's situated in the mix as everything else changes, like the melody and all of the different, as the rest of the band ramps

up, I love how they just have that one consistent element going. I'm a sucker for like pedal tones and stuff like that. So that's really cool to me. ♪ Up up up up up in the sky some place ♪ There's a new Ellie Goulding song, "Let It Die" where on the chorus there's a really sick offbeat high hat hit that syncs up with when Ellie Goulding is singing. I love stuff like that too. (bright music) And then on the recent Carly Ray Jepsen record that came out like a few weeks ago, the song "Talking to Y

ourself", there's a bit on the chorus where she's like, ♪ Do you think really when you're talking to yourself ♪ ♪ When you're talking to yourself ♪ - That dropout right before self between your and self. I love that so much and how the whole band drops out. Yeah, really, really good stuff. Love all those. Dude, where's my car? Where's your car dude? Dearest Michael The Snare, what is your favorite mix in the DJ Hero games and would you ever do an examining video on DJ Hero/ The Rhythm game genre

as a whole? Favorite mix would be Bust a Move & Around the World. That or the one from the intro animation, Fix Up Look Sharp with Genesis because that was the first time I ever heard Justice and that got me into justice. And then to your second question. Yeah, absolutely because there's so much to rhythm games like beyond just like Guitar Hero and rock band and all that sort of stuff. Like there's like Rez and the stuff that Harmonix was doing before and after Rock Band. Also Elite Beat Agents

, that's an incredibly, incredibly good game. Ruined my DS screen, that final level but still worth it. Do you feel that creating content about music has affected your relationship with it? Has it changed that relationship for better or for worse? I wouldn't frame it as for better or for worse, just 'cause I think just naturally through me growing as a person, my relationship with it would change. I've tried to be mindful of not thinking about records or music as just, alright, how does this hel

p me make videos or like, hey what can I talk about because I don't wanna lose that charm that music has for me. But that's also kind of a tough balancing act 'cause I think it's just trying to find that perfect middle ground of like, am I still getting enjoyment out of listening to music but also am I finding enough of an opinion or finding enough to say about it that it could make for a video of some sort. I think one of the things that's helped with that is talking less about individual recor

ds and more about broader cultural movements or just broader things in culture, that's helped a bit too. 'Cause then it's not so much that I'm talking about music and I don't have to dilute that relationship, but I'm still able to talk about music in a way that people find engaging. So it's a balancing act. It has been for the past four, nearly five years and it'll continue to be, but it's fun I think to kind of find out new, to figure out that relationship more and more and to understand it, ho

w it grows and how to serve it best I guess. Yeah, guess that's kind of a bit philosophical, but I hope that answers your question. Is there an artist you'd never wanna cover on the Deep Discog Dive? Within reason, no, I think I could cover pretty much everyone that I would expect people to request. There are definitely a couple that I would dread doing and it's not because of like the size of their discography, it's just because talking about them gets into some very, very dark and depressing p

laces. So the three that come to mind are like R Kelly, Chris Brown, Michael Jackson, I think reasonably Michael Jackson would be the one out of those three that would get more requests for a DDD. But yeah, that is going to be... What's your opinion on the long term potential benefits of TikTokfitation of popular music? I feel like the conversation has been too focused on the negative aspects, appealing to low attention spans, shorter songs, death of the bridge, et cetera. Love the nineties retr

ospective by the way, thank you so much. I feel you on how the conversation is leaned negative. I think it's funny too that a lot of those come also from the streaming discussion. I remember hearing about shorter songs and the death of the bridge like that people calling that an effect of how like streaming was affecting music. So I don't think those are like necessarily new things that TikTok is inventing. It might just be putting its own spin on it. If I had to give one benefit of it. I think

it's nice to see when artists are able to like flex their creative muscles outside of just the music and I think that can help broaden the world of their music, but also just showcase the other talents that they have. The thing that pops into my head is like Magdalena Bay who have like a very signature style of humor that they've woven in with their visual aesthetic and that in turn impacts and influences the music as well and they kind of like feed off of each other. I think there are particula

