Too geeky to contemplate

Link mostly for Jon because I can't think of many people who might actually survive this level of geekiness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19g3HdikLVo .... It's a Steam Powered R2D2... o_O

iPods Killed the Rock and Roll Star

The title of this entry is a lie but it summarizes a thought rattling around in the back of my head.

Most of my friends can recognize a song and the musician it's associated with in just a few bars. Very very slowly I get tiny bits better at this, but I'll never be like them. I wasn't allowed to listen to a lot of types of music when I was a child and in a lot of ways it crippled me. I like music, and when I practice, I have a bad habit of practicing for hours on end. The funny thing is that though I now listen to music far more than I ever did when I was younger, I don't really remember any of the band or song names, except for those of the tapes and CDs I purchased, and of those artists, often I can identify other pieces of their music beyond what I had heard before.

It occurs to me that what really changed is how I listen to music. I used to consciously put in a tape or CD that played the music of one artist and sometimes I'd listen to it several times out of laziness, enjoyment, or interest. Or I'd listen to the radio, which had a bad tendency to play the same few songs over and over and pound the names of the song and artist into you.

Then MP3s, the 5CD changer, iTunes, streaming internet radio, and podcasts came into my life and now I'm listening to an unending stream of sound that's of a particular genre but I'm not conscious of who is playing what, and I don't remember their names. Not sure is this just a personal problem or if it's something that will happen to a much wider range of people as they grow up and grow accustomed to having more music than they can ever realistically consume just a click away, though it does explain something about the interchangeable nature of boy-band pop stars.

Just something to think about.