InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Gimme Scooby snacks!"

auctasinistra (auctasinistra) wrote,
@ 2008-12-15 16:46:00

Current mood:	Just curious
Current music:	Take My Heart - Steeleye Span

A music question

Since I see these all the time and I'm aware memes are usually created by teenagers, but I also see old folks like me doing this, and I marvel. Am I the only person in the world who doesn't do "music on shuffle"? I usually pick particular songs I want to hear, and sometimes a particular artist. Never do I just go "I need various songs by various people." Except at Christmas (and then they're all themed).

Am I the only one? Just curious

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	greenishmaitai 2008-12-15 07:36 pm UTC (link)
	I never listen to my music on shuffle. Is that what you mean? I always know what I want to hear. I have playlists that I listen to on the daily. I am not sure if I answered this correctly, but I hope it helps! (Reply to this) (Thread)

auctasinistra
2008-12-16 07:46 am UTC (link)

It does - thanks! That's exactly it - knowing what you want to hear rather than just random tunes. I can even understand a playlist of various artists although I don't do that myself - I'm never, for instance, in the mood to hear "love songs" by various people or "really fast songs" by various people. When I'm in a mood, it's usually stylistic, so I go with an artist.

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	greenishmaitai 2008-12-16 10:17 am UTC (link)
	I know what you mean! I just have my playlists because those are the songs i love the most, so I know where to find them all in one place! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	loupgarou1750 2008-12-15 07:45 pm UTC (link)
	I generally only use "shuffle" when I'm doing a meme that specifies putting the player on shuffle. The exception is while driving in a place where there's only Christian AM radio available -- then I've put my iPod on shuffle because I can't look at the tiny screen and pick a specific artist or album because, you know, I'm driving. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 07:48 am UTC (link)
	And I do realize that even on shuffle the machine is playing all songs a person has picked already, so you'd like them anyway. In the second case you describe I'd put in a cd (don't have an iPod!); I don't make my own mix CDs for the same reason. If I like an artist I generally will listen to a whole album. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	loupgarou1750 2008-12-16 09:19 am UTC (link)
	Putting a CD in isn't an option as my truck doesn't have a CD player. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 12:04 pm UTC (link)
	Well, for your purposes your iPod does that job, but I do see what you mean about the difficulty of finding an album on the fly. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	loupgarou1750 2008-12-16 12:15 pm UTC (link)
	especially since my iPod currently holds some 3500 songs. I'd have to take my eye off the road for a ridiculously long time just to scroll down to Van Morrison, let alone finding which of the 35 albums of his I wanted to listen to. Really, I should just delete everything but Van from my iPod. :D (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 12:21 pm UTC (link)
	Really, I should just delete everything but Van from my iPod. g The CDs in my car? Basically it's all Jethro Tull, all the time. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	loupgarou1750 2008-12-16 12:32 pm UTC (link)
	I have much Jethro Tull on vinyl, but ridiculously little on CD or my computer. And alas, my turntable no longer works. sighs 400 albums (not all Jethro Tull, of course) taking up large amounts of space and no way to play them, and yet I don't seem to be able to part with them. Oddly enough, I only have two Van albums on vinyl. (Reply to this) (Parent)

perverse_idyll
2008-12-15 08:13 pm UTC (link)

I don't own anything with a "shuffle" function - no, wait, I'm being stupid. My computer, obviously. But I don't actually store much music on the computer. And anyway, I listen to music according to moods, singers, and songs. I could never do the shuffle meme because the number of titles stored on my hard drive is just too small and the results wouldn't be very entertaining.

