Random Fandom

Last weekend, Aaron Gleeman issued a challenge to fellow bloggers -- post the first 40 randomly-generated songs on their mp3/iPod players. Gleeman's list was an odd mix -- half of it seemed like it was material to be played as a baseball player walked to the plate and the other half of it seemed like it would have been played at a junior high dance about 30 years ago. But I'm a firm believer in the idea that nobody's taste in music is bad, so I'm not going to say that about Aaron's list, either. (I'm not an incredible fan of most of those songs, but I wouldn't mind listening to them on an occasional basis, either.)

Since I've only recently picked up an iPod shuffle, I thought I'd play along. Here's my list.

1) Born To Run -- Bruce Springsteen
2) Nobody Knows Me -- Lyle Lovett
3) Angel Of Harlem -- U2
4) The Modern Age -- The Strokes
5) Oli Komo-Chant -- Gabby Pahinui
6) You Call It Madness -- Diana Krall
l7) The Laws Have Changed -- The New Pornographers
8) War Of Man -- Neil Young
9) All Because Of You -- U2
10) Wait It Out -- Tift Merritt
11) Breed -- Nirvana
12) Company In My Back -- Wilco
13) About Me -- They Might Be Giants
14) Oddfellows Local 151 -- R.E.M.
15) Easy (As Falling Apart) -- Kelly Willis
16) Disturbance At The Heron House -- R.E.M.
17) Silver And Gold -- U2
18) Zoo Station -- U2
19) Hell Is Chrome -- Wilco
20) Penguins -- Lyle Lovett
21) 7 chineSe bros. -- R.E.M.
22) Sidewalk -- Built To Spill
23) They Got Lost -- They Might Be Giants
24) Give It Up Or Let Me Go -- Dixie Chicks
25) In Spite Of Me -- Morphine
26) Another Souvenir -- The Connells
27) camerA -- R.E.M.28) Walk On -- U2
29) Swamp -- Talking Heads
30) Something In The Way She Moves -- James Taylor
31) I've Got The Blues -- Lyle Lovett
32) Hold Me My Daddy -- XTC
33) Bad Sneakers -- Steely Dan
34) If I Fall You're Going Down With Me -- Dixie Chicks
35) Carefree -- The Refreshments
36) Fear Of Falling -- Golden Smog
37) Exit -- U2
38) One Simple Word -- The Connells
39) I Palindrome I -- They Might Be Giants
40) Waiting For The Sun -- The Jayhawks

This is a not too unrepresentative list of my overall collection. U2 is over-sampled because a friend gave me waaaaay too many albums in preparation for their upcoming concert in April, but otherwise I understand that randomness plays a role in these selections. I like to think that my taste is somewhat broader than what's displayed here, and has changed over time (I rarely listen to R.E.M. and the 10 or so albums of theirs that I own).

Looking at shuffle playlists is like looking at spring training stats. Representative of something, perhaps, but probably not what you think.

Anybody else want to post their lists?