My Music Game 2k26
Until 11:59 pm December 31st, I’m exclusively listening to music released in the calendar year 2026. I’m starting my music library 100%… 99% from scratch.
For one thing, that means I would LOVE music recommendations. If your fave drops a new album, single, or 30-hour ambient noise epic, please hop in my ask box and tell me!
So here are the rules as I’m following them:
- This only applies to music that I turn on for Recreational Music-Listening Purposes. If there’s an old song in a movie, or on the radio in a store, or playing in someone else’s car; that’s all fine. But whenever I choose to listen to music, the date restriction applies.
- If a single was released in 2025 and then comes out in 2026 on an album, it’s a 2026 track - but only after the album comes out. For example, the Format released Holy Roller in 2025, and Right Where I Belong in 2026. I can listen to Right Where I Belong right now, but Holy Roller is off-limits until the entire Boycott Heaven album releases in a week. This rule is mostly for logistics reasons - I’m not going to spend my year checking every song on every album to make sure it wasn’t released as a single two days before the cutoff.
- Live music is always allowed; if I go see a Green Day concert that’s a fresh & fun music experience.
- Live recordings are not allowed; if Green Day has a 2026 concert and puts it out as an album, that’s just new recordings of old music and listening to them is cheating.
- Covers are allowed; if some other band puts out a cover of (or performs!) American Idiot this year, that’s a transformative new work and is totally fine for me to listen to.
- I get one cheat day per month, which I’ll chiefly use for logistics reasons. For example, my January cheat day was spent on a two-hour drive in a car with only a CD player, no aux or Bluetooth, and I don’t own any CDs from 2026 yet
Throughout the year I’ll post about the music I’ve been listening to, maybe monthly… tag for that tbd