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auctasinistra
2008-12-16 07:56 am UTC (link)

I listen to music according to moods, singers, and songs

And I never have a mood that isn't about a specific artist. I'll usually be "I want to hear Songs From the Wood or La Mer right now" (you know, an album's worth, more or less). Well ... I sort of tell a lie. Sometimes I want violin music (usually when I'm working on a Sherlock Holmes story). Then it's various artists. My flute music is all played by Jean Pierre Rampal, and I'll usually pick a period, but that sort of counts as mood music that isn't by artist. Still a far cry from shuffle. Even if it's all stuff I've previously selected I can't imagine not hearing a lot of stuff that, at the moment, would be unwelcome, and I can't imagine going through all my songs and thinking "this one would be good for my "upbeat mix" CD ... this will go on my "driving CD" ..."

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	torino10154 2008-12-15 08:14 pm UTC (link)
	I never do that. I'm like you. I choose either the artist or specific songs. I think shuffle would bug me as a matter of fact. (Reply to this)

	fodirteg 2008-12-15 08:30 pm UTC (link)
	I usually prefer hearing CD's as released, in full. The play order is part of the package, that way. If I have favorites I may play them over and over, but don't usually "shuffle" randomly. I do sometimes skip ahead past numbers I don't care for, once I've heard the full presentation. (Reply to this)

xanthophyllippa
2008-12-15 09:11 pm UTC (link)

I don't do shuffle because it freaks out my OCD. I know what comes next in an album or playlist, and the disorder (and sometimes the lack of aesthetic congruity) that's inherent in shuffle hurts me sometimes when what I expect to come next doesn't.

And besides, no one really *wants* to hear an aria from "The Messiah" followed by "Never Gonna Give You Up" followed by an excerpt from a Jim Gaffigan routine.

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	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 07:58 am UTC (link)
	And besides, no one really wants* to hear an aria from "The Messiah" followed by "Never Gonna Give You Up" followed by an excerpt from a Jim Gaffigan routine.* Exactly! That would make me irritated and jittery. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	xanthophyllippa 2008-12-16 08:27 am UTC (link)
	I think it would probably kill me. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	jennfic 2008-12-15 09:12 pm UTC (link)
	The only time I do a completely random shuffle is when I'm doing a shuffle meme. I have artist playlists and composer playlists (honestly, when I'm in the mood for Holst, it doesn't really matter whether it's North Texas or Michigan State). (Reply to this) (Thread)

auctasinistra
2008-12-16 07:59 am UTC (link)

honestly, when I'm in the mood for Holst, it doesn't really matter whether it's North Texas or Michigan State

And for me the performance matters in some cases (not because I'm so very artsy and knowledgeable; I had a version of Mendelssohn's violin concerto that I LOVED as a kid. LOVED LOVED LOVED. It was on an album. It's not available on CD, of course, so I had to search and search to find an interpretation that didn't make my skin crawl).

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orions_stars
2008-12-15 11:45 pm UTC (link)

I listen to albums a lot (in the order on the disc), but if I have a playlist that is themed (like "Christmas music" or "everything by artist x from the last 15 years" or "songs with a particular tempo for exercising") then sometimes I will randomize the list before playing it. Which is not the same as shuffle, I guess. I used to listen to the music on my computer on shuffle, but it's been at least 5 years since I did that.

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	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 08:01 am UTC (link)
	"everything by artist x from the last 15 years" Yeah, this isn't really shuffle but I could totally see doing this. Exercise music too - I don't do "themes," but I understand the motivation. I just don't get the random idea ... didn't it irritate you sometimes to hear an unexpected song or one you weren't in the mood for? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

orions_stars
2008-12-16 08:47 am UTC (link)

Yes, it can be odd to hear classical choral music followed by country followed by alternative rock followed by Broadway musical followed by top 40. But that's a "mood" of its own, I guess, for when I'm feeling random. I've not been in that mood for a while now, though, and lately I tend to listen to albums in their entirety. When I did listen to a lot of different types of music on shuffle, it wasn't ever "everything on my hard drive on random," or my audiobooks or comedy albums would have gotten mixed in there. I remember hitting "skip" a lot when I didn't want to hear a particular song, too.