rly good example of how to, do you know social media and TikTok right. At the same time, I know there are musicians out there that wouldn't want to focus on the social media part, like they are musicians, they just wanna do the music. I sympathize with it. I think, I don't know, I'm biased because I'm a creator myself, but I also consider myself a creative and there are definitely times when I'm like balancing like my own creative desires with the wants and needs of the algorithm and trying to l

ike, I really wanna do something creative, but I don't think the algorithm's gonna like it. I feel that to some extent. But yeah, that's one benefit that I've come to see and I do really appreciate about the TikTokification of music, I guess. I was thinking about this question more after I filmed this and I wanted to add one more benefit. This one depends on the artist, but it is great to see artists responding to the culture in real time and collaborating with the greater community. The example

that springs to mind on this one is Meghan Trainor, she's got this new record and the song "Made You Look" that's out. And she's been making a lot of really savvy moves with it just in terms of like the song comes out and somebody makes the dance. And so that's the dance that everybody uses like, and then using the platform in organic ways that just so happened to promote the song and not just like shoving the song in a rigid way down everybody's throat. It's like trying to fit like the square

peg into the round hole. You can think whatever you want about the song, but I think she's been doing a really great job of just showing up and being a part of the community. It is really nice when people who are that popular or that recognizable try to show up and be like, "Oh, I'm just like you guys." And sometimes that can feel very fake, but I think in Meghan's case so far she's been doing a good job of threading that needle. So that's another benefit I was thinking about. Do you see yoursel

f retiring from YouTube anytime soon? Have you given that question any thought? I have thought about it, especially this past year. I think it was just because I always envisioned a good clean five years for myself if I even did get to that point. 'Cause my initial plan was just to like do this until I got a job doing something similar but then, things got bigger than that. So I kept doing it of course and I found it incredibly rewarding. But I have given it thought at least because I'm just sta

rting to think of like what the next step is for me as an online creative I guess. I don't think I'm gonna like stop making stuff on the internet anytime soon. Like I don't think I'm gonna do that, but I have been giving thought of what the next thing is and maybe, I mean it could just be more Mic The Snare of course, but it might be like a podcast or it might be something more collaborative or something like that. So it's not necessarily that I'm like going to retire, but I have been putting th

ought into like what the next step is, so to speak, which experimenting more with video formats has helped with because I'm able to then see where else I can take the channel and not just do the same things over and over again. So, yeah. Your passion for all music is truly inspiring. Thank you so much. Do you remember anything specific that drew you towards making this your career? This might be corny, but I just genuinely can't see myself doing anything else. I don't think there is in the wide

multiverse of Mic The Snares, I don't think there is anyone out there that would be as fulfilled if he wasn't doing something music related. I'm talking about myself in the third person. I feel very narcissistic. No, it's just I can't really imagine myself being more fulfilled doing anything else than what I am doing right now. It's corny, I know and it's kind of basic, but it's just true. It's like that line from the Lego Movie where it's like, I know it sounds like something from a cat poster,

but it's true. Do you have any favorite artists/bands that are technically considered one hit wonders? Gotye, Gotye, that 2012 record "Making Mirrors", God, it's such a good record, it's such a good record. In a lot of ways. I feel like he was like the last real one hit wonder, maybe Magic too. Where is Magic now? What's one thing an aspiring artist producer, music critic, or any other creative should know about the music industry before engrossing themselves in it? One, I'll give two answers t

o this. One is basic and corny, but it is true once you're like doing it for a while. And then the other one is something it's taken me a long time to learn. The first thing is do it for the love. Do not expect really... or how do I phrase this? Be willing to do it even if it does not like make you money immediately. And I'm not saying like, don't sell yourself short or get paid less than what you're worth. Nothing like that, but just like plug away with it as if you may never see a dime from it

