But to keep me going and stave off those musical purchase cravings I have been doing something that has been an interesting way to experience my music in a whole new light. I have put my ipod onto shuffle for every track I have. I started this on the 8th August and yesterday reached a quarter of the way through. I have already heard so many tracks that I haven’t played in years and I love it when an old favourite pops up as well. There are other tracks or artists that I’ve heard that made me think ‘what the hell was I doing buying that’, or made me realise how my tastes have changed over the years.
It’s made me realise that, despite my vast collection, I have a core of a few hundred albums that I play frequently. There are certain artists that I play a lot and some I played once when I bought the CD and then never again. The eclectic, sometimes ‘out there’ world music I own may be interesting to experiment with, but it is not something I play on a regular basis.
Many albums that sit in this core are ones that I grew up with, either listening via my parents or in my teenage years and strangely enough another handful come from albums in the past 3 years. I may enjoy new music, but I have my old fallback options that keep popping up.
The only tracks I have skipped so far have been audio book tracks, language course tracks and the odd Opera track when it doesn’t flow without the wider composition. Apart from that I have played everything.
As songs have come on and I’ve re-experienced them with a new mindset and view, I have been making mental note to play certain albums in their entirety when I go back to playing music in a more selective way.
I guess at this rate I have at least another 8-9 months before I have played my whole ipod through and I doubt I can hold off buying new music in this time. I will play these new albums at home and continue with the shuffle at work and not update the ipod until I’ve reached the end.
So far I’ve come across some lost classics and realised my core listening may not be as varied as I’d once thought, but I guess this is probably true for all of us. We don’t mind an experiment now and then, but we like to come back to what is comforting and familiar. There’s nothing wrong with that, but just maybe playing everything I own in this way will push my core of music out that little bit further.
I know when I have my Ipod on shuffle it is like going to a good party, lots of old friends, a couple of WTF and an occassional dull track that wants to talk about the Xfactor.EE ps bet you are jumping around playing air drums at least once a day.
ReplyDeleteHooray - Music Monkey is back. I agree, I also have so many albums that never see the light of day after the first listen. On the subject of world music, why is it that CDs bought on holiday to remind me of good times listening and dancing the night away, never seem to evoke the same feelings when played at home?
ReplyDeleteI second John's comment that The Music Monkey is back! And a great post. It reminds me of me doing this myself. Between 1995 and 1998 I listened to very CD I owned, in the order of buying them and of course the list grew and grew as I continued to buy music, but I finally got to the end before I went back to listening to music based on my mood. It was interesting, as it was for you to discover some old gems (or not!). Thanks.
ReplyDeleteEvery single song I have ever owned in some form or another is still important to me, even if I bought it at age 12, fifty years ago xox jean
ReplyDelete