We're a little new to this whole iPod thing as we finally broke down and got one a few weeks ago (the 30GB video iPod if you must ask). And yes, we LOVE IT, so much so we're a little amazed how civilization has managed to progress without them. But we are also finding out that we are becoming a little too obsessed with it. Which we're sure you all know about because we're totally behind the curve on all this. But what we seem to obsess with most isn't the actual iPod but the iPod playlist. We just can't stop thinking about our playlist.
When we first bought it, we spent the entire weekend uploading our CDs on it. When we did that, we spent the better part of the next two weeks doing nothing but downloading songs for it (err, legally, of course). But we just can't stop. We must keep on adding music.
When not home, we spend our idle hours thinking up new songs to download. Or dreaming up sub-playlists we need to put together to make sense of the close to 1000 songs we have right now (and yes, it's only 1000 and we're sure a whole lot of you are thinking that's piffle, but the whole "my playlist is bigger than yours" thing is a rant for another time). How bad has it gotten? We have schematic diagrams and flow charts put together to organize all this. In our heads, we debate whether certain songs belong in this playlist or that playlist. Like does Pat Benatar's "Shadows of the Night" belong in our "Rockin'" playlist or our "Rockin' Metal" play list? We even have a notebook we've started carrying around with us to jot down songs that pop into our heads that would totally be download-worthy. And when we hear a cool song on the radio or in a bar, we make a mental note to figure out what it is so we can download it.
At first, we thought it was just the fact that in a sense, the iPod is the ultimate mixed tape. Think about it-- it's almost all of your favorite songs or liked songs put into one place. And just like one agonizes over mixed tapes, we're agonizing over our playlist. Everytime we download stuff or download cds we haven't yet put on there, we spend the next couple of days listening to the iPod to test it out, like a chef tasting his sauce while cooking. "Mmm, good but not enough Zeppelin." Or, "too much hard rock, we need more folky, suicidal male singers" or the always constant refrain: "must have more hip-hop."
But it's not that, really. It's because we've become a junkie to the perfect iPod moment. That moment when the absolutely perfect random song comes up at the absolutely perfect time and it's like this synchronicitious zen-moment when everything becomes alright with the world. Like you're half-asleep and a little cranky and on your way to work and all of a sudden Montel Jordan's "This is How We Do It" comes on and your spirits rise, your head starts bopping, and the day doesn't seem to be that bad. We live for those moments. In fact, that's what we've realized we're doing now; we want that moment EVERY SINGLE TIME A SONG COMES ON.
Truth be told, we're a little scared by all of this. We know that no matter how hard we try, the ultimate playlist cannot be created. It's just impossible, an impossible dream. We're the tormented artist trying to create a masterpiece, like Brian Wilson trying to come up with his teenage symphonies from god and we're a little scared that in a few months, we'll gain about a hundred pounds, build a sandbox in our studio apartment, and be brainwashed by a psychiatric svengali.
There's no way this is going to end well.
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SFist Jon...I am not a licensed therapist, just a caring nurturer. I don't usually say this, but can you get yourself to a pound cake?
couldn't agree with you more, it's all about the playlists. i'm all in favor of including songs in multiple playlists, would be way too difficult otherwise. i'm sure you're already deep into the smart playlists as well, nothing like putting together a collection of only 5-star reggae songs from 1973-1978 that have the word "up" in the title.
I tend to go the "Shuffle" route almost everytime I listen to my iPod, and it sometimes irks me to realize how many songs I have on it that I actually DON'T want to listen to. And this may just be something quirky with my iPod, but the shuffle setting aways seems to play the same songs. I've got over 1500 songs on it, but goddamn if it doesn't insist on playing "In the Navy" during almost every shuffle session. How is that possible?
To answer your question: Pat Benatar songs belong in no playlist.
I used to obsess over the perfect playlist, which always ended in sadness. By the time I go the thing exactly right, I was already tired of all the songs and I wanted to hear something new. Eventually I had to learn to just let go and go shuffle mode, and listen for those moments of zen where it picks a song that goes eerily well with the next one.
My biggest problem iPod-related problem now is that I can't bring myself to delete music once I get it, even if I don't like it. So now I have to go through the entire library and rate everything, to make sure that obscure filler song from that soundtrack I bought eight years ago for that one song I do like, doesn't end up in an otherwise good shuffle and totally harsh my mellow.
You guys are lucky to have the latest and greatest iPod. I have the grandpa of your version...3rd gen ipod that doesn't have the click wheel. What I don't have is also the ability to make playlists on the fly.
Yeah, there'll be times you wish you can create the playlist right then and there but NOOOOOO...I'm not next to my powerbook to get to my iTunes. arrrrrrrgh.
Supposively the newer models have that ability but it's not very intuitive to get to. It creates an "on-the-go" playlist.
BUT I'm not buying anymore ipods because rumor has it Apple has filed trademarks for what sounds like a cell phone and an ipod: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/01/17/BUGL8GOEC61.DTL&hw=apple+phone&sn=001&sc=1000
So I'm going to wait it out...wait for both my ipod and cell phone to be annoyingly obsolete. :P