, I guess. It's kind of like the same advice that I wanna say LeBron gave about basketball or like Marques Brownlee gave about making YouTube videos actually, yeah, do it for the love definitely. And then the second thing is kind of adjacent to that, but it's taken me a while to learn because I'm an inpatient bastard. Success is often about doing the right thing but also doing that thing for a long period of time. It's like a formula of quality over time. If you're doing good things, very rarely

do they just immediately succeed. You need to be just be doing them for a while and to build up your reputation in that way. Oftentimes, I've seen that like the longest and most fruitful careers are built off of just time and effort because you're able to build relationships and connections with people that may not be necessarily as strong or as positive if you were, just getting big as fast as that. Any advice for people who want to create YouTube videos like you do? Also, what's your secret b

etween balancing your YouTube stuff and all your other work and engagements? You're fantastic. Thank you. I do it by not having a life outside of them. No actually though this year especially, I've been able to strike a pretty good balance between YouTube, my day job and like everything else in my life. But that definitely took time. I think when it comes down to that it's just kind of feeling yourself out where it's like giving yourself breaks when you need to, listening to like when you're fee

ling creative or you're feeling in the moment to do something, listening to that. Just like I think it kinda comes down to like self care and compassion of just trusting your gut and not overexerting yourself super, super heavily because then, I don't know, you might still make good stuff out of that but you're not gonna feel good about it. And I have personally found that that feeling lingers with you longer than the satisfaction of getting something out. And then for advice, I will give like a

potentially corny piece of advice, but then I'll try to like follow it up with a bit more detail - make videos that you would wanna watch. And what I mean by that more specifically is, all of us have our own unique interests and things that appeal to us and things that make us laugh or feel some kind of emotion and all of those things combined together make us who we are. So if you wanna get into creating, see the kinds of things that you're interested in, especially the things that maybe seem

unrelated to anybody else but that you can weave together just because you're into them and just because that's what you're gravitated to and because no one else can do that because no one else has those same interests in the same way that you do. Being able to do that is kind of the step in finding your creative voice. And then once you have that down, so to speak, 'cause it's never like you like define it and that's it, you never work at it again. But once you have like a semblance of your voi

ce down, that's when people start taking notice because that's when they see that like, "Oh this person is doing something that no one else else really does." Or at least in their own way. And it's because you're you and you pull together all of the influences that you have to make something that's uniquely you. Oh and one other piece too, especially to someone starting out let yourself suck. Like I was such a harsh critic on myself when I was starting out, but with any kind of endeavor you do j

ust kind of need to put things out in order to get better at them basically. And that can be either by like, doing what you wanna do by yourself first and then putting things out into the world or if you just wanna put things out as you go and show people how you are improving over time, which is kind of like what I feel I did. Like if you go back to one of my first videos versus what I just the 90s video or something more recent, I personally feel like there is an ocean of difference between th

e two, but that wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't made all of the videos in between. Do you think that TikTok is ruining live concerts with the things that Steve Lacy is going through with his tour, is it safe to say that people who grew or had a song that blew up on TikTok are going to have a (beep) experience when they are touring? This ties back to the TikTokfication question because I'm skeptical to say that anything is ruining live music or music in general. Like I don't wanna ever ge

t to that point where I'm like a crotchety- I'm not speaking for this person specifically, like this is my own feeling, but I don't want to be like a crotchety old man complaining about like the kids these days. And like music was so much better back in my day. And of course people are fans of Steve Lacy, like he's been doing great work for the past decade or so, with the Internet and with his own stuff. But I think it's just a natural runoff effect of him gaining so much popularity just this ye

ar. And I think it's kind of it, I think it's going to even itself out at some point, maybe not this year, like he'll have to ride out the tour, but I think once he is maybe with his next album cycle or whatever, he'll get to a good even place where it's like people know who he is, they'll come for bad habit but they'll also hopefully have more knowledge of him 'cause they're more intensely following him after the success of that song. What is an artist slash artists that you love that you haven

