Me and My Music

I have a hobby that I bet many people have never heard of before. In fact, I thought I was the only person in the world who engaged in this hobby until the beginning of this century when I discovered sites and email groups devoted to this pastime. It all started for me in 1984 when I discovered Western music on a local radio station in my hometown of Jakarta, Indonesia. 

Well, I just loved the music this radio played! I especially enjoyed its countdown of its Top 40 popular hits songs. I would faithfully jot down the songs as the radio counted them down. When I started to disagree with its placing of songs on the countdown, it inspired me to compile my own chart of favorite songs, and I have been doing this on a weekly basis ever since, spending several hours every week compiling my 42 favorite songs in order.

Recently I started making two charts, one devoted to ‘indie’ songs from mostly small, relatively obscure independent record labels and the other to ‘mainstream’ songs from more famous artists or more mainstream labels. At the end of every year, I scan over all the charts I compiled over the year to choose my favorite songs of that year to form my year-end chart.

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