Whenever I sit down to play video games I'll mute the TV, put my iPod in the iDock and hit shuffle. This is because I pretty much only play sports video games and I frankly, don't need to hear the same comments over and over again when I'm playing Tiger Woods, Madden or NCAA Football (I know that was bad shot into the water. Obviously, I wasn't trying to hit it there. And yes, I ran the same play twice in a row, Herbstreit; thanks for pointing it out). But I find myself frequently hitting the next button on my iDock remote and skipping over certain songs. This is my iPod, so you would think that I would have approved of all the songs on there, and to a degree you would be right, but a deeper look reveals a more complex answer.
You see, my musical tastes could best be described as schizophrenic. I've got everything from Garth Brooks to Ludacris, from Beethoven to Metallica on my iPod. Part of this comes from being a DJ and needing a diverse collection of music depend on what shift I was working, some of it is downloading songs to make CDs for friends, and some from the fact that I can appreciate all types of music. (Of course, then there is some shit that I have no idea why it's there. For example, why do I have any techno or trance music on there? I hate that stuff.) The issue with me is that I need to be in a certain mood to listen to certain music and if I'm not in the mood to hear it then I actually get annoyed that it is on my iPod. I can't remove it because you never know when the mood will strike and also, some of this stuff is only on my computer and thus, if I take it off my iTunes, it's gone forever.
You see, this is where CDs can still be superior to iTunes. If the mood so strikes I can go grab any CD from my complex filing system (more on that in a second) and put in on. But, if I don't feel like listening to something for a long time I can leave it on the shelf and let it collect dust. I own around 400 CDs, but only have 1000 songs on my iPod, because I haven't taken the time to upload of all my CDs to iTunes and I don't think I will. To be honest, there are some songs that shouldn't be uploaded (I didn't always have the best taste in music). But, this leads to another way that CDs are better than iTunes. Because I had to buy the entire CD I found music that I normally never would have discovered and that you just don't get in a 30 second clip to test out when you're thinking of getting something. For example, back in the day I bought Weezer's blue album just for the song "Buddy Holly", only I found it to be one of the best albums to listen to from beginning to end (however, I haven't liked much Weezer since then).
I also like CDs because I use my CD rack to tell my personal history, like cavemen used to do with wall drawings. Much like Jon Cusack's character in High Fidelity I keep my CDs in autobiographical order (and, no, I never have any problem finding a specific CD - ever). As I scan my CDs in the order that I bought them, starting with Stone Temple Pilot's Core, I can trace my own personal trip through adolescence:
See, this was when I thought Jock Jams were the greatest CD collection ever (told you I didn't always have good taste). Oh, here's where I went through the phase when I was convince that DMX spoke to me as a white kid from Norwood. And here's when I was pretending to like Eminem cause I thought it would help me get in that girl's pants.
Yes, I will grant you that it is far more convenient to carry around one iPod versus 400 CDs. I'm simply pointing out that sometimes the more convenient option isn't always the best one.
No comments:
Post a Comment