Here’s a little peek behind the curtain. I’m not wearing any pants. I didn’t plan this thing (the newsletter, parenthood, my life) out at all. So naturally I didn’t really check to see the capabilities of this platform when it came to embedding Spotify playlists directly within the newsletter.

Short story: It can’t be done elegantly, or at least as elegantly as I hoped. But posting a blurry-ish screen grab at the VERY bottom of each issue is certainly not the answer.

So.

Right below this is an embedded link that will take you either to A.) Spotify or B.) Youtube, depending on your listening preferences. I will use this format moving forward to make sure the people who actually want to listen to the music know where to find it. And thank you to Ali E. for kindly and gently sending me feedback that she couldn’t find the playlist. Here at JackJams, we aim to please. Or at least not totally eff up.

In this Edition:

-The Tiktokification of Music

-How to Handle Music with Curse Words

-In Praise of Matty Matheson

Where does music come from?

As the writer of perhaps the MOST millennial newsletter ever constructed, it seems fitting for my third issue to be the one where I talk about how “in my day” we learned of new music on the radio and tried to record it onto a cassette tape while skipping any commercial breaks.

But I’m not nostalgic for that time. It sucked and took forever. I feel lucky to be able to log onto TikTok and let the scary algorithm do the work for me. The result is that quite a few songs on the JackJams playlist first came to my attention via an app where I just watched a gender reveal firework catch a backyard on fire.

Here’s just a smattering of songs that made it onto the playlist from TikTok

The Jonas Brothers - “Waffle House”

Charli XcX - “Apple”

Tate McRae - “Exes”

Noah Kahan - “Stick Season”

I end with Noah Kahan because that was the first time a true earworm hit me from TikTok. It was also where I first saw the power of the platform. He is a master of social media, duetting up and coming singers who covered his music and being emotional and vulnerable in all the right ways.

He’s also one of the most successful when it comes to turning social media success into mainstream appeal. And now he’s friends with Post Malone.

What I’m saying is, and have said before, is time is valuable. Do I feel a bit uneasy going from “finding” music to “being served” music? Sure, but do I think technology has made it any less meaningful once i do connect to a song? Heck no. A good tune is a good tune, and truthfully we’re always being manipulated by something to get our attention. While it’s important to know what factors are driving your decisions, in the case of a song like “Stick Season,” I feel lucky to be in an age where I both stumbled across a great song and was pinpointed by tech to make sure I had no way of missing it. A little dystopian, but what isn’t these days?

Don’t sing that.

A long, long-time Internet friend from the AbsolutePunk.net days, Anton D., wrote in last week to specifically ask about what we do with songs that have curse words in them.

With Jack being 3 1/2, this is a new wrinkle in our “no kid music” playlist. We’ve began systematically replacing explicit songs with radio edit versions. Examples include “That’s What I Want” by Lil Nas X and “Texas Hold ‘Em” by Beyonce. I am by no means a “no cussing” person, and Jack still hears us say “the S word” and the “the D word” sort of regularly, and he has once exclaimed “Jesus Christ” because he has heard me scream that at bad drivers in the car. But so far he seems less interested in the words and more into the beat.

But we know we are on borrowed time, and will certainly have to be much more careful with new songs in the near, near future. But my advice (that nobody asked for) is: kids like things that seem rare or special. If you give the words power, the kids will too. Language is always changing, think about what’s on TV now versus 20 years ago. I’m not saying I want Jack to tell everyone to go to hell, but I also don’t want him to be afraid of all the nuances of language. After all, a nice loud “Jesus Christ!” every once and a while can be quite cathartic.

Matty Matheson, my hero.

For those who don’t know, Matty Matheson is a Canadian neer-do-well turned chef turned Vice personality turned Youtube star turned actor on “The Bear.”

He is a loud, tatted, sober husband/father of 3 who is truly the sweetest man in entertainment. His cooking show, Just A Dash, is unlike any culinary media you’ve ever seen. His role on “The Bear” is funny and heartfelt, adding levity and real chef intuition to a show that is sometimes WAY too serious.

But most importantly, he is someone who cares endlessly about his friends and family. He has helped his small town in Ontario become a food destination, he has backed friends who may have never opened restaurants to do just that, he is committed to sustainability and even owns a farm.

Matty Matheson, despite nearly always screaming, is my comfort watch. His food is thoughtful yet over-the-top. He doesn’t get lost in trends or too many details. He cooks from his gut and his heart. I think what has drawn me to him is his ability to be serious and playful; he cares so much but never lets that slow him down. One of my favorite quotes from, yep, a Peloton instructor is: “We take the work seriously but never ourselves.” That could be written about Matty Matheson, and I hope one day it’s written about me too.

That’s it.

I hope this issue was a bit more of a look behind the curtain of my views on music and also the “longstanding” rules of parenthood. We’re figuring it out, we’re having fun, we’re listening to A LOT of OneRepublic.

As always, if you have any questions, feedback, or want to discuss a particular topic, you can respond directly to this email or hit me up at [email protected]

See you next week,

BLAKE