On my last backpacking trip (also with Kevin, also to South America) I did not take an iPod. It was a more innocent, more austere time. Neither did I have such luxuries as I will now be taking, like a personal pillow (compressible), or patterned clothing (for some reason I thought if I were stuck with the same clothes for 2 months, they should be as bland as possible--this was dumb). But back to the iPod. I've never packed an iPod on a long trip, and I've also never "packed" an iPod... aka, pre-selected tunes for months of future listening. The real trouble is that I'm only taking a shuffle, which only holds 200 songs. I mean, I have to preserve some illusion of hardship on the road. But making such a pared-down music list is posing some real quandaries.
My first instinct is to use up these slots with my top 20 albums. But maybe not. Maybe I should only include 15 albums to make room for stand-alone songs. But if you think choosing only 20 albums out of all the ones you have is hard, try choosing just 50 songs. And when do you make the call to pick a song but not its album? For instance, I love the song "The Dogs of Buenos Aires" by Mirah (and it's fortuitously applicable to our trip), but while several other songs on the album are also good, the entire album falls well below my top 20.
Do I go with my absolute, fixed, all-time top 15 albums, or do I shoot for a mix of stand-bys and new contenders? A list of all stand-bys could prove disappointingly... familiar. But can I really justify axing Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica just to take a chance on something newer?
Do I include things that I'm obsessed with right now, or do I try to predict what I might be sick of in a few months' time? I'm all about the soundtrack to The Motorcycle Diaries these days (again, topical), but what if this is a phase that will run out in a matter of weeks? What if my obsession is particular to the fact that I'm getting ready for the trip?
Do I go for the pleasure index, or shoot for re-listenability? Life In Cartoon Motion by Mika is one of my favorite albums over the last couple of years, because every time I listen to it it makes me crazy-happy. That album gives me joy. But it is not the kind of thing you listen to again as soon as its over (unless you're Andy). Part of why it stays so fucking good is that I only listen to it once in a while. But that once in a while is sooo good. Can I sustain this dynamic when the album represents 5% of my entire music library?
What about old favorites that have fallen out of rotation? Is this the time for a Mates of State comeback? I used to listen to Team Boo on a loop, but I haven't in a couple of years. Is it still one of my "favorite albums"? Or can I safely say that it's been replaced by St. Vincent or Vampire Weekend, or Hot Chip, even though these are newer favorites?
So many problems, and I haven't gotten out of the M section of iTunes....
How do I choose just one Andrew Bird album? Just one Decemberists??
Do I screen out my favorite albums, to prevent the monotony of the playlist and the length of the trip from ruining them for me?
Do I specifically choose things that Kevin doesn't choose for his own (larger) iPod, thus maximizing our total selection but also relegating my own iPod to the status of a mere supplement, full of second-class choices made to meet external constraints?
Do I run with the travel theme, and choose things that I think I will like listening to on the road? Then I should go back to albums I associate with travel or with driving. I can't imagine taking a long road trip without Ted Leo, or Calexico, or The Soundtrack of Our Lives in the car, because I associate them with being on the road. But will that translate to bus rides? WIll I regret replacing something else that I all-around appreciate more?
Do I take thematics to the extreme and choose a driving album, a reading album, a walking album, a writing album, etc. etc., just to make sure all my situational bases are covered?
Do I say fuck it all and select twenty albums with household objects in the title, or bands with the letter V?
Should I try to effect an eclectically hip mix of cutting-edge indies, quirky mainstream choices, and I-know-my-music classics, just in case some outrageously cool Argentinian or Kiwi borrows my iPod? Do I need to maintain backpacker cred? Will my favorite Beatles selections suffice for this, or do I need to be the kind of person who has a favorite Beatles album and feel strongly that it be preserved as a whole?
And more distressingly, if I can't even load my iPod, how will I ever finish my term papers???
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6 comments:
I'm not sure how helpful this will be, but when I've had to make similar music choices (the CDs for Andy and I's upcoming road trip come to mind), I try to think in terms over overall listenability, not just what's my favorite. For example, Tidal is still one of my all-time favorite CDs, but it's not one that I like to listen to repeatedly. It's an occasional pleasure.
But that is a daunting task. I'd also make Kevin take anything you can't bear to be without but can't fit. Boys are to carry things for us - it's their natural purpose.
Evita. Nothing but various soundtracks to Evita. Very topical.
Guilty as charged. I've listened to "Happy Endings" from that Mika album five times already today. (No joke.) I guess I wouldn't have this problem since I don't need so much variety. It's funny that B is making CDs, plural, for the trip. I thought we'd just throw in Springsteen's Born to Run and be done with it.
I think part of your decision has already been made by default, since you have chosen to pack only a shuffle. Oh, yes, of course I know you can make a shuffle play through its contents in order, but the essential shuffle-ness pre-disposes it toward a MIX.
My tack, given this fact, would be to take your entire music inventory and cull the 200 best songs from it for the purposes of filling your i-pod. I would do this by going through each album and adding every song for which your immediate, knee-jerk reaction is to begin humming or to exclaim OMG YES THIS SONG.
I would do this for every album you own. Then, once you have this culled playlist, you will repeat the same process again and again, tightening your song-choosing criteria each time (for instance, a second round might involve sifting out the songs that are only awesome in the context of the album they are from and do not stand alone, so that you only include the best songs from any one album), till you have only 200 songs that you can then upload to the shuffle in a random order. This will ensure that only the purest distillation of sonic ass-kickery reaches your ears for the next six months.
If you have some jones to listen to an entire album, you can always filch KB's ipod and have at. Being an album rocker--not a singles fan--myself, I sympathize with your dilemma, but I think the fundamental nature of the shuffle is going to have to dictate your playlist. Especially since this plan cuts down on the time you spend tearing your hair out over this particular issue.
Or you could do what I would do and upload nothing but Muse and then listen to their entire oeuvre at high volume till your ears bleed and you go deaf. Then you can't listen to anything and the ipod becomes moot. Problem solved.
see, i knew erinn would solve it. come run my life?
does 'life-running' come with benefits?
besides making out w/ you, i mean.
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