unlike a number of you guys, i don't own an ipod/MP3 player: generally, if i want to listen to music, i still have CDs for the car*, or i have those ripped to my laptop so i can listen to it that way**.
when i was commuting, listening to music on the train while writing blog entries worked pretty well as a way to pass the time for me. although i was never really happy with the quality of the earphones i found. and while i'm at it: why in the world is it that we can have bluetooth headsets for our phones, but there appears to be no such thing as bluetooth earphones? i find that irritating.
but i digress: my point here is that my experience with creating playlists is very limited. but i've begun dabbling with making them.
as a child of the 80s, i remember making mix tapes, back when the 2 formats you could find music in were LPs and audio cassettes. so for those of you who are too young to remember, you could create a tape of specific songs that you dubbed from either to give to someone you were interested in: the mix tape.
now, funny thing: when the mrs and i were first dating, probably within the first few weeks, i had one that i had just for my own personal use, featuring some favorite music, the bulk of which was 80s stuff. one night, she picked me up and i happened to have that tape on me. i was gonna ask her if she wanted to give it a listen, but we got caught up in conversation so once i put the tape in the console between the driver & passenger seats, i completely forgot about it.
making the logical inference that i made a mix tape for her, she listened to it after i dropped her off, and thought i was trying to tell her something about our relationship, and of course, i just wanted to try to share some music without any agenda!
but the other day i got to thinking about that incident, and the music on that tape. so i decided that it was high-time i re-created it in digital form. i own the CDs that i would most want on it, and the nice thing about playlists is that they can go for hours.
freed of the limitation of figuring out the length of each track and making sure it got close to 45 mins per side, as with a mix tape, went a little nuts. and of course, when you create a playlist, you gotta title it something.
then i remembered a conversation that the mrs and i overheard a few years ago. i blogged about that incident here, but it provided the name for this playlist:
80s music is the best music evar!
but all of this leads me to today's poll question: when you guys create playlists, do you find that there's usually a specific theme involved, or is it more random than that?
ed
p.s.: i have this fear that someday, i'll post a blog entry & the footnotes will be longer than the blog entry!
*my car's just old enough that the stereo doesn't have a port for a MP3 player, sadly. yeah, i know, there's after-market car stereos that do, but i'm not (yet) seeing any benefit in that particular investment.
**that, and i keep hoping we'll see a mobile phone soon that has reasonable storage capacity so i only need to worry about losing 2 things, just the one. we're not quite there yet i don't think, although i do know 8 gb microSD cards are out there. can 16, 32 or 64 gb cards be far behind?
silverwhisper posted on Aug 15, 2008
| views: 267
Comments
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fearing said on Aug 15, 2008....
First things first, when I create a play list there is no theme. I'm pretty random. My selection will have anything on it from classical to rock to religious. If I like it, I like it. Funny story - a couple of years ago I had a CD that I wanted my dad to hear a praise and worship song on. I had to specifically tell him not to listen to song #9 because it was Nickelback's Favorite Damn Disease. What did dad do? Listened to song #9. Might not have been so bad but the first line in the song is "I like your pants around your feet". Dad wasn't encouraged when I kept telling him "But dad, she's a cocaine addict! It's not as bad as it sounds!". lol!
I don't know why this surprises me Ed but it does - I would have guessed you'd have moved on into the world of Mp3 players by now. I had you pegged as a gadget guy. I just got my first Mp3 a couple of weeks ago and I'm enjoying it. I like being able to changed the music so easily. I was tired of having the oldest burn CDs for me and being stuck with a certain number of songs on that CD. Bite the bullet man and get one - you can still play it on your laptop. ;-)
Funny you mentioned the bluetooth earphones - I was thinking that last night.
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the_infernal_optimist said on Aug 15, 2008....
My playlists are always random-seeming to anyone other than myself, but every song was evoked by another one on the list. They span all sorts of styles and, time-wise, from about the 1960s to the present.
(I'm with you in the increasingly smaller group without an iPod or MP3 player, btw.)
~Infernal
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CreativeWoman said on Aug 15, 2008....
I don't have a playlist. I like the radio and CD's. My musical tastes are emotionally driven from day to day so I don't necessarily care for a mix of different artists when I'm in a mood. Sometimes I like the quiet when I'm away from my music and can just think. I've never desired to have an IPod or anything like that.
CW
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CreativeWoman said on Aug 15, 2008....
I also meant to say that I use the radio for background noise. The CD's are my favorite when I'm serious about music for my dancing, reminiscing etc.
Lordy, I'm rambling today.
CW
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beyondtheveil said on Aug 15, 2008....
Ed- Mine are random and have no theme. They are simply the songs I want at that particular time. However, there are a few songs I can't do without and are on every one. I too, like the eighties music but seventies music is at the top for me. -
Eilan said on Aug 15, 2008....
I bought an MP3 player a couple of years ago when I first got interested in running because I had trouble with boredom whenever weather and circumstances forced me onto a treadmill. One of our cars (the "cheap" one, oddly enough, not the mom-wagon) has an output for an AV device, but I usually just stick to my CD's when I'm in the car.
My MP3 player has Hole, Fleetwood Mac, The Dixie Chicks, Meatloaf, Patsy Cline, Poison (guilty pleasure from the 80's), The Beatles, etc, etc. IOW, a wide variety of music.
BTW, I used to make some of my mix tapes off the radio, although waiting for the songs I wanted to record was a pain in the ass.