't talked about on your channel yet? Love your videos. Thank you so much. I think everybody has gotten a mention by now within the past like four years. I think the only one that I would like to go in more detail on at some point is Ben Folds. He had a very big impact on my interest in music when I was a younger lad and I have not really given like a full look at his albums in a way that I would like to. So at some point I would love to do a a DDD on him, but aside from him I think everybody's g

otten at least some kind of mention so far. What are your favorite music videos? Do you believe that an iconic music video makes a good song great or the inverse? Maybe like in the moment but not, not in the long term. Like a good video is a good video, a good song is a good song and the best videos don't necessarily supersede the song, they just kind of add an additional layer to it to enrich the experience. As for some of my favorite music videos, I've got a list right here, The Shoes' "Time t

o Dance." Nothing like watching Jake Gyllenhall murder innocent people. Food House - Ride, this one's a fan one but it's the War on Drugs' "Red Eyes" and it's just a super cut of a bunch of people in movies running hypes me up every time. Really good stuff. Daft Punk's Da Funk, Madvillain's "Accordion," Kendrick Lamar's "These Walls", Charli XCX's "1999." Chairlift's "Polymorphing," Brockhampton's "Heat," Sisyphus' "Alcohol," Spoon's "Jealousy," Fiona Apple's "Hot Knife." I'm sure there are more

, but those were just the ones I could think of off the top of my head. Which are you more nervous about when prepping for a DDD; an artist with a long discography or an artist with a reputation for a lot of bad albums? Oh, easily the one with bad albums because either you listen to them and they're rough and then you get to talk about that or you find something positive to say and then you get to go against people's expectations and that can be really fun sometimes. Long discographies just can

be boring because sometimes you just don't have a lot to say about an album or you don't have a lot to say about the stuff that happens in between records. So it's just kind of like, "This person did this and then they did that, this album came out, it had these songs, then they moved on to the next one." Like when you have records that you can like talk about more in depth and figure out like, you know, maybe why people don't like them and why you disagree or agree with that, that can be a lot

of fun in my opinion. So yeah, I would take the reputation for bad albums any day of the week over just a long discography. How do you go about analyzing music that is very tied to certain cultures and identities you don't hold, I.e, music tied to black or queer communities? Is your research different? How do you give proper insight without stepping out of your lane? That is a very thoughtful question and it's one I think about a lot, so thank you for asking. I think the thing I always try to ke

ep in mind is that I am an outsider in those circumstances and while I do try to do my research as best I can from people who are within those communities, I will really not ever be able to fully understand. So when I speak on the music, I speak on the things that are within my purview, but I tried my best not to step outside of that. I'll give an example of a record. I'm sure you're all familiar with, Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly". I believe I can speak on, you know, how the music make

s me feel on the production, certain bits where I can really feel Kendrick's emotion, like the second half of "u" like always hits me in the gut because I believe I can empathize with the general emotion of like, sadness, doubt, self hatred. But as it pertains to that album's overall message about the black experience in America, I can't speak on that. Absolutely not. And I would be a fool if I tried. Yeah, I just, I try my best to, you know, stay within my lane in that sense. Thank you for that

question. What artists did you gain the most appreciation for after doing a discography dive on them? Chumbawamba, easily Chumbawamba. God, that one was so fun. How do you approach music when it's not particularly enjoyed by critics but obviously loved by fans? I guess I know the refrain is that music is subjective, which is certainly true, but then what do you believe the value of criticism in music is? Also, it's good to have you back. Thank you so much. The first part is just, I go in and I

just personally see how I feel about it. I always find that kind of divide interesting because I think there's always something interesting to gain from that tension of like, why does this one group go into this music with a certain kind of expectations and react this way versus why does this other group feel this way about it, feel the opposite way. And then when it comes to the value of criticism, I think there's two things at play. One is internal and I think it behooves anybody to spend time

