Top 30 rock albums of a high school senior
A Challenge, NFT tinkering, and early lessons learned
Previously On
As I mentioned last week, I had argued that music artists have it easier now with less competition. To give you an example, below are my Top 30 Rock Albums of 1991, my senior high school year, by release date:
8-Jan Fly Me Courageous - Drivin N Cryin
24-Jan Doubt - Jesus Jones
12-Mar Out of Time - R.E.M.
5-Mar Dollars & Sex - The Escape Club
28-Mar Joyride - Roxette
1-Apr School of Fish - School of Fish
2-Apr Mama Said - Lenny Kravitz
16-Apr Temple of the Dog - Temple of the Dog
30-Apr Laughter & Lust- Joe Jackson
30-Apr Union - Yes
14-May God Fodder - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
14-May Schubert Dip - EMF
18-Jun For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge - Van Halen
2-Jul Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
9-Jul Woodface - Crowded House
12-Aug Metallica - Metallica
13-Aug Mr. Bungle - Mr. Bungle
26-Aug Leisure - Blur
27-Aug Backlash - Bad English
27-Aug Ten - Pearl Jam
3-Sep Ratt & Roll 81–91 - Ratt
17-Sep Use Your Illusion I - Guns N' Roses
24-Sep Waking Up the Neighbours - Bryan Adams
24-Sep Badmotorfinger - Soundgarden
24-Sep Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Red Hot Chili Peppers
24-Sep Ceremony - The Cult
24-Sep Nevermind - Nirvana
15-Oct As Ugly as They Wanna Be - Ugly Kid Joe
11-Nov Live Baby Live - INXS
19-Nov Achtung Baby - U2
The Power of Particular
As you can see, that was a very prolific year. Just notice the caliber of the albums that were released on September 24th alone! Many of them paved the way for the future of rock.
The Challenge
Some friends challenged me to expand on my point of view. A few key events that happened recently helped me to do so:
Interview with Spotify. I met great people but in the end, the position was not a good fit. Luckily, a good friend who works at Amazon Music recommended I read All You Need to Know About the Music Business, aka the “music bible”.
Writing Class. Good with Words: Writing and Editing taught by Patrick Barry. In his newsletter, I picked two book recommendations:
For good sentences about pop music
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (1995)
For good sentences about rock music
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (2010)
Music meets Blockchain: I was hesitant about cryptocurrencies until I came across Gary Vee’s vision about non-fungible tokens (NFTs). I actually went ahead had bought the first album released as an NFT. Quick summary: Steep learning curve and a lot of friction in the process but with huge potential for the intersection of music and financial technology industries.
Found the material prepared at grad school as part of a team-based project to help Microsoft tailor Office to Generation Y.
Lesson Learned
Those events allowed me to realize that Intersection should be more than just about another nostalgic Gen Xer starting to sound like his parents or Tom Petty in Learning to Fly saying: ”well, the good old days may not return”. Again, you will notice writing vastly influenced by the 90s but at least now I’m fully self-aware :)
Till next post. Thanks for reading.