Listening parties are having a moment, both in person and virtually.
Ahead of the release of Japanese singer/songwriter Joji’s fifth studio album, fans gathered at dozens of stores across the nation to hear it.
In the Northeast, Newbury Comics hosted the parties. More than three years since Joji’s last album, fans say the new record was as melodic as they had hoped.
Victoria Davison met her friend Sarah Fulman at a Twenty-One Pilots Listening Party last year. Now, they’re sitting in the same spot they met in the back of the store near the mystery box toys. They’re listening and sharing the moment under a wall-mounted speaker. Davidson says bonding with others over art builds community.
“Whenever you listen to something for the first time, or like, see something for the first time, like, you get that like comprehension of it,” Davidson said. “I guess so it's just like the entire like foundation of that media is completely different.”
Rather than music fans listening to a new album alone, listening parties turn a release into a crowd-pleasing event. In a time when access streaming services changed the way people listen to music, some artists are organizing listening parties to bring people together to support local stores, meet new people, and connect with the music.
Keanna Hickman says she’s been a fan of Joji for over a decade. She says his music speaks to her and feels relatable. The 30-year-old says she could have waited a few days for the album to come out, but the hype around it was just too much to ignore. So, she came to the listening party at Newbury inside Crossgates Mall.
“I want to support and hang out with other people who like the same music. And, yeah, that's what music's about. I mean, just connecting with others and just, you know, sharing that, like feeling, experiencing it differently, obviously, for everybody, with all your explaining or the music might come off of this cross, just for me, just maybe even, like spiritually, I'm just happy to see him doing really well, all people supporting him. That’s what life's really about, making art and being there for your you know, for each other.”
Elena Colbert was thumbing through the store’s vast record and knickknack collection with her friend Maybell Kusumoto while listening. Colbert says even though she’s a fan, she was enticed by the free event.
“We're free thing connoisseurs as well,” Colbert said. “So as a win, win, you know, on both ends.”
Toward the end of the album party, Tavon Lockridge was busting a polite move by himself near a book shelf. The 23-year-old says he has been a fan since Joji’s YouTube days as “Filthy Frank” in the early 2010s. Lockridge said the album exceeded expectations.
“It was very, just atmospheric. It was very like, you know, it feels like classic Joji, but he's just, oh gosh, I'm sorry, he's just always been really like on point when it comes to his sound, and when it comes to just the feeling of, like heartbreak, like it's all so apparent throughout the album, and it's just, it's just really well-done a lot like solid eight for me, awesome.”
And the group listening doesn’t stop in-person. On social platform Discord, some are creating listening parties virtually. Isabella Grogg recently led her first listening part with The Band Camino fans.
Grogg says she has participated in in-person events, but this was her first virtual event. Grogg says she made a playlist longer than necessary and went with the flow of other listeners.
“We could live chat, and you can request songs that I can like, add to my playlist, which was pretty cool. And somebody could say, ‘oh, you know, I like the song. What's it called?’ Or like, ‘what other songs you recommend?’ And I could respond, which was really cool. And I could also hop on and chat with people like over the music. So, if I wanted to say, ‘Oh, here's a fun fact I like about this song or this band,’ I could do that as well, and that was really cool.’