with different music to think about and process the things they like in music, the things they don't like in music and try to cultivate a taste, a musical taste from that. I think that is of value to anybody. So I think if we're talking about criticism in that sense, like internally knowing what you like and dislike, I think that's a good thing. Externally, I think the value comes from us and just the fact that we give it value. I don't know if there's a way that I can put it without going off

on a much bigger tear, but I think it's just the fact that we as people like to give our opinions on things and so we will do that in big forums like the internet and yeah, just like sharing our...I don't know. That's a big one externally. I don't know if I fully have it figured out yet and I'm certainly grappling with it myself. Can you answer the rest of these questions on a different day and in a different shirt? Weird request, but sure. Loved your video on listening to metal to try and gain

a better understanding of it. Do you have any plans to do a similar type of video with a different genre? Oh hell yes I do. Yeah, that was meant to be the start of a new series and I would've been doing more of them had I not taken the break. But yes, I absolutely do plan to do more genres like I wanna do like vaporwave, vaporwave and K-pop, I think are the big ones on my list that I would love to do. Would you have plans to do a follow up on your metal video? As a metal head, I would love to he

ar about any albums you've heard since then and your thoughts on sub genres you didn't initially cover. So I'm gonna be honest, my hiatus did kill a lot of my appetite for listening to new music for a good bit. I think the most recent metal record I've heard since then was the new Fleshwater record. So I, I just, I haven't been doing much of it recently. Doesn't mean I plan to stop, it's just I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but I got asked this question a good amount by other pe

ople and it got me thinking. Would you want me to do like a follow up video for all of the genre videos I do? I mean it, no promises or anything, just depending on schedule. But like, I'm thinking of like the equivalent to like PBS Idea Channel's comment responses where they would make a video and then make an entire other video dedicated to just talking about like what the responses were from the prior video. If that's something you'd be interested in, let me know. 'cause I think that could be

a really cool way to engage and to find new records for not only myself to listen to, but for all of you to listen to. I think that could be really cool. Wanted to ask your thoughts on giving numerical ratings to albums, I know you don't rate albums in your reviews, but are you against doing that. Also, I have a more pressing question. What's your favorite album cover? Yeah, I don't like numerical ratings. On one hand I get that some people use them for like their own personal classifications, l

ike how they would rank specific groups of albums in relation to one another. I don't really have a problem with that per se. My issue is when it enters discussion with other people and when the number itself becomes the thing everybody's debating instead of anything to do with the record. Like just when you have people who are like, "I think this is a 10, I think it's a five, "I think it's a two." I'm not a fan of that. That's the gist of it. And I don't know if it's my favorite album cover, bu

t the one that's coming to mind right now is "For You" by Tatsuro Yamashita. Yeah, just a beautiful cover on that. Look at that, hmm. You could just lick that store. Favorite needle drop? The one that's coming to mind right now is, there was this show called "Legion", I wanna say it was season two, episode four. It's where, and I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it, but it's where the lead character is going inside someone's mind for basically the whole time. And within that episode there is B

on Iver's 22 (over soon), the National's Turtleneck and Tame Impala's... it's the opening track off of Inner speaker, whatever that's called. "It is Not Meant To Be", that's the name of the song, Tame Impala's "It is Not Meant To Be". All three of those songs in one episode. I don't even know if I can be like rational about if the needle drops are good or not, but the fact that there are all of those songs in one hour long episode of TV. That's it. I have no power to give anybody Emmys, but I'm

giving an Emmy to that episode just for that. What are your favorite albums that released during your hiatus? Definitely tThe 1975. I think it's easily their most cohesive and consistent record since Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. The new Phoenix record too, Alpha Zulu, I think their record from 2017 I think is very much slept on and I think a lot of people just kind of push them out of their minds after Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix and Bankrupt too. But like they've still been putting out

