Erik's Rants and Recipes: Lists of Songs

February 28, 2007

Lists of Songs

These Random 10 iPod shuffles are interesting, but a more complete portrait is given of the iPod owner if the shuffle list is combined with the Top 25 playlist. Here is what iTunes says I listen to most often:

1. "Fala Da Mulher S�zinha" by Margarida Bessa
2. "Walkin' After Midnight" by Patsy Cline
3. "Orange Blossom Special" by Charlie Daniels (Amalia is responsible for that one, I think)
4. "Alleluia" by Acantus
5. "Mundo Civilizado" by Arto Lindsay
6. "Vitaphone Uno" by Fabio Barovero
7. "Why Baby Why" by George Jones
8. "B�ica 'n Po'" by Laura Conti & Ombra Gaja
9. "Peregrina" by Los Maga�a
10. "Corazon de Cristal" by Priscila Y Sus Balas De Plata (yes, this is Blondie's "Heart of Glass" sung in Spanish with accordion. Absolutely brilliant)
11. "How Soon is Now" by The Smiths (egads, wasn't I just giving Don Jim a hard time for his 1980's maudlin synthpop? What will happen when people find out that I am known to listen to this sort of crap, too?)
12. "Taboehgan/Gamelan Semar Pegulingan" by a gamelan in Ubud, Bali in 1941 (hey, I'm a gamelan geek. Sue me).
13. "Aradanse" by Alpha Bass Feat. Mascarimiri
14. Puccini's "E Lucevan Le Stelle" performed by la Banda Citt� Ruvo Di Puglia
15. "Ave Maria (Catalana)" by il Coro Polifonico Di Alghero
16. "Mascare (Witch Mix)" by Farualla
17. "Nuages Gris" by Franz Liszt performed by...I will need to look her up, iTunes pulled the info from the database, and they have Liszt as the artist, which is, obviously, incorrect.
18. "At the Grave of Richard Wagner" by Franz Liszt, performed by the Kronos Quartet
19. "I am the Light of the World" by Maria Muldaur w/ Ernie Hawkins
20. "Melagranada Ruja" by Marisa Sannia
21. "Silence The Tongues Of Prophecy" by Qubais Reed Ghazala
22. "House Where Nobody Lives" by Tom Waits
23. "Salve, Sancte Pater Salve Sponsa Dei" by Acantus
24. "De Profundis" by Acantus
25. "Raizes" by Amalia Rodrigues

So, there you have it. I am surprised to see the list, although it is not quite a total view of my listening habits, since a majority of what I listen to is still from CD or vinyl. Also, this only reflects what I listen to on the computer, since I don't think it registers plays from the actual iPod. So, basically, this is a portrait of what I listen to at the computer.

Some surprises:

1. Only two fados?
2. Do I really listen to that much Acantus? I guess so.
3. Only a couple of country songs.
4. Do I really listen to "How Soon is Now" that often? I know I put it on a couple of playlists, but really.
5. There is no baroque music. Not a track. I must go to the CDs and LPs for this, as I know that I listen to enough baroque music to annoy the girls, who both like it, in reasonable doses.
6. How did "Mundo Civilizado" end up higher than "Corazon de Cristal"? Once again, if this were a list of what I listened to in other situations, for instance, while driving, it would be a different list.
7. A lot of these tracks seem to be on my Musica Melancholia playlists. It must be the weather. We will see, but I would guess that after summer the tropical and country lists are much better represented on the top 25.
8. How did Marisa Sannia end up on the list? I like her, obviously, but I am surprised to see that I listen to that and another Sardegnian track so often.

Anyway, feel free to add your own. It is an interesting thing to look at. I will probably do this again later, if I have been at the computer listening to lots of music, and think that it might change the list significantly.

Posted by erik at February 28, 2007 10:35 PM

Comments

I had a look at my favourites on the iPod. They reflect the fact that I listen to the same few albums too many times. The Innocence Mission Befriended had all but one of the Top 10 slots. And Madredeus Movimento had most of the back half (I listened to it again last night). The only stand-out in the whole list of 25, and she at No. 24, was Ana Carolina's Encostar Na Tua, which I haven't listened to much since we left Brazil in mid-2004. My guess is that I listened to it a LOT before we left (we saw her in concert the week we left) and it has survived because nothing else has been spun that many times since except Innocence Mission and Madredeus.

I'm with you on ripping from the catalogue. I have about 32GB in my library, of which about 8GB are podcasts and the rest are ripped from CDs. That's about 240 CDs ripped, I guess, out of about a thousand. A lot of it I don't miss and a bunch of it I've forgotten I have.

I put on the random tunes the other night just for fun, and the first track was Mahalia Jackson singing Go Tell It On The Mountain, which I could listen to about any ol' time. It's one of the very few albums I've bought from iTunes. I bought the Springsteen Seeger sessions and Sinead O'Connor's reggae thing - I think that's about it in the album department since 2004.

Posted by: stephen at March 6, 2007 6:35 AM

Well, the iPod is only 2 Gigs (iPod Nano - very cool, small enough that it gets itself lost once a month, at least, holds a day or two of music, but only a couple of hours of charge - we got our money's worth (Melanie won it at a newspaper convention). If we were to buy one, I think we would spring for one of the huge ones with video).

However, I use the iTunes on my computer for these things, because, well, the iPod is often AWOL (last time it was pretending to be a bookmark), and the whole library makes for more interesting fodder. So far I have only downloaded about four songs, all freebies. The library is made up of things I already have on CD. I just can't see spending a buck on a song or ten on an album only to have it in iPod format only. What happens if my hard drive crashes? Forget it. I want an artifact. Call me Ned Ludd if you will, but going digital is fast-paced enough for me, just don't take away the physical artifact.

Right now I have about 6 gigs of music on the iTunes library. That will expand once I get a larger hard drive (I only have a laptop, so I need to keep space available for photos and other documents, but I will probably be getting a USB external hard drive, so that will greatly up the amount of music in my library. Until then, 7 gigs is the cap). I can't really complain, since 6 gigs is a lot of music.

The advantage to this technology for me is the creation of playlists. I have several that are for insanely specific uses: driving through the Central Valley on a hot summer night, clear autumn night in the Bay Area, driving to a bullfight, and, of course, the many Musica Melancholia Mundiale lists and the many fado and Portuguese guitarra lists (what, these are different from the musica melancholia lists?).

Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at March 1, 2007 9:59 PM

Man - how big is your iPod? I would love to send you a blank one and have it dump your library onto it. Much novelty there to explore.

Mine's home on the charger at the moment. I'll try to post my list. I'm a bit frightened. I listen mostly to podcasts these days; seldom twice - they shouldn't make the list, but it means - gaak - what would I have listened to a LOT before?

Posted by: stephen at March 1, 2007 8:47 AM