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Favorite Music, pt. 1

If you are not a fan of music, or if music talk is boring to you, then my next few posts will not be of interest to you, so be forewarned.

I recently read an article by Stephen King on music that he likes. He published a list of his "Top 20" songs and got a lot of feedback about it. Much of the feedback was negative. He rebuked his readers by reminding them that any amateur musicologist could publish a list of "Top 20" songs. It is an extremely personal matter. He was not saying that his list was definitive for anybody other than himself. Then he commented on how iPods maintain a count on how often you listen to songs, revealing what your real "Top 20" is. His real top 20 list, based on the count on his iPod, revealed that the songs he listened to the most were not necessarily his favorite songs. Both lists revealed something about his personality and his current state of mind. But, far from being serious, the exercise was mainly all in fun.

So...I decided to take a look at my own iPod and make a list of my top 25 favorite songs and then look at the counts of how often a I played each song and make my "real" top 25 list. I confess that the two lists are not the same.

So I will post first the list of my 25 favorite songs on my iPod. Later I will post the list of my "real" top 25. I did not include classical music, which is what I listen to most often because it is background music with no words (apparently my life needs a soundtrack). I did not include any Christmas songs on the list. Nor did I include any hymns, with one exception.

My iPod has 1,013 songs right now. I narrowed that down to 52 favorites and then painfully culled that list down to 25. Here are some observations on the process:
  • It was much harder than I though to pick my 25 favorites.
  • I tend to like just a few bands or artists and like a lot of their music, such as Jars of Clay.
  • I tend to like music by artists with whom I am already familiar. There is only one truly "current" song on my favorites list.
  • I connected with each song in very strong emotional ways. There are often strong memories attached to each one, or a powerful feeling the song creates in me.
  • There is no Elvis on my list. Not even fat Elvis. I am surprised by this.

So, I encourage you to try to make a list of your favorite songs. I would love to see it. Think about why the songs are important to you, why you connect with them.

Next post is my top 25 favorite songs.

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