really good records and this most recent one is very good. The new Alvvays record. Killer, so glad to have them back. It's been too long. The new Arctic Monkeys, I don't know if I would say I love it, but I think it was a much easier pill to swallow than Tranquility Base. I think if anybody wants to try to get into their new lounge sound, I would recommend The Car over Tranquility base. And also the arrangements on it I think are just more beautiful. The use of strings on it I think is phenomen

al and kind of calls back to Alex's work with the Last Shadow puppets, but it's not as overly dramatic as some of the Last Shadow Puppets was. It's just more like somber and melancholic. So yeah, that one I've been enjoying... Carly Ray Jepsen, what do I even have to say at this point? It's new Carly Ray Jepsen, it's great. And then there's two other records I just checked out like within the past few days, Special Interest's "Endure." Really, really good kind of like post-punk dance record. And

then last night I was listening to Fleshwater's "We are not Here to be Loved." Pretty good metal record. I think the only reason I like, or the main reason I checked it out at first was because the cover of it has a rubber duck on it and it reminded me of an ad I saw as a kid where it's like a rubber ducky crying and that's always stuck out in my mind for some reason. This is how I decide what music to listen to. Which artist do you think has the capacity to make a perfect album but hasn't yet?

I just mentioned them even though I just said that their new record was good, The 1975. They swing for the fences a lot and more often I think they hit more than they miss. That said like, I think the like perfect 1975 album is still a ways away. And they're getting close with it. Like something that it combines the focus of this most recent record with the pure pop songwriting of like, "I Like It When You Sleep". Those together I think could yield something really, really tremendous. But we sh

all see, I think they have it in 'em, I just haven't seen it yet, but still they've got good records in 'em, of course. Have you ever considered doing music yourself or getting a little nerdier and talking about sound engineering in depth in certain dedicated videos? I have been trying to get more like back into music, I'm not at a point yet where I would want to share any of it, I don't think. But I've been trying to get back into it just as a recreational hobby. And then in terms of nerdier so

und engineering stuff, I've always wanted to do a video about like the concept of like the soundstage in the mix. My main thing is that I would wanna find a way for it to be like stimulating in a video and also just be a better video editor. So once one or both of those things happen, then yeah, I would be down to make a video like that. Favorite Crazy Frog song. I mean the populous pick is Axel F and of course that's good, but real ones know Crazy Sounds. Which albums do you think are incredibl

e but you haven't revisited them as much as you thought you would? My cheap answer is all of them. It's a downside of covering new music where you have to spend so much time keeping up with everything that comes out that you don't get the chance to go back and catch up with the majority of records you listen to. And if I had to give one example that I think would surprise or maybe even make some people mad... I'm telling you now so that you're not mad when the top 10 list comes out, okay. What d

o you think of the current state of popular music this year and how do you think it's going to progress from here? Also, congrats on 200K, I love your videos. Thank you so much. I don't know, this year feels very liminal and I think a lot of years feel liminal when you're in them, but I'm trying to think of like the big music that's been able to like have a cultural footprint for more than like a week or two weeks and what has there been, there's been, We Don't Talk About Bruno, Harry Styles, St

eve Lacy, Lizzo, Drake at two different points this year, and now Taylor Swift. Not a whole lot of that except for Steve Lacy is new, so I don't know what that necessarily says about the growth of the progression of pop music in the 2020s. But at the same time I'm reminded of like 1990 or like the 90s before Nirvana blew up where we were just kind of in this holding period before the next big thing came along and rocked everybody's socks off. This year's kind of been weird and just very up in th

e air, which has sometimes been a good thing. Kate Bush was in the Hot 100 for a bit. That was great. That was a really good thing that happened. But yeah, I think we'll this year will become a lot clearer like once we're a year or two out from it. In the K.K. Slider video you opened with the intro, the three separate videos, which you can't do because of the then-new Covid. The first video is about the history of James Bond themes. The second video is talking about potential hearing damage that

