(no subject)

[hannibalv]

So, a topic for a Friday.

I need playlist suggestions. I've got roughly 6400 songs on my iPod, and that's just too damn many to go completely at random.

So far, I've put together

• One for each year, 1991-2005 (plus one entitled "The Dark Ages" that covers the beginning of time to 1990)
• Some locationally specific ones ("Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!"¹, "Swedes on Parade", and "My Kind of Town")
• And, just added this morning, one of Christmas music.

But where else do I go? I suppose "City That Never Sleeps" is an obvious option (though there have been fewer really good NYC bands than you might think). Something UK-only would cut almost as large a swath as a US-only list, so that's out, and most other countries aren't represented well enough to merit inclusion. So, where do I go from here? (And before you ask, loosestrudel, I've rated a total of four songs, so doing something rating-specifc would be moot.) Suggestions gratefully accepted.

¹This list consists of one song by The Triangles, two by AC/DC, five by Midnight Oil, and 102 by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. Some names for other good Australian bands would also be appreciated.

Comments

[rearviewmags.livejournal.com]

maybe songs that became popular (or found renewed popularity) through film? that's fairly specific, and for some reason, i see you as a film enthusiast.

[davesanngel.livejournal.com]

Ang, "enthusisast" doesn't even begin to cover it. I trust JHR's movie review over any other critic out there. The news industry doesn't know the talent they're missing.

And, that is a great suggestion for a playlist!

[mujina.livejournal.com]

Agreed. There should be a website detailing his movie reviews - I would also trust his recommendations any day.

[jrstraus.livejournal.com]

I'd SO read that.

[rearviewmags.livejournal.com]

thank you. i do what i can.

[jrstraus.livejournal.com]

Songs about food. Or cars. Or cats. Or 'dark' songs (wooooooo!). Songs about cowboys. Or songs with a girl's name or a month (or day of the week) in the title. Ever heard of the board game Encore? You could get a wealth of ideas from that. Can you sort by genre?

[jrstraus.livejournal.com]

Actually, my most successful playlists have been simply categorized by how they make me feel. "Playful" and "Mellow", along with "Songs for Studying" have been great successes. And I highly suggest doing the ratings. My ratings playlist constantly impresses me... ask Hobie. I keep listening to it and catching myself saying, "I LOVE this song!" Like I'm surprised. Duh. ;)

[arettber.livejournal.com]

I looked through mine for songs titled simply "Superman," and I think I found four. Not including the movie score, of course. Which I don't have anyway.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

Jen's right. The mood lists are hot. I've got mood playlists for slow and sad tunes, strange or weird tunes, tunes that make me want to dance, tunes that would make my parents want to dance, tunes that make me smile, tunes that are radio friendly (for parties where people don't want to listen over and over to Thunderbirds Are Now or Eagles of Death Metal even though they really should), etc. I won't share the names of these playlists because they're kind of goofy to anyone but me. I've also got an instrumental list, a list for songs about trains, and a list of songs that remind me of Summer.

You could also do smart playlists that include, say, the 200 or so songs that you've most recently added. Or the songs that haven't been played in the last month. Or the songs that have never or rarely been played.

None of the options above require rating your songs, but Jen's also right that rating is hot. If you're going to go through your songs, for example, and create playlists based on geography or mood, you can easily rate them while you're at it...and then the world of possibilities opens before you!

Imagine a playist that contains only 5-star punk songs recorded after 2003 that haven't been played more than five times? Now that's music.

[jrstraus.livejournal.com]

Great ideas! But I'm not sure I have that many songs about trains. BUT, you can also rate your songs on the newer iPods while you're listening to the iPod. That works pretty well for me. Especially when I find that the live version of Van Halen's 316 is nowhere near as good as i expected.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think you can rate tunes while you play them on all the iPods. Could be wrong, though.

[hannibalv.livejournal.com]

I also, for whatever reason, have a weird-but-strong aversion to the five-star rating system. Maybe it's because so much of my expereince with star ratings is in film, where four is tops and that's just that. But that's one (of many) reasons I haven't rated many.

Hell, ultimately it becomes a binary function, 1 or 0, thumbs up or thumbs down, good or not good. And I try not to have too many 0 songs.

[arettber.livejournal.com]

This is hot, that is hot. Did you get replaced with Paris Hilton when we weren't looking?

[(Anonymous)]

You're hot.

[hannibalv.livejournal.com]

Jen's right. The mood lists are hot.

I can see them now: "Rage", "Homicidal Rage", "Despair", "Ennui", "You Fucked Up", "Emptiness", and "Music To Put A Gun In Your Mouth To". Oh, and "Pep".

I suppose I don't look for stuff to change my mood, I look for stuff to reflect and reinforce it.

The lists I do have are smart--"Swedes on Parade", for example, is "Artist is Salt or Artist is The Hives, etc."--that's way easier than adding them individually.

I just created a smart list of songs that have the word "fuck" in the title. I have 23 of them.

I think that's a lot.

Imagine a playist that contains only 5-star punk songs recorded after 2003 that haven't been played more than five times? Now that's music.

That doesn't sound like music. That sounds suspiciously like math.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

I suppose I don't look for stuff to change my mood, I look for stuff to reflect and reinforce it.

Yeah, me too. That's why I need all my wacky playlists. I'm a moody cat.

That doesn't sound like music. That sounds suspiciously like math.

That's funny. And true, I suppose. But yet another reflection of my many, manic moods. Sometimes I need that granular detail because one day I'll be in road rage and nothing else will do.

[fractalbase.livejournal.com]

Silverchair is Australian, although are they good?

I just created a smart list of songs that have the word "f$#@" in the title. I have 23 of them.

I had made some songlists of songs that have a common word or words that seemed prevalent at the moment. Such as numbers. How about a songlist with Metallica's "One" and U2's "One"?

That doesn't sound like music. That sounds suspiciously like math.

I also have a list of one-word-title albums which turned out to be quite neat.

Then there's the songlists according the band's instrumentation (guitar bass drums, 2x guitars bass drums, keyboards bass drums, guitar bass keyboards drums, guitar keyboards drums, etc.)

Some regularly played songlists include all covers, all live, or all multi-cd albums.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

Some locationally specific ones ("Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!"1, "Swedes on Parade", and "My Kind of Town")

My Chicago list is called "SweetHome". :)

And Swedish? That's impressive.

[hannibalv.livejournal.com]

And Swedish? That's impressive.

Sure: The Cardigans, The Sounds, The Hives, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Salt, and Sahara Hotnights. Only 79 songs in toto, but I need more Hives. (And don't even think of that palindromic abomination.)

On my big giant always-in-need-of-updating CD Catalog spreadsheet, I've got a column for "Country". "USA" has the most entries, followed by the various-artists-soundtracks-compilations-etc listing "XXX", then "GBR", "IRE" (all but one of which is U2), "SWE", "AUS", "CAN", and a bunch of one- and two-off listings. Perhaps if I pick up Sigur Ros or something similar, I'll add "ISL" and stop listing Björk as being British, which I chose to do for Satan-knows-what reason.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

I had no idea the Hives were Swedish. I love the Hives. What's the "palindromic abomination"?

[hannibalv.livejournal.com]

Think about Elizabeth II doing the tango.

Think of an Italian's exclamation to his female parent.

Think of Bonaparte's ultimate defeat.

You'll get it.

[loosestrudel.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I got you now. I like that they, like their songs, cannot be named.

The peril of cavorting with the opposite sex, however, is that without fail, all chicks have the greatest hits album. In fact, I can see our CD right now.

Maybe the riot grrls are immune. One can only hope.