A Pop Life 10 years old!

Introduction

Today marks the 10th anniversary of my blog A Pop Life: My Life with Music! When I started it on July 1, 2016, my main idea was simply to write about the things I enjoyed.

After the tremendous success of the publication of 30 jaar geleden, het beste concert dat ik ooit zag on August 18, 2016, I decided to translate that article into English. It turned out to be an even greater success. Encouraged by thousands of readers and many wonderful responses, I decided from that moment on to publish an English translation alongside every Dutch blog post.

Around the same time, I also decided that I wanted to dedicate an article to every official Prince album. That mission is now almost complete. Many descriptions, personal stories, reviews, and reflections have been published, several of which remain among my favorite pieces I have ever written.

Future

The obvious question is: where do I go from here? I have now completed two anniversary cycles, and the Prince album series is nearly finished. Is there still anything left to write about? The short answer is: ‘yes’. I’ve told myself this before, but perhaps it’s time to slow down the publishing frequency a little. It certainly doesn’t help that I am increasingly being ‘fined’ hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of euros, by various dubious organizations claiming to represent copyright holders, for the use of images. There have also been several parties making threats. Probably small-minded people, but it’s unpleasant nonetheless.

Fortunately, the overwhelming majority of the responses I receive are still positive, constructive, funny, and touching, and I am sincerely grateful for every one of them. They continue to motivate me to keep writing. It is also both exciting and an honor to receive reactions from people who were directly involved in the subjects I have written about, and to see my blog cited as a source in other articles and even educational materials (see Milestones & acknowledgements).

My favorites

Just as I did after my first year of blogging, I still have a number of favorite articles. Some are pieces that I particularly enjoyed selecting, researching, and writing, while others have become favorites because they have been so warmly received by readers. My personal favorite articles are (in order of publication):

My favorite Prince articles

Since Prince is a category all his own for me, here are my personal favorites (in order of publication):

In addition to the 505 articles/posts, I have also published 70 reviews, 367 concert reports, 125 in memoriam articles, 73 lists, 35 news items, 86 companion articles, and much more.

Multiple articles on the same artist

Besides the many Prince articles (see the Prince index), Prince is not the only artist to whom I have dedicated multiple articles (posts, reviews, and companion articles). Here’s the top 10:

1. Prince, 144
2. Roxy Music, 12
3. Crass, 10
4. David Bowie, 9
5. Neil Young, 9
6. Van Halen, 8
7. Nick Cave, 7
8. Japan, 7
9. Parliament, 7
10. Frank Zappa, 7

Old people’s music?

Well, it certainly seems that way. Most of the artists listed above have been around for decades, or have long since stopped recording or performing. Although I still enjoy going to concerts by new bands, and the North Sea Jazz Festival is like a candy store for discovering new music, the statistics clearly reveal my preferences. Below is an overview of the articles, grouped by the decade in which the music was originally released:

As is abundantly clear, the 1980s have by far received the most attention in articles that can be attributed to a single year. The breakdown for that decade is as follows:

This definitively answers the question I posed earlier in the article 1984, the best year for pop music?. June 1984 in particular has proven to be an inexhaustible source of musical joy for me personally.

Personal gains

My blog has also enriched my musical life in many ways. Revisiting albums has often led me to reassess my opinions of them. Writing articles has introduced me to music that had previously passed me by, while reviewing new releases has helped me discover new artists and broaden my musical horizons. Several of these deserve a special mention because, over the past ten years, they have become (or once again become) personal favorites:

• Kate Bush
• The Cramps
• Brian Eno & David Byrne
• Mazzy Star
• Kendrick Lamar
• Joni Mitchell
• Róisín Murphy
• Pavement
• Public Image Ltd (PIL)
• Sault
• St. Vincent
• Sugar
• Ween

Writing and success

Sometimes it’s completely inexplicable, at least to me, why certain articles become successful and continue to attract readers. I still look with amazement (and, of course, pride) at the success of articles such as Linton Kwesi Johnson’s masterpiece Bass Culture, The most hated album in jazz: Miles Davis’ On The Corner, My 10 best Genesis songs, Boney M.’s Take The Heat Off Me: childhood sweetheart or sin?, and Breakups, 25 songs about the end of a relationship. These are just a few examples, but they all have one thing in common: they regularly experience spikes in page views, often after being shared on fan sites. It’s wonderful to see. However, the article that consistently attracts the most readers is Prince – The 25 best live bootlegs!. Clearly, it fills a real need, as it is consulted at least 200 to 300 times every week on average. Perhaps it’s time for an update?

Popular

So, what do you think, my readers? Below you’ll find all the articles and reviews published on my blog. Some of them were written before the blog officially launched (including the pieces I originally posted on Facebook). The list below is sorted by total page views, combining the statistics from both the Dutch and English sites.

Have a look through the list—you might discover something you missed ;-).

N.B:
Above list has been compiled on June 27, 2026.

In closing

A special word of thanks goes to the members of the A Pop Life Panel—Aisha K. Staggers, Edward Gubbels, and Timur Barendregt Ates, all of whom have contributed their own articles to my blog. My thanks also goes out to Bram and Edward for regularly proofreading my Prince articles!

Finally, I would like to thank all my readers, everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment, my newsletter subscribers, and everyone who follows me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, MeWe, Reddit, and Tumblr. Thank you all so much. I truly appreciate your support!