As with 2019, I have assembled a list of my favorite songs as of the end of 2020. Unlike in 2019, though, this list is more representative of the songs I love, as in 2019, I started organizing songs in the middle of the year. The list is partly just for my own amusement, partly so I have a record of what music I liked at various times, partly to share with others, and partly so that I will have playlists of songs that I know I like.
How I organized this: Using this rating scheme, I rated songs throughout the year. At the end of the year, I collected the five star songs and put them into a database. The database picks a random song and asks how much I like that song compared to one of the other songs I have already sorted. It does this over and over again until the song has been ranked and then picks another song and repeats the process.
As in 2019, I was surprised to see so many songs from my podcast (5 Song Set) on the list. It is easy to think that indie groups produce less quality music than professionals, but that is clearly not true. I also discovered that it is hard for me to compare short songs to symphonies. I started a project in 2020 to find classical music that I like, and it is definitely bearing fruit. However, while I may love a symphony, I don't always feel like spending an hour or two listening to one song, which makes it difficult to say if I love it more or less than a great song that is less than five minutes long. Anyway, there remain some songs on the list that I love for reasons other than their musical qualities, which is fine with me. There are songs that remind me of specific places or moments in time, and that feeling is important. I've tried to explain this in places.
To make up for the weird influence of my personal history on the list, I've decided to include suggestions for people who want to listen to new music, rather than stroll down memory lane with me. These are my suggestions.
If you like:
- Swing/Music from the 1940s
- Motown/Blues
- Beautiful, Calm Songs
- Happy Songs