i-pod shame

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It occurred to me recently that if I should ever be out walking around Center City and get hit by the number 47 bus, I would probably use my dying breath to ask that the paramedic to dispose of my i-pod lest anyone discover the kind of music I have downloaded to it. I have never claimed to be on the cutting edge of music or an avid reader of Rolling Stone or the first to buy tickets to a small show of an alternative-but-up and-coming band. I steal most of my musical taste from friends and primarily, male friends. Men, in their continuing struggle to learn how to communicate like humans, seem to be drawn to music as a means of expression. Like, if they could, they would just hand you a set of lyrics by Death Cab for Cutie rather than try to put into their own words how they feel. So, some of my best music comes from these sources. The more shameful songs can be traced back to hitting adolescence during the advent of MTV and, at the same time, owning only a clock radio which effectively honed my musical tastes to include mostly top 40 hits of the 1980s. But that's only part of it, because I also was a theatre geek and so have seen more than a normal amount of musical theatre and so those songs too sometimes make it onto my ipod. Add to this the fact that I like the popular songs from the 1950s such as "Earth Angel" and pretty much any song by Sam Cooke or the Everley Brothers, and you have a weird mix of Duran Duran meets Ado Annie at the sock hop. Plus random alterna songs here and there and one or two songs by Tegan and Sara, whom I only know about from hearing them on NPR. I swear though (and Apple can steal this idea freely for their next ad campaign) that's the greatest thing about the i-pod; no one really knows what you're listening to and you can fit all of your bad music in one place and it's not like you have to pull out each CD labeled Modern Rock of the Eighties Vol. VIII in front of anyone. For all they know, you're rocking out to Franz Ferdinand or, God forbid, that new little boy band with the tweens in it...What's that called? The newest version of the Mmmm--bop boys? This weekend, I was walking down Broad Street, listening to "Oklahoma" and I swear to God, I almost kicked my heels together at the corner of Broad and Pine and yelled "Yow!"

Comments

Liz said…
I was listening to Barbie Girl by Aqua on the 21 bus this morning. And seat dancing. For the walk down 22nd street from the bus to my office it was Come and Get Your Love by the Real McCoys. Which makes me smile and strut and want to make out with men on the corner waiting for the light to change. Not because it's a romantic song but because it makes me feel frisky.

I actually had a panic attack recently when one of my crushes took my ipod to look at it. Not so much because of the music but because i name my playlists after the moods or thoughts the songs inspire. And the crush would defo been able to id himself in the title of a playlist.

I was able to deftly get him interested in another topic of conversation, put the ipod away, and move on. But it took some years off my life...
9:06 AM
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