could occur at music festivals. The third one was about Glee, but I wanted to know if you would ever consider coming back to the first two. They both seemed like a lot of fun, very astute question. Both of those videos were planned for 2020 when I was doing like the overarching like year out view of what my videos were going to be. I think Bond was delayed because the movie got pushed back from April to November and then by the time November came around I just had other videos I wanted to do an

d then the hearing damage won at concerts. That wasn't gonna be a thing until concerts came back and now that concerts are back in some form, other videos have just kind of taken priority. But I would definitely love to do the hearing damage one. And just talking about like the importance of earplugs and hearing safety at concerts and then the bond one at some point too. Do you have any plans to redo certain DDDs with the same level of research and quality as the new ones? For example, Death Gri

ps, Tyler the Creator, et cetera? Okay, I don't know if I've ever done this in full. So I'm going to lay out what in my mind is the timeline of the Deep Discog Dive and the different phases of it. Phase one was the 2019 ones all of the, like, I think it was like from The Strokes to My Chemical Romance, all of those I do want to redo at some point. It may not happen immediately, it may take a while, but I do want to get to those at some point. Then you have like the second middle phase, which is

I would say like Steely Dan to what was the one I did right before Radiohead? Whatever the one I did right before Radiohead is, those are kind of like the growing pains ones where, I'm not of adverse to redoing them for the most part, but I would want to get through phase one redos before I get to them. And then phase three starts with Radiohead and has continued ever since. And I don't have any plans to redo any of those. So to answer your question, yes, I absolutely do have plans to redo more

of them. Though, I think the ones you gave in your example were two of the ones that are in phase two. So if I ever do redo them, it'll take longer for that. As a recent fan of the Mountain Goats, have you ever seen Moral Oral? Oh yeah, I've seen Moral Oral. That was actually my introduction to the Mountain Goats. That third season, dude, it changes you. I know you've talked a great length about your love for Spoon, a love I've been developing the more time I spend with their music and I'm shock

ed you haven't made a DDD for them yet. Is it something you plan to do in the future or have you just avoided it since part of the fun of making DDDs is hearing albums you haven't already heard before? I mean, part of it maybe, but like the real reason is, I think it would be really fun if Spoon was the last ever DDD I did. Because at that point there just has to be no more worlds for me to conquer. You know what I mean? Like that's gotta be the point where it's like the DDD has run its course w

here I just wanna move on to something else and Spoon is like the one that I end it with. Yeah, I've just have this idea in my head of Spoon being the last one. What happened to Mic's Monthly Mix? Oh boy. Okay, so for context, I have been doing album reviews or album roundups for basically the entire time I've been on the internet. Most recently it's been with Mic's Monthly Mix. Then before that, the Quick Review Basheroo and then before that just quick album reviews on their own in like 10-20 s

econd snippets. I have not posted any sort of album roundup video since May of this year. To be honest, I didn't think people would care if I just stopped and didn't say why. But enough people have been asking me and they've been asking consistently enough where I felt it was only fair to give some kind of update about it. And that update is I don't plan to make them again for the foreseeable future. For a while I thought I would just never make them again. But if my personal hero Justin Bieber

has taught me anything, it's to never say never. So I'll just say for the foreseeable future, I won't be making them. You want reasons, I'll give you three reasons. Reason number one, I don't wanna do 'em anymore. I just don't, I wanna get this reason out of the way first because it's a big one. It doesn't require a whole lot of explanation and it feeds into the other two reasons. I thought the change up in format from the QRB to the MMM would change my feelings on the matter. It did for a littl

e bit, but eventually I was just right back to where I started. I am just burnt out on having to keep up with the album release cycle and trying to find new things to say each month about records. Other people are more talented when it comes to that. I don't know if that's where my real skills lie. Why am I doing this still? I think my real skills and my real talents lie more in the Deep Discog Dives and in the one off examining videos or just the little case studies I put out every so often. An

