Discovering the other 98%

It's fair to say that I like music.

A lot.

Since purchasing the debut album by The Stray Cats, way back when (1981 actually - thank you, Wikipedia), I've never looked back. My tastes haven't changed in the intervening 28 years, so much as broadened. So while I still like a lot of what I started out liking, I now listen to a huge range of music.

Or do I?

To be strictly accuarate, I now own a huge range of music. But I don't listen to it all.

I'm sure I read somewhere an article where a psychologist, or psychiatrist, or someone within an interest in the inner workings of heads, said that neural pathways can get reinforced. Or in English, the more a choice is made, the more likely you are to make the same choice next time.

So when I look down the list of albums on my iPod, I'm far more likely to pick something that I know than something I'm unfamiliar with.

How can I be unfamiliar with it? It's my album, right?

The problem goes back to 27 years ago, when I got a job.

When I bought an album with pocket money, there was a good chance that I wouldn't get anything else for weeks, or more likely, months.

So I played that album to death!

I'd sit there and listen to it over and over again. I'd pore over the sleeve, I'd learn all the lyrics.

I can still recite the track listings of a lot of those early purchases, whereas an album I bought six months ago?

I may not have played it yet.

The trouble with having money in your pocket is that you can go and buy two or three cd's at once. Or indeed on one memorable occasion, 34 cd's at once. Which is how I ended up with 2500 cd's in my spare bedroom.

So when Matt came up with Shuffleman, it gave me a way of rediscovering some of that music that I'd missed, forgotten or simply ignored.

I've found some gems. I've found some clunkers.

And I've made Matt listen to some terrible stuff!

Result!