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	dancing_serpent 2008-12-16 12:02 am UTC (link)
	I usually pick my music according to my mood and I know exactly what I want to or need to hear. But in the early morning hours when I'm on the bus, still half asleep on my way to work, I let my mp3 player do the selecting for me. Then the shuffle function comes in handy...and as I filled it with all my favourites anyway, nothing can go wrong. (Reply to this) (Thread)

auctasinistra
2008-12-16 08:03 am UTC (link)

as I filled it with all my favourites anyway, nothing can go wrong.

This is the part I don't get (not saying it's wrong, of course!). I like every song I own, of course, but there are plenty of them that I wouldn't want to hear at any certain moment. Maybe it's because I'm not a "background music" kind of person? When I'm listening to music, most of the time, I'm listening. If I'm not in the mood for music (a particular sort) I don't have it on.

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dancing_serpent
2008-12-16 09:41 am UTC (link)

I'm not a background music person when it involves having to think or concentrate. It's either/or with me. Either reading or music, and so on.
But when I'm in a bar, or when I'm cleaning my flat for example, a bit of background noise is all right, otherwise it gets too boring. But well, even then I usually select something. *g*

The only exception are those bus rides. They are something totally different in my book. As I said, I'm almost asleep at that time in the morning.
The main purpose of music in this case is to shield myself from listening to other people's stupid talks, because nothing makes me more aggressive than having to hear about another persons views on religion, politics, dinner plans or doctor appointments at five o'clock in the morning.
Being aggressive keeps me awake and I really want to get a little bit more sleep on the bus. And then it doesn't matter if I select myself or let the shuffle do it, because I'm not really listening anyway. All the music does is provide some kind of noise that lets me filter out other people's voices. That it's all my favourites is only a bonus that doesn't really matter in this case.

Hm...lots of confused rambling here. Sorry! *blush*

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	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 12:05 pm UTC (link)
	The main purpose of music in this case is to shield myself from listening to other people's stupid talks, because nothing makes me more aggressive than having to hear about another persons views on religion, politics, dinner plans or doctor appointments at five o'clock in the morning. This? Makes TOTAL sense to me. :-) (Reply to this) (Parent)

snakeling
2008-12-16 02:46 am UTC (link)

I sometimes put music on shuffle by a particular artist, usually when I have a huge lot of their songs. Like sometimes I want to listen to ABBA, but I'm not fussed about the particular song. So I limit the artist and put the songs on shuffle.

Otherwise no. Especially as the majority of the music I've got on my computer is the classical kind, plus quite a few audiobooks, and there's nothing like having the second movement of a symphony followed by metal followed by some Shakespeare :D

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	auctasinistra 2008-12-16 08:04 am UTC (link)
	Like sometimes I want to listen to ABBA, but I'm not fussed about the particular song. This I understand (it's not really shuffle, though). (Reply to this) (Parent)

aunty_marion
2008-12-16 11:13 am UTC (link)

I'm not a background-music kind of person, so I rarely have music on unless that's what I'm doing right then, in which case I'm listening to music, not doing other things (except maybe knitting...). And in that case, it's likely to be because I've got a new CD to listen to, so I'll listen to it all through, in order. The only time I might put the 5-CD changer on the hi-fi to 'shuffle' mode would be if I'd got, say, three CDs by one person/group, and they were all the same type of music, so it didn't matter much what order they were in.

Otherwise, the only time 'shuffle' comes into play (!) is when I'm driving long distances; I have an mp3 player (which needs topping up, battery and music-wise both), which plays through the car stereo via a little radio-transmitter widget; and that's set to 'random'. But since I know pretty much all the songs on there (I wouldn't put new stuff straight on, I've got three songs from one CD and all the tracks from others, and so on, but like to have *heard* them first!), it's not as random as it might sound.

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auctasinistra
2008-12-16 12:09 pm UTC (link)

'm not a background-music kind of person, so I rarely have music on unless that's what I'm doing right then

This is me for the most part; I generally don't have music playing when writing, for instance. When I do, it's chosen specifically to speak to the story (and I still sometimes find myself distracted from the writing by the music).

