My iPod Persona

After reading this post by another DC blogger, I got to thinking about my iPod and what it says about me. Absurd Reality starts by telling a story how a guy she was seeing had an iPod that was full of NPR podcasts, and only NPR podcasts. this was the first red flag for her. She stopped seeing him and recalls not being able to get past the contents of his iPod.

now, I totally agree with AR that an iPod (or any collection of music) can tell you a lot about a person. our musical tastes tend to grow as we find new music we like – and if you take the cumulative sum of all music throughout our lives, they would speak volumes about us. here’s a handful of playlists on my iPod:

Favorites – all-time favorites, pretty much anything I’ve 5-starred. there is a little bit of everything, and I mean everything. sinatra, fitzgerald, chapin, joel, cash, counting crows, journey, erasure, ac/dc, queen, michaelson, folk covers, alabama, random pop songs, u2, jay-z, etc. this is kind of the catch-all playlist for when I don’t know what I want to listen to.

Sinatra Live at the Sands – its the complete recording of Frank Sinatra performing at the Sands in Vegas with Count Basie orchestra. Quincy Jones is in the audience and gets a shout out. easily one of my favorite continuous recordings.

Short List – songs of the moment go here. embarassingly, it only has a handful of Glee songs on there, Colbie Caillat’s cover of Jackson 5′s “want you back” (which is awesome, btw), and the Axis of Awesome’s “4 Chords” medley. don’t judge.

Work List – these are kind of similar to the “favorites” list, except I took out the songs that are too loud or have profane lyrics. This is the list I will play at work if I’m at a computer that has speakers.

Rent and Les Mis OBC – umm. so this is kind of a curve ball. I ‘ve seen them both on stage and like to keep them on the iPod for long car rides – especially if I’m driving at night and I’m tired. just put on the playlist and it keeps me awake.

Folk Covers – this is a collection of songs I have that are folk or acoustic covers. I think it started with Obadiah Parker’s version of Hey Ya (Outkast), and then just grew exponentially from there. There really isn’t a specific band/person I like, but the genre in general is awesome. these are some really talented musicians!

Out – this is where most of the top 40 go. gaga, far east movement, bon jovi, anything the radio is playing on friday or saturday nights. this is the playlist that would get barney’s approval for a proper mix – “all rise!”

Girl Talk and Bootie – these playlists are DJ mashups. my favorite is the House of Pain/Boston – “more than on point” mashup.

Swing – this is an artifact playlist. when my friends were getting married, they wanted to see about a little routine to dance their first dance to. I put together some songs to swing dance to for them to try out. there is sinatra, fitzgerald, armstrong, martin, buble, and sammy on this list

A Cappella – this is another artifact playlist that I used to listen to often when I was in a group.

Podcasts – I listen to a bunch of podcasts on my afternoon commute home. I subscribe to This American Life, Radiolab, Crimes Against Food, Food Network Humor, NPR: Planet Money, NPR: Wait Don’t Tell Me, Science Friday, and The Moth. In general I like the ones that have stories, and somewhat current.

I associate DMB Under the Table and Dreaming, Better Than Ezra – Deluxe, Gin Blossoms – New Miserable Experience, Green Day, and Spin Doctors with middle school years. For high school, I think of britney spears, christina aguilera, backstreet boys, n-sync. this was also when I saw Rent and Les Mis. College was kind of when I got into the sinatra era of music, along with harry chapin and johnny cash and alabama. Undergrad through graduate school was responsible for my a capella introduction. It wasn’t until after graduating that I got introduced to everything else like folk covers and dj mashups. It is weird thinking about how I got the music collection I have, and how they tie to specific memories.

So maybe it would be easier to go on a date a exchange iPods for review prior to the date starting. this could be tied into the Lemon Law* idea from HIMYM. you could review your date’s iPod and if he happens to have too much Bieber or Ke$ha on his favorites, you can call the date off before it starts. proactively, I think the iPod review has potential. I’m sure someone is working on linking up your music library with Match.com or OkCupid.com to help find better matches.

*Lemon Law from wikipedia:

Barney’s new lemon law for dating gives a person five minutes to decide if the date will go on for the rest of the night or not. They can call the date off for any reason in the first five minutes, avoiding bad dates.