On the relevance of Grateful Dead in 2020

Just like a lot of people, Spotify users at least, back in december I posted my top artists of the year to my Instagram. the one response I received was “why is grateful dead #2?!” I had to reply that the dead are fire and #2 is actually a downgrade for them in my rotation, as they were my #1 artist in 2018. Now, this is a perfectly innocent question to have, especially in 2019 and considering the rest of my top 5 artists were all rappers, but i will never apologize for my love of the dead.
    First of all, everyone is entitled to listen to whatever they like. If there is one thing that I have learned by everyone posting their Spotify statistics is that everyone has their own specific tastes. We have also come to a time when just about everything can be considered cool. I have noticed that this is particularly evident in clothing trends and I have a firm belief that we have moved past the general cycle of trends and have entered an era where any- and everything can be considered fashionable. While I think this is slightly less applicable to music tastes, I do think it is more possible than ever to have musical interests than span a number of genres. The internet has opened us up to a wider expanse of all forms of art. Not to mention the ease of finding any artist's entire catalogue on Spotify at a moments notice has enabled us to explore whatever realms we wish.
    Now let’s talk about The Grateful Dead specifically. Many longtime deadheads could easily question the purity of my fanhood and clown me for never seeing the dead live, while they saw them 40 plus times and can name their favorite songs and performances they witnessed. It is a true regret of mine that I never saw Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead proper live, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. I didn’t start really listening to the dead until 2018, even though I had at least two items of dead memorabilia before that. I feel okay being late to the party though, as John Mayer, co-frontman of the dead spinoff, Dead and Company, boarded the bus only a few years earlier, in 2011. But when John Mayer and two other newcomers joined Bob Weir and original Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart in 2015, forming the Dead and Co., I still wasn’t quite privy to the hype.
    That didn’t come until 2018 when the brand Online Ceramics got some key cosigns. I first heard about them through the GQ Style podcast Corporate Lunch. After hearing this, I did some research and it turns out the brand was started by just a couple of former art students out in LA. They started out by just printing and hand tie-dyeing a bunch of tees and then selling them out of the back of a van at Dead and Co. shows (which they still do). They make a combination of THEIR OWN UNIQUE DESIGNS AND grateful dead themed tees (one of which i am wearing AS I WRITE THIS), but all of them feel more specifically ~online ceramics~ than liquid blue. To this day, each tee is printed and dyed by hand, making each one unique.
    so anyway, realizing that a number of really cool people were on the grateful dead train, i thought it was time i give them another chance. The first time I tried to listen to their music (after unwittingly buying my first piece of bootleg dead merch), I went for one of their studio albums. Not smart. The dead are legendarily known for their live shows. This is what allowed them to tour for 30 years, only stopping when they lost their lead guitarist, Jerry Garcia, to a heart attack while in rehab. Going back to give the dead another chance I was wise to this, so I did some research on some of the the most popular live dead shows. I found that there was some hype around the recently released Cornell 5/8/77 show, so I decided to give it a shot. Most likely aided by a little bit of cannabis, I found myself transported to this beautiful soundscape, and taken on a magical journey. I understand now why the dead has a reputation in the psychedelic community as being a nice gentile escort through a trip. While you are able to lose yourself in the music, it’s nothing jarring. Instrumental breaks perfectly balance with gentile, friendly verses and choruses in a combination of small-c country and classic rock sounds that take you on a journey through the night.
      Once i started listening to live dead shows, i found that was almost all i wanted to listen to. they were perfect for my walks to classes or as background music as i hung out with friends. soon i planned a trip to alpine valley to see the dead and co. live. it was a great experience. i only started to listen to more dead shows on spotify. i can't wait to see them live again. so why was the grateful dead my #2 artist in 2019? because by some miracle i listened to enough old kanye to bump them from number one.