But since I know pretty much all the songs on there (I wouldn't put new stuff straight on, I've got three songs from one CD and all the tracks from others, and so on, but like to have *heard* them first!), it's not as random as it might sound.

But this is still the part I couldn't do. If you took all the songs I love - I couldn't randomly listen to them. If I'm in the mood for Tull, the Monkees would irritate me (for instance); if I'm in the mood for folk, I don't want to hear Bowie. Again, I'm not saying that's a wrong way to listen to music, I just can't get my mind around that being pleasant. Random would inevitably jar me, even if it was all my favorite songs played randomly. And if I'm not in the mood for specific music, it's that I'm not in the mood for music. :-) Perhaps that's the real difference.

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aunty_marion
2008-12-16 12:24 pm UTC (link)

It's not even as random as you'd think. I listen to filk, almost exclusively! The only stuff on the player that isn't filk are about a dozen or so old Beatles songs, and a few 'No.1 Hits of the 60s', so all songs with a real tune. I don't, generally, go for 'pop music' at all anyway - the last 'pop' album I got was the Beatles '1' album! Pretty much everything on there is stuff I can sing along with, which helps on long car trips. And if I don't want it, it's easy on my player to find the 'skip' button.

But no, generally, I don't want utterly random music either. And some things simply work much better in the right order - while I actually don't mind hearing the occasional song from 'Camelot' (which is the only musical that's made it to the player!), it still works far better for me if I listen to the tracks chronologically.

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geoviki
2008-12-18 09:03 am UTC (link)

Like a lot of folks already mentioned, I only use shuffle when I'm filling out a meme. My musical collection is just too varied and I'm like you - I need some planning to it. Although unlike you, I make lots and lots of mix CDs and playlists. I spend some time, though, looking for the right progression of songs and tempos. I even make the CDs for our exercise classes, so I'm learning a lot about club dance and Britney Spears. Still, there's even one mix I came up with that our instructor hasn't been brave enough to play (the Japanese rock one).

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auctasinistra
2008-12-18 09:45 am UTC (link)

Somehow, the weird thing is, I can totally understand playlists, like "love ballads" or "hard rockers" or "music to clean house by" in theory. But when I get to the actuality of it - a love song by X, a love song by Y, a love song by Q ... I can't imagine being able to listen to such a mix of styles comfortably! Like, there's a Journey ballad; then a Styx ballad; then an Eagles ballad. That'd make me crazy.

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	geoviki 2008-12-18 09:47 am UTC (link)
	So does the radio drive you crazy too? Did you listen much when you were younger? (Reply to this) (Parent)

guess i'm the oddball in this crowd, but...

triciagnosis
2009-01-17 05:45 pm UTC (link)

I actually *do* use the shuffle function for non-meme activities. It's great listening for tasks that I really don't want to do (housecleaning, bill paying, tax prep) for which I absolutely need the comfort of music, but don't want to get too comfortable. That's when I WANT to be jolted by changes in style. I like the element of surprise. Also, sometimes when I hear a song outside its usual context of album, artist or genre playlists, I'll hear it in a whole new way, or hear elements I didn't notice before, and that's always fun.
I know I'm late, but it was an interesting question. Cheers! And Happy New Year!

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Re: guess i'm the oddball in this crowd, but...

auctasinistra
2009-01-18 11:57 am UTC (link)

And I don't mean to sound like I think it's somehow wrong to like to be surprised, I just can't personally imagine not having a preference about artist when I listen to music (for me, I never want just "music," I want something specific) ... I think you're probably quite right that hearing stuff mixed up like that makes you really listen to it, sort of without so much assumption.

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	Re: guess i'm the oddball in this crowd, but... triciagnosis 2009-01-18 09:03 pm UTC (link)
	Not at all. And I get your POV, too. There's no"wrong" way to listen to music. currently hunkered down listening to "Dear Science..." by TVotR, for which I had a VERY specific need this evening :) (Reply to this) (Parent)