I’ve decided to start keeping a monthly music diary. This is more for myself than anyone else, so I can look back in future on what was going on in my musical world. It includes a playlist of the songs I’ve been enjoying this month, the shows I’ve been to, and commentary on musical events and discourse.

My April listening had a more global flavour than usual, as I’ve been involved in the Pop World Cup on Bluesky. This is a poll involving songs from every nation involved in the Fifa World Cup, from Algeria to Uzbekistan. There are absolutely loads of great songs in the selection, the vast majority of them new to me. A couple of particular favourite discoveries were Jose Casimiro from Cabo Verde (above) and Pat Thomas from Ghana (below).

My music listening is generally way too Anglocentric, with electronic music being perhaps an exception, as the borders seem somehow more permeable in that world. The odd track or album slips into my heart (Mbonwana Star, Ata Kak, Amadou & Mariam for example), but I’ve never really investigated the music of Asia, Africa, South or Central America in any depth.This tournament has been a real eye opener for me, hinting at what I’ve been missing out on. There have been a handful of artists I was already familiar with, such as Imarhan, Deena Abdelwahed (whose track is perhaps my favourite of the tournament, other than those I nominated myself) & The Beths, but mostly it’s been a process of discovery, and a delightful one at that.

Outside that milieu, one of the few tracks that has broken through this month has been the Lady Gaga and Doechii track ‘Runway’ which is enormous fun. I generally find Gaga’s stuff middling to good, but rarely choose to actively listen. Doechii I’ve spent more time listening to, but of her own stuff is very different to this. A rare case of two very different artists coming together (for a movie soundtrack no less) and absolutely nailing it.

April was a very busy month for me, between work and school holidays, so no live music and no writing since last month’s musical diary, or nothing I’ve finished at least. There does seem to be quite a correlation between the amount of time I spend writing and listening to music, and my state of my mind, so I need to try harder to find the time in future.

Industry plants were the focus of music discourse this month, and the band Geese in particular, after some of the sneakier tactics used by a marketing agency to get their music (and that of many other artists) heard came to light. To me, it’s hard to get outraged. Industry plant in particular seems a meaningless term. It implies people are being somehow tricked into liking bad music, but labels presumably choose artists they thing people are going to like. Sure, they promote them, but I imagine it’s a lot easier to promote a band who make music people like.

It seems unfair on Geese in particular, a band I don’t have very strong opinions on personally. It seems marketing is less accepted in certain genres of music, despite being used in all. We all want to believe our own taste in music is unsullied, organic, uninfluencable, but of course our taste in music is influenced by many things, the places we live, the people we love our friends and families. One of the most obvious influences on our music taste is what music do we actually get to hear. You can’t love a song you never hear. Labels and agencies are always going to use whatever tricks they can to get their music heard by as many people as possible. You can’t force people to like Geese, or any other band, but if you can get them heard by 2 million people instead of 1 million then you likely have twice as many fans.

Are some of the specific marketing tricks, such as fake user generated content a bit shady? Certainly. Should some of those tricks be banned? Perhaps. But I doubt it will change all that much. Nor do I blame Geese for their part in this. I doubt all that many bands either know or want to know what agencies and labels do on their behalf, and if they do, they want to maintain plausible deniability.

Whilst a few artists do manage to become successful whilst maintaining their full integrity, but for most there is some level of compromise with ‘the industry’. Admittedly some embrace this more readily than others, but even many of the most talented and/or credible bands have made unexpected moves. Nirvana signed for Geffen when they could have stayed on Sub Pop. Chumbawumba signed for EMI after at one time being the ultimate independent anarchist group. So I’m not going to judge Geese, or any other heavily promoted band, too harshly.

Below is my playlist of the month, on Apple Music, but you can use Tunemymusic.com to convert to a streaming service of your choice should you wish.

https://music.apple.com/gb/playlist/musical-diary-april-2026/pl.u-WabZPj3uejgjpAx