Doing the iPod Shuffle
How do you use your mp3 player? Are you the sort of person who listens by album, almost like a digital CD player? How about the guy who makes playlists for all occassions? (Luis, I'm looking at you, Mr. "Chill.") Could you even be like me, the person who always keeps their music on shuffle by song?
If so, then you probably spend most of your time skipping ahead to the next track like I do, since for some reason, the iPod consistently picks songs from the same artist in close succession, or worse yet, gives me all opera when what I really want is some fucking System of a Down. Sugaaahhh!
As an experiment, I decided to get out my crack pipe (oh shit - sorry - iPod) and write down the first ten songs it came up with on shuffle. Ladies and gents, drumroll please:
"Liberi Fatali" (Opening Theme), Final Fantasy VIII
"High and Dry," Radiohead
"There's a Doctor," The Who
"Rock N Roll," Peaches
"Somewhat Damaged," Nine Inch Nails
"Goodbye," Kevin Shields (Lost in Translation)
"Paranoid Android," Radiohead
"O Mimi tu Piu non Torni," La Bohème
"Ikebana," Kevin Shields (Lost in Translation)
"Rushing," Moby
Hrm. I'm pleasantly surprised by this for a few reasons.
(1) It is a pretty accurate illustration of my musical taste.
(2) It illustrates the precise problem I have with the shuffle feature: out of ten songs, two are Radiohead and two are Kevin Shields. I almost always skip past Kevin Shields, only listening to the Lost in Translation soundtrack when I'm in a severe funk.
(3) I'm really, really glad it didn't churn out five Dashboard Confessional tracks in a row like it did on the way to work this morning. There's only so much breaking of hearts and rending of garments that one girl can take!
If so, then you probably spend most of your time skipping ahead to the next track like I do, since for some reason, the iPod consistently picks songs from the same artist in close succession, or worse yet, gives me all opera when what I really want is some fucking System of a Down. Sugaaahhh!
As an experiment, I decided to get out my crack pipe (oh shit - sorry - iPod) and write down the first ten songs it came up with on shuffle. Ladies and gents, drumroll please:
"Liberi Fatali" (Opening Theme), Final Fantasy VIII
"High and Dry," Radiohead
"There's a Doctor," The Who
"Rock N Roll," Peaches
"Somewhat Damaged," Nine Inch Nails
"Goodbye," Kevin Shields (Lost in Translation)
"Paranoid Android," Radiohead
"O Mimi tu Piu non Torni," La Bohème
"Ikebana," Kevin Shields (Lost in Translation)
"Rushing," Moby
Hrm. I'm pleasantly surprised by this for a few reasons.
(1) It is a pretty accurate illustration of my musical taste.
(2) It illustrates the precise problem I have with the shuffle feature: out of ten songs, two are Radiohead and two are Kevin Shields. I almost always skip past Kevin Shields, only listening to the Lost in Translation soundtrack when I'm in a severe funk.
(3) I'm really, really glad it didn't churn out five Dashboard Confessional tracks in a row like it did on the way to work this morning. There's only so much breaking of hearts and rending of garments that one girl can take!
posted by Liz at 5:53 PM
2 Comments:
I like this experiment, so let's give it a try...
Here are my iPod's 10 tracks:
1. Radiohead - Black Star
2. Pink Floyd - One of my Turns
3. Coldplay - In my place
4. The Beatles - I Want You (She's So Heavy)
5. 2 Minutos - Como Caramelo de Limón
6. 50 Cent - Patiently Waiting (feat. Eminem)
7. Weezer - Hash Pipe
8. Smashing Pumpkins - The End is the Beginning is the End
9. The Beatles - Polythene Pam
10. The Beatles - Something
So, echoing Liz's post, some things we learn:
- this is also a pretty good cross-section of my musical tastes, incorporating classics (Beatles, Pink Floyd) with hiphop (50 Cent) with modern rock (Radiohead, Smashing Pumpkins, Coldplay) and even some Argentine punk music (2 Minutos).
- my iPod really seems to love The Beatles, and in particular Abbey Road, since all three songs are from that album
Also, as an aside, I think most guys have an, ahem, "Chill" playlist, ;-)!
Oh, I can't resist this, and yet I have no iPod. Ah well, I'll provide control data using Winamp.
I tried this two ways - once with the repeat on and once off, and it seems to make a difference. Oh, and the sample size it has to choose from is over a thousand tracks.
Repeat on
1 Blur – Coffee and TV
2 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum – Comedy Tonight
3 Four Star Mary – Dilate
4 B-52s - Love Shack
5 Lush – The Childcatcher
6 Portishead – Nobody Loves Me
7 Dusty Springfield – Angel of the Morning
8 Nine Inch Nails – Sin
9 Letters to Cleo – Here and Now
10 Nine Inch Nails – Something I Can Never Have
Um, yuck. Not only do I appear to be stuck in the 90s, but I had forgotten I had any Blur at all. Also, note that in the first list, not only is NIN represented twice, but the tracks are practically on top of each other, and from the same bloody album! I really don't have that much Nine Inch Nails.
Repeat off
1 Fountains of Wayne – Supercollider
2 Me First and Gimmie Gimmies - Phantom of the Opera
3 Cibo Matto – Sugar Water
4 Ani Difranco and the Indigo Girls – Midnight Train to Georgia
5 Concrete Blonde – True
6 NIN – March of the Pigs
7 Led Zep – Battle of Evermore
8 Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave – Where the Wild Roses Grow
9 Episode 1x15 of LOST – oops. That should be in the video folder - Skip!
9 Edith Piaf – La Vie en Rose
10 Bob Dylan – Like a Rolling Stone
The second list I would say is more like a crossection of my tastes. Winamp seems to love NIN like ipod loves the Beatles. However, when my last computer was frying its motherboard, I lost all my music T-Z, so those will be underrepresented. I also lost my whole classical folder, so imagine a sprinkling of classical in here, too, for a true cross-section. (Insert shameless plug for the flower duet from Lakme - one of the most beautiful pieces of music evar.)
I also found myself "rooting" for certain tracks to come up - particularly this recording of Alan Rickman reading a sonnet that I just got. Oh, well.
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