My latest musical obsession (when I’m not subjecting myself to the 10-hour version of the “He-Man Hey Yeah Yeah” song), is a pair of videos by a music compilation channel on YouTube. The first one, appropriately titled “30 minutes of kirby music to make you feel better” is a collection of bright and cheerful tracks from a variety of Kirby games, classic and current (though it leaves out some of the latest games to avoid the litigious arm of Nintendo), that absolutely lives up to its name. The second one is the sequel to that first, wonderful video, titled “45 minutes of kirby music to make you feel even better” which also absolutely lives up to its name. There’s a lot of familiar tracks in this second one, showcasing songs by the same name that had been updated or changed for newer games, along with a collection of new ones as well. The channel can get away with these videos because it is not monetized and exists solely to create these compilations of video game music according to a central theme. There are a lot of channels out there like this one, but this one takes it all a little step further. Rather than just posting a static image, there’s a little animation of Kirby wearing headphones and bopping along to the music on the first one and, on the second one, fifteen minutes of bright and happy comments from the first video showcasing just how warmly this collection of music was received. The bright and cheerful music the compiler chose for these videos is enhanced by the cheerful and friendly nature of the comments they selected for this video and, for the most part (more so than any other video I’ve ever seen on YouTube), further enhanced by the bright and cheerful comments below the video.
Both of these videos are on at least their second upload. This channel was not always unmonetized and, back in early 2022, the original postings of these videos got taken down. Eventually, the channel reuploaded them (and I think they’re both missing a track now, but it was almost two years between when the original videos vanished from the internet and when I realized they’d been reuploaded by the original channel again so I might just be misremembering or making it up entirely), but not before a host of other channels had reuploaded copies of those videos, many of which I watched because they kept pointing to the past videos that they said had been taken down. Foolishly, I trusted them and only by happenstance, through the recommendations on another video by that original channel, did I realized that they’d all been posting copies of videos still available on YouTube without, in all but one case, giving credit to the original arranger. Thankfully, though, their greed has not gone unpunished since several of them were monetized channels that have been forced to take their copies of the videos down since I found them.
Having this music to listen to while I’ve been working the last few weeks has been incredibly helpful. Not only do I get to listen to some of my favorite classic video game music–songs I remember from my early days of playing games with the sound on before I started doing my best to avoid attention of any kind by always playing my games on silent–alongside more modern versions of it, but it helps buoy my mood during a wave of depression that has extended into its fourth week. I don’t think I can point to any one specific thing that has gotten me through this long period of depression, but listening to these videos while I’ve been working has been more helpful than anything else I’ve done. A lot of it is the emotionally complex nostalgic factor of Kirby games and their music, something I’ve written about in the past, but it really is difficult for me to feel sad when I’m listening to Kirby music or playing a Kirby game. Kirby himself is so bright and cheerful and the worlds of his games, no matter how grimy or broken, are the stuff that dreams are made of and always recover in the end. Its infectuous.
Having this music to listen to while I work, while I’m dealing with the painful, drawn-out effects of a decision I fought against years ago, while I’m slowly working my way through the exhaustive testing I know needs to be done on timelines I have no control over, while I’m trying to make sure I earn enough money every paycheck that I can continue digging myself out of the hole my inexperience, bad parental advice, and participation in modern capitalistic society sunk me into during college… That’s all I’ve really got right now. It’s difficult to admit and not fun think about, but I really don’t have a lot going on in my life other than work, my writing for this blog, and whatever online gaming with my friends I have the energy for between my long work days and collapsing in exhaustion for whatever sleep I can get after chasing joy long enough to not feel like my day was an empty husk of passing time. It’s not much, but I’ll take whatever I can get until this overwhelming feeling of emptiness and depression passes. I just hope that I’ll stop needing it before the warmth it brings me finally dwindles to the point of not working anymore since all the other Kirby mixes I’ve looked for to supplement these two don’t manage to land the bright and cheerful tone I’m looking for, nor have any of my other YouTube mixes. I might try to keep it fresh by going without it on the days I don’t actually need it (and returning to my various playlists on Tidal), but it’s just so nice to listen to that I have a difficult time denying myself.