Thursday, April 13, 2006

death of a playlist

It happened last week. All had been fine. There was no warning. Then in an innocent act all was lost. My iPod began to refuse me my music. It had to be re-formated; wiped clean.

If that doesn't sound utterly tragic to you... well, first of all you're right. It's not that big of a deal. But at the same time that's not how it felt.

I didn't care about the music itself. That's all backed up. What bothered me was the loss of all my playlists: 'Black Tuesday' a cheeky blend of songs walking with the subtle bouquet of valentine's day angst; 'a moment' an indie rock blend originally compiled following a rather significant DTR; or 'sub urban' a eclectic blend of ambient and hip-hop.

Those are all gone now, and because they are, I've come to realize how much I attached memory and feelings to each playlist. They were carefully designed, constantly edited with the intent of providing the perfect backdrop for my life.

At first it bothered me. I didn't help that I was already in a funk. Now I have this one thing that I've grown so attached to letting me down. It also bothered me that it bothered me. I was not fully sure if what I felt was healthy.

But I began to realize that they needed to be gone. 'A moment' had gone from being the perfect life aligning mix to the spot I dumped all my cool new songs because it was the first alphabetically. I never listened to 'sub urban' that much anymore or 'thought', or 'worship'.

I needed to move on.

For one thing those songs always locked in the same context began to hinder the appreciation of the music itself. I think of how the same musical notes can be rearranged in new ways inside of each song and I think that genetic identity is maintained to the next level when you hear the same songs rearranged into a new score. In music, it seems, excellence is good, but it has a shelf life.

Then there's the spiritual implications. Music is such a great metaphor. I needed to have some ideas disasembled and rearranged. I needed to see that I was running to something for the comfort. I needed to ask if I wanted perfect or timely. I needed to build something new.

Thanks to a few 1's and 0's I have that.

posted by Scott # 10:26 AM

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