Kelly Conaboy is writing an advice column for Dipp readers. It's going to be very serious. So serious, in fact, we named it Very Serious: An Advice Column by Kelly Conaboy. Just email her at kelly.conaboy@gmail.com with your most crucial conundrums and each week, Kelly will solve one lucky reader's biggest problem. You can read all of Kelly's excellent advice here.

Dear Kelly,

The only music I listen to is music I’ve liked for 10 years. Do I need to try to listen to new music?

From,

Nate

Nate, this is a difficult one.

I know there are people out there who would encourage you to seek out new music. To open your mind, to have new experiences. To consume all the great things life has to offer. To choose to listen to not your favorite album but, instead, some sort of ... Apple Music playlist, or however people find new music to listen to. (TikTok?) But, it’s just like … oh my god … Nate … like … who has the energy???

Okay. I’ll first attempt to make the case for listening to something new every once in a while. I recently very briefly tried to take part in the self-help book The Artist’s Way, which is supposed to nurture your inner artist back to health for the purposes of creativity. In either the first or second week (the only two weeks I completed out of the 16 weeks it requires), the author Julia Cameron instructs you to take your “inner artist” on an “artist’s date.”