d that actually leads into reason number two, why I'm not doing album roundups anymore. People don't seem to want them, Sorry, wait, let me rephrase that a bit. I don't want to dismiss you or your feelings if you were a fan of those series or if you found like a new favorite album or a new favorite artist because of them. That is incredibly cool to me. I know that there are some people out there who have you told me that they found artists because of one of those videos and I am immensely apprec

iative of that. But when I say people, I mean the collective figurative body of viewers that are shown my videos via the YouTube algorithm. And the vast majority of them are just not interested in those kinds of videos. Usually whenever I put one of them out, there is a spike in viewership and engagement, but then within a week it's dead. They don't have the same long tail evergreen appeal that a Deep Discog Dive or a one-off thought piece do. They just don't. And I just wanna be clear, that is

not meant to guilt trip or pin blame on anyone. Part of my job on this platform is to make interesting videos with engaging stories that are served up to you via interesting titles and thumbnails. And doing that with a random assortment of albums is hard. It's difficult. I don't even know if it's doable unless you prioritize the narrative over the albums. And at that point, that defeats the purpose. 'cause it shouldn't be about me and my YouTuber antics. It should be about recommending albums an

d highlighting artists that I like. I don't want to Mr. Beast-ify album recommendations, you know what I mean? Now you might say, "Well, do views and engagement really matter?" Can't I just do these album roundups out of the love and the passion for it? And no, you're right, in the grand total, they may not matter. But to that, I say please revisit reason number one, and also... I'm just tired, you guys, the world outside of my channel gets bigger with each passing year and I don't have the time

or the energy to make videos that aren't interesting to me, aren't interesting to the majority of people, or don't try something new. I'm, I'm sorry, I just, I don't have it in me. Reason number three, the stuff that might people off the bigger picture stuff. In the majority of cases, I don't think long form album reviews are the future of music discourse on YouTube. I think if album reviews belong anywhere now on the internet, it's TikTok or even just short form served up via recommendation al

gorithms, it's not even the future really, it's the present. In fact, I think the next evolution of music discourse on the internet is not reviews or even discovery. I think it's people recontextualizing the music they already know and like in new ways. Reaction videos are kind of in that ballpark. But even still, I've seen a lot of people in recent years turning the reaction format on its head. Or even just finding new formats or bringing new formats from other genres or other niches into music

. I don't think album reviews are going away by any means, but I think we're just gonna be seeing more and more formats offered to people. I have a lot of other thoughts about this, but I think if I try to shove them all at the end of this Q&A, it's going to feel very confusing and very just all over the place. So if you want me to make a video about it, about like the future of music criticism and discourse, I'd be down. Now even with all that said, I am not completely opposed to returning to t

he album roundup format at some point in the distant future. It would just need like a killer, killer hook to bring people in and to get people excited. I'm also not opposed to offering thoughts on individual albums on five, 10 minute long videos. Kind of like what I did with Mr. Morale way back in May. Or even I kind of wanna talk about the new Taylor Swift record in that kind of format on its own. And I might do that in the next few weeks. So yeah, I would not have a problem doing that with li

ke big records or even just records that I am interested in. Also, I don't know if anyone would conflate the two, but just to make clear, just because I'm done with the album roundups does not mean I'm done with year end list season type things. Like you're still getting a top 10 albums video and a best music of the year video. Like that, that is not changing at all. Alright, I think that covers everything. Thank you for submitting a question. If you submitted a question and thank you for 200,00

0 subscribers, again, it genuinely means the world to me. I'm gonna go and start working on the next Deep Disc Dive, which should be out in the next like week and a half, two weeks or so. And here's a hint on who it is. You're gonna hate it. You're just gonna hate who it is. Imagine an artist who you think deserves a Deep Discog Dive or who you'd wanna see get one and then imagine the exact opposite artist. And it's probably not even then. You're gonna hate who I picked. Goodbye.