Thursday, November 01, 2012

iPod Demographic

Following up on a post from Tuesday in which we discussed Barack Obama's iPod, and at least one gratuitous (but hilarious) cheap shot by Gino at Ace Commenter's taste in music, I said the following:
Might be time to do a iPod check post to compare and contrast iPod music.
And so here goes. I'm posting ten songs in a row that played on my iTunes at work on Tuesday, with an indulgence in the middle because I want to give my musician cousin some props. Do you think any of these would help either candidate's demographic?

First, Eno, from Another Green World:


Next, some straight up jazz from Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers from 1964:


Then, some guy from Hibbing:


And because I can, a cover version of the song by my cousin, who performs under the stage name Janet Planet:




Back to the original list -- next, Los Lobos:


Next, some classic 80s cheese:


Then, Ray Charles tackling the Beatles:


Next, a personal fave from Thelonious Monk:


Then, classic Stones from Exile on Main Street:


Next, some early Cure:


Finally, a song I got from a friend that is one of the funniest New Year's Eve songs ever, from an emo band called Dismemberment Plan, from about 1997 or thereabouts:


I would imagine that I'd have a hard time getting elected with that song selection, but there you go. Feel free to post some of yours in the comment section.



8 comments:

Gino said...

wish i could join you, but i have no ipod.
does that make me less white? i guess it does cause all the 'white' people that i know have them... though these same 'white' folks like to use obscure ipod selections as proof of their 'non-whitness'.

what's wrong with being white anyway? does having an issue with 'whiteness' equal racism, or is it only racist if it don't favor 'Black'?

help me out here... i didnt go to a 4 yr college, so i dont know how this racism stuff is supposed to work...

Mr. D said...

wish i could join you, but i have no ipod.
does that make me less white? i guess it does cause all the 'white' people that i know have them... though these same 'white' folks like to use obscure ipod selections as proof of their 'non-whitness'.


It makes you Gino. And if you ask me, my music selections prove two things about me:

1) I'm totally a white boy, but I like a lot of different types of music; and

2) Musical tastes often defy categorization. Which was kinda my point.

Brian said...

Well...lessee...I actually just have an iPod Shuffle, so it's hard to pull up a playlist (no screen) and I only listen to it when I'm working out. But IIRC, the artists that it ran through at the gym last night included: Gorgoroth, Wu-Tang Clan, Die Antwoord, Public Enemy, Gossip, Lady Sovereign, (some other black metal band I can't remember the name of), and Helmet.

Metal and rap are definitely over-represented on that, though, b/c that's what I like to listen to when I'm working out.

A random shuffle through my (much, much larger) library on iTunes this morning yielded:

Dracula/Medeski, Martin and Wood
National Vacation/Fourkiller Flats (an alt country band from Tucson)
Creeping Death (Live)/Metallica
My Apocalypse/Arch Enemy
Wilderness/Dead Can Dance
Busta's Lament/Tribe Called Quest
Bliss/Lantlos (some of the aforementioned obscure German metal)
Know Your Chicken/Cibo Matto
Professor Bootie/Beastie Boys
(You Caught Me) Smiling/Sly and the Family Stone

Mr. D said...

Thanks, Brian. I'll have to check out Fourkiller Flats. I recognize most of the others, but the only song from that group I have is the Sly Stone one. By the way, the last five I've heard from my iTunes library today are:

Summer in the City, Lovin' Spoonful
Superfly, Curtis Mayfield
Smooth, Santana
If I Could Build My Whole World Around You, Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell
Taxi War Dance, Lester Young

Playing now, The Wanderer, Dion.

Brian said...

FKF was definitely my favorite local band when I lived in Tucson (other than Calexico, who weren't strictly "local" anymore by then.) I probably saw them play live a dozen times. One time they opened for DriveBy Truckers just as Southern Rock Opera came out (before anyone outside of the southeast had really heard of them) at Hotel Congress. One of the best shows I've ever seen. (The after party was pretty great, too...)

Anyway, I have no idea if those guys are still around. I hope so.

W.B. Picklesworth said...

I don't know most of your music, Brian, but I just recently ran across Calexico on Noisetrade. They're pretty good.

For the time being that's what I've been doing for music, legally downloading random samplers. Some are big misses, but I've found some things I really like:
"When I Was Young" by Nada Surf "Everybody Loves a Villain" by Captain Wilberforce
"Isolation" by La Resistance
and others....

Random music is a fun way to broaden out one's tastes a bit.

Night Writer said...

I had something shuffle up the other day and ever since then I've been marvelling and one of the best crafted lines in the history of pop music:

"She's living in L.A., with my best old ex-friend Ray."

Brian said...

Fourkiller Flats also wrote one of my favorite lines:

"So I started this damn country band
'Cause punk rock is too hard to play"