Listen Wider Challenge 2020

2020 marked the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth. In response to the many concerts and events celebrating and promoting a composer who is already among the most prominent and often-programmed, many musicians, listeners, and music scholars set themselves the goal of listening wider-- expanding the range of what they listen to and perform. The anonymous public musicologist "Musicology Duck" created a list of "challenges," inspired by Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge, to give listeners prompts for finding new music. This guide includes playlists, reference materials, and guides for how to identify music that meets each challenge.

Listen to:

1. A composition of 60 minutes or more in length by a woman or non-binary composer
2. A country song released in the last 6 months
3. A chamber piece for 7-12 players written since 1980
4. The cast recording of a musical featuring a queer character
5. A miniature composition under 90 seconds long
6. An opera with a libretto by an author of color
7. A track by a Native/First Nations/Indigenous hip-hop artist
8. A work by a student composer
9. A work from a religious/spiritual tradition other than your own
10. A composition that won a major award in 2018 or 2019
11. A classic rock album from the 1960s or 1970s you feel like you should have listened to in its entirety by now, but never have
12. A piece by a composer from Central or South America
13. A campaign song for each of the opposing candidates in any election, current or historical
14. A composition written when the composer was older than age 80
15. A piece notated using graphic notation
16. An instrumental work from before 1750 written by a woman
17. A piece specifically for children by a composer or songwriter who usually writes for adults
18. A top hit from the year you were born—from a country other than your own
19. Two different tracks that sample the same song
20. A song sung by two or more siblings
21. The soundtrack for a film in a language other than English
22. An art music composition (broadly defined) that received its premiere in an African country
23. A classical recording from an independent label
24. A record by a winning Eurovision Song Contest performer other than their competition song
25. A protest song by a songwriter who identifies as LGBTQIA+
26. A song or piece written to memorialize victims of a natural disaster
27. A song by an artist currently atop Billboard’s “Social 50” chart
28. A concerto for tuba, bassoon, or double bass
29. A jazz album recorded since 2015
30. A song written by or from the perspective of an immigrant

From Musicology Duck, http://www.musicologyduck.com/listen-wider-2020/