During college, I started to realize I needed to give more music a chance, as my own music was starting to bore me. Most of this music was acquired in iTunes library swaps, when you take at least 10 GBs of music from your buddy. My iTunes became this huge mess of songs I'd never heard and didn't have time to listen to. I spent hours trying to organize it but couldn't really make a dent in it until I started working.
Now that I spend at leas 8 hours every day working at my computer, I have plenty o' time to listen to music. I've become extremely anal about my music organization, making sure there is no junk in there that I never listen to, making sure everything has a title and a band associated with it, and rating everything:
5 stars: All time favorite songs that I never tire of
4 stars: Great songs that I really enjoy
3 stars: Good songs that I like to hear every so often
2 stars: Novelty songs that I don't really like, but I keep if the occasion ever arises that I need to play "Thriller" (like at a Halloween party or something)
1 star: Songs that I should probably trash, but haven't got the heart to do it quite yet.
I trimmed my iTunes library down from 23 GBs to just under 16 gigs. Most of the trash contained songs that I had "given a fair shake", that is, I've listened to it at least twice, or I just knew that I wouldn't like it from the get go. I inherited quite a lot of Country from this guy Kyle at BYU. While I was going through my entire library with the sole purpose of trashing songs, I decided to keep all the country and really give it a try. I'd been bagging on Country my whole life and enough people had told me they liked it, so I decided that I should really give it a try.
So this last time through the library my purpose was to "rate" everything. The songs I was less familiar with I listened to a number of times in a row to give it a rating. This included a lot of country songs. Probably about 100, I would guess, which is quite a lot of Country for a beginner like me. So, I put my time in. I listened to them all, multiple times.
I think I've given Country a fair shake. In general, I don't much care for it. There were a couple songs I kept, but most of them I trashed. I knew all along I really wouldn't like it, therefore I never gave it a chance. So I finally gave it a chance and I was right, I didn't like it. So do I feel like I wasted my time? Yes, yes I do.
Are there things that I thought I wouldn't like but I tried and ended up liking them? Yes, I'm sure there are. But I can't think of any of those right now. Probably because I didn't know if I would like it or not. The next time somebody's trying to convince you to do something that you KNOW you wouldn't like, go ahead and say no. If they insist, tell them to call me.
7 comments:
i spent two hours on sunday (should this be considered work?) going through my music trying to delete the trash, and only made it through a's and b's.
amen and amen. I too hated country music growing up (with the exception of obsessing over garth brooks in 4th grade) and never really gave it a try. When I headed to BYU I was bombarded by plenty of city folk who insisted that country music was the sound of their soul. I ademently refused to listen and made sure to tell them their taste sucked. Long story even longer my cousin has a playlist on her blog with lots of good music on it. I let it play sometimes while about the house. One day however she added every song ever made by Rascal Flatts. I determined not to skip these songs because I am a mature adult now. Within 20 minutes however I was annoyed to my very core. That is my story of giving country a chance and it proving to suck as bad as I always said. Sorry this is so long. I had to get this off my chest. :)
I've always thought the Country music was all about complaining about things. That doesn't inspire me.
I actually don't mind it when the construction workers at my house play country music in the backyard while they're working. Whatever keeps them happy.
kent. how very mature of you to give something you don't like a valid shot.
you must be the young men's president.
Well, to set the record straight... and to show how different mine and Kent's taste is, I HATED THAT SONG "I love you always forever.." Working in radio I COULD NOT stand to play it, so I would skip it half the times it came up. seriously.
On the other hand, I don't like county radio, BUT county concerts are a blast... I have only been to two. Faith Hill/Tim McGraw and Collin Raye of all people, but they are fun even if you don't like the music.
ON the grand scale, the groups or individuals I want most to see live are Bon Jovi and Garth Brooks. But for the most part, Top 40 is still my taste.
That picture just made me gag.
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