The songs stuck in my head: You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)

12/8/19

Confession time: My listening of music has evolved into something a little strange. It all started when I started streaming music.

Let me go back first.... I've always hated "picking" what to listen to next. Not sure why. I think mostly because it's hard to decide and also maybe sometimes I'll change my mind in the middle of an album or song, or whatever and I don't like that for some reason. I especially felt that way when I was using my iPod which had some pretty *innovative* shuffling features. You could shuffle all songs or all albums. Shuffling albums was my favorite.

As an avid iPod user, I learned that they would last a good two years of daily, nearly constant use, before going kaput. When my last one went kaput this spring, I finally gave in and joined Spotify. I've never looked back even though streaming pays my favorite artists JACK SQUAT.

But I digress. In fact I'm not even gonna try to have all of this post make sense or have structure. I'm just gonna type OK!

So.... I have loved streaming on Spotify, and I even started liking songs and albums to match the collection I had worked so hard on when I was downloading music. BUT! Here's the problem-- on Spotify you can make a collection of albums, but as far as I know, the shuffle album feature doesn't exist. Boo.

So- I started to miss this feature, because I love albums, and I love shuffling.

I conceived an idea to remedy this dilemma... how could I start to randomly generate albums I WANT to listen to......
So, my old pal the Random Number Generator came into play- let's see if I can embed it to this post, I've done it before. Hold on.

Can you believe I did that all by myself! I'm so proud!

OK.... So.... Let's see if I can explain what I decided to do:

I created a list between 1 and 30. By spinning the number generator, the next sequence of music you'll be listening to is decided by the spin!

Here's the list I'm currently using- I'll elaborate after I show you the list.

1 & 2- One of my blog playlists (currently 21 total lists)
3 & 4- Any of the other current playlists I've created or following (currently 30 total lists)
5- Shuffle all my liked songs
6- Pick a friend I follow who is currently listening to music (Spotify has this feature)
7- Pick a friend whose name I see along the side (who is currently listening or has recently listened)
8- Pick a person from a list of people who follow me (currently 49 people)
9- Pick a person from a list of people who I follow (currently 416 people)
10- Pick an album to listen to based on suggestions from a Facebook post I made a few months back.
11 & 12- Pick a post from this here website (the blog) and listen to the album
13 & 14- Shuffle liked songs. First song played defer to its album.
15- "Browse" tab at Spotify home page.
16-20 "Home" page of Spotify, pick whatever is suggested from one of their generated lists
21-22 Shuffle my iTunes purchases (I have many) and play the corresponding album of 1st song played
23- Shuffle all my liked songs
24- Play albums A-Z (saved albums in spotify list) Started at A and working down to Z alphabetically
25- Play albums Z-A (saved albums in spotify list) Started at Z and working up to A
26-30 Spin 1-25 and play a random artist's album according to the spin.

OK, that's a general overview. I hope I still have you. Basically you spin the wheel and it lands on a number, and from there, if applicable, you randomize the option again til you have either an album, or playlist. Then you listen to it!

For example. Lets say I spin a '6' (Pick a friend I follow who is currently listening to music) I look to see who is currently listening to music that I follow on Spotify. Lets say there are 5 people- I then spin again, but this time from 1 to 5. Then whomever it lands on is the person that decides what I'm listening to. Usually I randomize between what they are currently listening to, one of their public playlists, or a list of current artists they are listening to that Spotify picks for them. But if you want to try this (who would?) then you can do it however you want.

I'm constantly changing things, but I find that generally I'm listening to music I like, and if I don't like it, I just laugh at myself to be compulsive enough to do this anyway. One day my friend Jeff called me (this was September) and said "Brady! Why are you listening to Christmas music!?"
Just today I listened to The Stone Roses self-titled album twice. Luckily I like this album. But I'm super anal about listening to whatever is generated for me, so if the spinner landed me on, oh, I don't know, "Ethel Merman Sings the hits of Nickelback" twice in the same day, I'd listen to it twice.

I'm compulsive.

So... another thing that has made this fun (for me) is a playlist that I constantly update that I call "Top o' the Hour" Essentially it's a revolving playlist. I take whichever track I'm listening to, and place it at the top of the playlist at the top of each hour. Then I take the oldest track on there off the playlist. I'm constantly making changes to this playlist and it makes for the strangest mix of songs, but most of them really are good so it's fun to listen to it.

Check it out if you're bored:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2qSnf5o94xPqrM2BDGaAze?si=0P8E2fCKT4SycQzru9d1Kg

Oh, and the song stuck in my head was "You Are Loved" by Josh Groban. And one of the reasons so many strange songs (like today's, strange for me, I never listen to Groban) are now weasling their way onto my blog is because of my listening to this playlist and being extremely random in my listening choices-- but I'm having a lot of fun, nonetheless.

Here's the dang song y'alls