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Alyss said on Aug 15, 2008....
I don't have an ipod or mp3 player either. I use the cd changer in the car or my mini-disc and both of those serve me perfectly well. I have some tapes made up around somewhere, I'll have to look them out.
As for playlists they tend to be themed e.g. upbeat, rock, etc.
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gingersoul said on Aug 15, 2008....
Ed.......no Ipod or Mp3 here....i have CDs that i play in the car or at home......most of the time i am listening music on YouTube or some Italian online radio....No playlist for me.....but lately somebody is sending me tons of good stuff to listen and i love it because we like the same kind of music...Its like having my personal dj.......;-) -
Mamie said on Aug 15, 2008....
what?:)) -
RollingC said on Aug 15, 2008....
I've only recently (last couple yrs) learned to burn cd's. I've thought about getting an ipod but that's as far as it got. I downloaded music @ random and made my cd's the same way to get a variety of songs going and I actually enjoyed the whole process.
Haven't downloaded or burned any cd's lately but I got enough to keep me busy. For background music/noise, like CW, I turn the radio on.
Rc
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Zayda said on Aug 15, 2008....
I don't really have a theme in mind when creating playlists. -
woman said on Aug 15, 2008....
I have had an MP3 player for a couple of years and I must say that I love having my current favorite tunes right there on demand. I go in spurts about listening. Sometimes I am toooo plugged in and then I back way away for a long period. It is nice technology though, isn't it? Your question was about themes. I guess I do. Spanish music, Old soul, classical, current favorites, etc. -
lionesss said on Aug 16, 2008....
your post has bout back a few memories for me, i love all the songs from the 80s, i remember standing in the middle of a empty pub'i lived in 1 grownig up' glass of cider and blasting out of tune songs, along with pusscat aswel,,certain songs do make me think about my teenage years,,, i love r&b music thats my choice when im doing playlists i will mainly keep to a theme, but not always, pusscat and i are best friends but both have very different taste iv many songs from the 80s i love ,, lionesss x
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day2day said on Aug 18, 2008....
hi ed,I don't have a play list. But, if i did i would definetely stick with 80's songs.And a few of the oldies but goodies.day -
sammies_place said on Aug 18, 2008....
Ed,How funny is this? I was just trying to explain mix tapes to the Irishwoman's daughter three days ago. There was a blank, 'Huh?' look on her face.Sammie -
AngelWolf61 said on Aug 20, 2008....
Hi SW,Wanna REAL challenge? Try making a mixed tape from 8 tracks! I had to do that around the time the 8 tracks were getting phased out to make way for the "new" cassettes. They even came up with an adaptor that was an 8 track cartridge with a built in cassette player so you could play the new the new format in your car. It was horrible, at best, but it worked. -
sammies_place said on Aug 20, 2008....
For some reason this post has stuck in my mind. Just the thought and memory of making mix tapes and the measuring of how much time, ect. And it's been popping up a lot for the last few days - just about every time I see a cd. Funny, isn't it, what things stick. Sammie -
silverwhisper said on Aug 21, 2008....
fearing: heh...that's really funny about that nickelback track! :D you know, it's funny: i like gadgets but rarely am interested enough to bite the bullet, to be honest. but i guess i'll wait until a mobile phone arrives with sufficient memory to do double duty. heh...that's really funny about the bluetooth earphone thing! :D
infernal: you know, i have a playlist that consists exclusively of live springsteen stuff. i believe it's got something like 10 hours or so of music. :D i'm somehow unsurprised that you too don't own a MP3 player--and no, i don't know why that is. :>
CW: i find i can't use the radio for background music, myself--i guess i've been listening to CDs for long enough now that i find radio commercials too jarring. and hey, no big deal re: rambling--it's not like tons of my blogs lately have been particularly coherent, you know? :D
beyond: ah, i'm not much of a fan of most 70s music, myself, but then again i've always had the impression that i'm a little younger so that makes sense, that our tastes are different that way. :>
eilan: holy crap, taping songs off the radio--i completely forgot about that! :D and yeah, your tastes are pretty wide-ranging and eclectic, aren't they? i think that's pretty nifty. :>
alyss: i can see you having themed playlists pretty easily, to be honest. :> i'm also unsurprised that you don't have a MP3 player, either--and just as with infernal, i'm not sure why. :>
GS: interesting--if you don't mind my asking, who's been sending you music lately? :>
mamie: bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!
rollingc: you know, i find there something oddly...fulfilling...about ripping CDs. i don't know how to describe it other than that.
z: see, now that surprises me for some reason. i dunno, i guess you've always struck me as being rather purposeful about a number of things. so is that weird or does that make some measure of sense, do you suppose?
woman: yeah, i can see how those broad themes would make sense. honestly, i'm giving some thought to doing things like that, too--once i've ripped a few more albums. :D
lionesss: hi, good to see you again! funny thing about how even our closest friends can have such different tastes, isn't it?
day2day: hm...what oldies but goodies might you want to include? i'm kinda curious, now!
sammie: o wow, that's just bizarre! heh...i imagine that must've been really tough to explain. did you try explaining how back in the day, TVs didn't used to come with remote controls, too? :D and that's awfully funny about how this got lodged in your consciousness!
angelwolf: hi, welcome to my blog & thanks for visiting! i'll confess, by the time i was listening to music, you couldn't really find 8 tracks anymore--but i do remember those car stereo adapters!
ed
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