I’m addicted to music, I think it’s fair to say. Ever since high school, when I found music that spoke directly to my frustrations and worldview, I’ve been a voracious consumer of music. After years of joining CD clubs, buying new and used CDs and everything, I have well over 400 albums, all on my iPod. So why do I have a hard time finding something to listen to?
I scroll through my music, ranging from punk rock to indie, pop to rap and nothing jumps out at me. I keep saying, “That wouldn’t be bad, but maybe there’s something better.” Right now I’m listening to Eastern Philosophy by Apathy, which is a great album, but still I wonder if there isn’t something else I’d be liking more.
I remember when I had eight CDs, in junior high. At that time I absolutely loved my CDs. I never complained, I always knew which one I wanted to hear. So essentially my mind has become paralyzed by the wide range of options it must choose from. I know I’ve read about things like this in my psych textbooks, but I’ve never really experienced it before.
Maybe it’s time to just hit random and see what comes up (chances are I’ll like it!).
Tags: choosing music, too many choices, ipod
As much as I love my iPod, I miss the CD culture of high school.
There’s something different about my music listening habits. I have so much music at my fingertips (20 GB and counting) that I rarely listen to a CD more than once a day, or even once a week. I remember in high school, and even college, I would get a CD and listen to the thing obsessively for a month straight. I think there was a four month stretch where I had a tape in my truck with Operation Ivy on one side and Let’s Go by Rancid on the other. I just let it play constantly, end to end….and I loved it. Now, I get albums, love them, tell my friends, and then move on. It’s as if I have developed musical A.D.D.
I remember those crucial albums, and to this day they hold a special place in my heart. I will buy anything Rancid puts out, because a) they’re still amazing and b) they were such an important part of my adolescence. Hmm…what other records can I support, that just blew me away?
I don’t think all music now is bad, I’m not that old and jaded yet, I just think records don’t enthrall me like they used to. Maybe it’s because I can afford more music now, so I don’t have to hold on so tightly to every CD I get. Maybe it’s because I have so many options, I become overwhelmed by the choice and can’t stick with anything for very long. Or maybe I am getting old and bored with the same music that used to excite me.
I love my new 60 GB iPod Video. It was annoying the crap out of me.
So I finally gave in and bought a new 5th Generation iPod. And I love it. I’ve had a 15 GB Dell DJ for two years, and there was nothing wrong with it really, I just had more music than it could contain. Plus, I got into podcasts and audiobooks, and the DJ just doesn’t have the capabilities to handle either one with the ease of the iPod. So now I understand what all of the fuss is about, these things truly are wonderful.
However, I ran into numerous problems last week that I’m just now getting sorted out. My iPod started having these weird “glitchy” problems. Sometimes the menu would lag by about 10 seconds, other times a song would start playing but the album art wouldn’t show up and it would “freeze” for a bit. Then it wouldn’t want to turn off when I held down the play/pause button. After several days and several resets/restores I got fed up and went to the Apple store to sort it out. Turns out that the iPod has problems with mp3’s that are encoded with a Variable BitRate (VBR). Something about VBR freaks the iPod out and can cause problems with the software that leads to all of the above mentioned glitchy-ness.
Frustrating. In fact, I didn’t fully believe them until they loaded my iPod with some test songs and sent me home to test it out. Wouldn’t you know it, I can’t make it freak out anymore! So now I’m tracking down all of my random VBR encoded tracks and transferring them to AAC’s. I do think from now on that I’ll rip my CDs to 160 AAC, it just seems like a better format. In fact, I’m now thinking about going back and re-ripping all of my 128 mp3’s from CD again. Ugh.
All this after I spent two weekends adding album art to every mp3 in my 20 GB collection!
On another note, I highly recommend upgrading your earphones to the Fontopia earphones I just got yesterday. They are infinitely more comfortable than the iPod stock earphones, and sound way better as well! Now I just want the iSkin eVo3 case so I don’t scratch my new toy to hell.
