Fluxblog 2023 playlist - a time capsule of the year in music!

No matter who you are there's something cool you've never heard in this one

[SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC | YOUTUBE - ABRIDGED]

The annual Fluxblog survey is my original playlist project dating back to 2007. This is what I do instead of ranked lists, which I fundamentally dislike, and the goal has always been to create a time capsule of the year in music from my perspective. For a long time I used to do this as a set of zipped mp3 compilations, which was an incredibly labor-intensive process that limited the scope to mostly just what I cared about the most and what I acknowledged to be important outside of my own taste. Once I shifted over to streaming these playlists became increasingly ambitious, an attempt to cover as much ground as I possibly could despite the sheer volume of music released globally every year. 

The 2023 Fluxblog Survey is another attempt to be as inclusive as possible of a wide range of genres, but with a clear emphasis on my taste in the first 300-400 songs or so out of a nearly 1000 song playlist. I want to make it clear right away I don’t think anyone has to listen to all of this, it’s insane and would take you a few days just to hear everything once. I sequenced the whole thing very deliberately, but the only part I’d really hope you listen to as I present it would be towards the beginning. Generally I think it’s best to just click around and find out what grabs you – there’s little suites of songs that go together through the playlist, like mini-playlists in the middle of the big one. I’d rather people look at this as a way to stumble into new things to love or with anthropological interest than it being some impossible chore. 

Out of all the playlists I make through the year, the survey and the Fluxcaviar playlist that is essentially an ongoing rough draft of the survey are the two that are most personal to me. Fluxcaviar is my default listening, the songs that end up meaning the most to me as the soundtrack of my life, and the survey is a permanent collection that I can come back to later on whether it’s for research or nostalgia. 

This is an important tradition to me, and it takes a lot of time to research, build, and sequence all of this music. I hope you get something out of it, and it would be especially meaningful to me if you shared it with other people who’d appreciate its value.