After spending the first month or so playing with my photos, I decided it was high time to start migrating my CD's to iTunes so I could actually listen to them. I took the plunge to "go digital".
Yes, I know most people ripped their CD's sometime around 1998. But I just wasn't motivated.
My decision was prompted by the 6 disc changer in the trunk of my car that stopped reading discs. I have been stuck commuting with a radio and a tape player. And while listening to my old tapes might be amusing (Faith No More, anyone?), I would have to find them first, and listening to NPR gets depressing after a while.
Yes, I have a tape deck in the car, you want to fight about it?
I went to Radio Shack and bought a little tape to audio-in converter. Dude, stop making fun of me and my 1990 technology. And yes, they still make them. And sell them. At Radio Shack. Which is still in business.
Anyway.
I was ripping my CD's, and feeling the ghost of music past.
It turns out I the majority of CD's that I thought I had, I don't, and 90% of the albums that I currently own were produced pre-1999, and quite a few of them are my "B-List" music... you know, the stuff you buy for one song, or because you liked something else the band did, or someone recommended it to you, and you listened to it maybe once all the way through before putting it away and forgetting it? Yeah, lots of those.
Now, I did lose a shit-ton of music down in New Orleans in 2005 when Katrina decided to flood the house I was living in with 2 feet of water and I somehow left my CD books under the coffee table.
Did you know that video cassettes can survive a house that is closed up in Louisiana in August for 6 weeks with a bunch of water, DVD's, and most books will survive, but burnt CD's will lose the shiny coating, and store purchased CD's will actually grow mold between the layers of plastic? Well. Now you do.
It doesn't, however, explain why there is no "post 2005" music. Did I just stop listening to anything? What was I doing all this time? And how did I survive so long with no Oingo Boingo?
It was around then that I realized I suck at music. And also, I have little or no taste. AND. I also needed to expand my musical horizons. I mean, I have been listening to essentially the same 5 CD's on rotation for the last 5 years.
Tom Waits: Mule
Squirrel Nut Zippers: Hot
Doc and Merle Watson: Remembering Merle
Marilyn Manson: Mechanical Animals
Leadbelly: Midnight Special
Alabama 3: Exile on Coldharbour Lane
Seriously, no wonder my mom thinks I have a split personality.
The remaining music fits into five categories:
- Music that was COMPLETELY AWESOME 10 years ago and have no interest in now (there is a lot of techno and soundtracks)
- Girly bands like the Cranberries, the Cardigans, Poe, Garbage, and No Doubt
- Heavy Metal and German Industrial bands (like, how the fuck did I end up with 6 Einsturzende Neubauten CDs? I mean, really?)
- Mix CD's that are unlabeled and were presumably gifts from friends. Maybe.
- And shit that I have no idea why I have it. Where did they come from? Am I a thief? If so, why wouldn't I steal bands that I like? I even came across a CD that I obviously found on the side of the road or something because it was BROKEN IN HALF and all SCRATCHED UP, and guess what? I never in my life bought the Beastie Boys, License to Ill, even if they are kinda cool in a high school way, and WHY THE HELL DID I SAVE A BROKEN CD?
How about everything that I was looking for? Or... I am not sure what I was looking for, but it isn't there.
So I ripped all these CD's, even though I was pretty sure I hated all the music, and I STILL didn't have anything to listen to. I was starting to wonder if all that awesome music I use to listen to might actually be on tape. Or imaginary.
So. I decided to download a couple of albums from iTunes. FINE, then.
So now I listen to a rotation of Boingo, Insanity, Mozart's Requiem Mass, Muse, The Resistance, and a little Cat Stevens.
I should be set for another 4 or 5 years, I guess.
Yep.
I suck at music.
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