Finally, the internet agrees with me!

I’ve been told that I have an ecclectic taste in music, that the transitions in some of my playlists are “schizophrenic at best”. For example, the playlist I have for coding looks like this:

1. New Order - Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix) (10:12)
2. 190′ - Paranoia Rebirth (1:40)
3. Yves Deruyter - Born Slippy (8:41)
4. Dune - Million Miles from Home (Space Odyssey Mix) (3:59)
5. Kitaro - Matsuri (8:59)
6. Underworld - Cowgirl (8:56)
7. Basil Poledouris - Conan The Barbarian - Anvil Of Crom (2:29)
8. Unknown - Duel of Fates (John Williams Remix) (2:48)
9. Prodigy - One Love (3:53)
10. Voodoo and Serano - Mozart 2000 (2:19)
11. Jay-Z & Linkin Park - Numb/Encore (3:23)
12. Kitaro - Reimei (8:36)
13. John Scatman - Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop) (3:33)
14. DJ dieselboy - Mode One - IQ Collective (4:20)
15. Orbital - Halcyon (9:28)
16. Eminem - Business (4:10)
17. Unknown - O Fortuna (Orff Remix) (4:54)
18. 5.6.7.8’s - Woo Hoo (1:58)
19. Garbage - Androgyny (3:11)
20. Kitaro - Orochi (7:08)
21. Dope - Die MF Die (3:28)
22. Robert Miles - A Gift of a Thistle (Braveheart Remix) (3:34)
23. N.E.R.D. - Rock Star (Jason Nevins Remix) (3:49)
24. Aphex Twin - Didgeridoo (7:10)
25. Nebraska Drumline - Street Cadences (2:27)
26. Blue Devil Drumline - Groove Cadence (2:14)
27. Kitaro - Nageki (5:46)
28. John Digweed - Heaven Scent (Continual Mix) (Bedrock Remix) (3:02)
29. Kitaro - Koi (6:29)
30. DJ Shortee - REM State (7:22)
31. Scooter - Fire (3:33)
32. Scooter - 02 (Maria) I Like It Loud (3:54)
33. Wolfpak - Gangsta Bounce (5:27)
34. Rammstein - Engel (4:26)
35. Rush - YYZ (4:26)
36. Steve Rhyner - Dark Black Forest (1:36)
37. A3 - Woke Up This Morning (4:14)
38. Symbiosis - Protocol (3:04)
39. Blue Devil Drumline - Cadence 2 (3:08)
40. Loituma - Leva’s Polka (bbm remix) (3:28)
41. Mauro Picotto - Proximus (Adiemus Remix) (3:47)
42. Ice MC - Think About The Way (4:20)
43. Busdriver - Imaginary Places (3:15)
44. The Crystal Method - Weapons Of Mad Distortion (4:50)
45. Marilyn Manson - Lunchbox (4:32)
46. Expansion Union - Playing With Lightning (4:31)
47. Linkin Park - It’s Going Down feat X-ecutioners (3:32)
48. Antinomie - Get On The Move (3:09)
49. Fatboy Slim - Ya Mama (5:48)
50. Judge Jules - Awakening (Cosmic Gate Remix) (5:02)
51. Marilyn Manson - Cryptorchid (2:52)
52. Kitaro - Hajimari (3:34)
53. Marilyn Manson - This is the New Shit (4:20)
54. DJ dieselboy - 6 Million Ways To Die - Dope Skillz (4:13)
55. DJ dieselboy - Night Flight - Shimon Andy C (5:43)
56. The Crystal Method - Busy Child (7:27)
57. Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400 (Remix) (2:57)
58. DJ dieselboy - Everyday - Cain And Bizz (5:16)
59. Robert Miles - Children (7:08)
60. Celldweller - The Stars Of Orion (2:56)
61. Kitaro - Sozo (5:34)
62. Moby - Extreme Ways (3:57)
63. Rammstein - Sehnsucht (4:04)
64. SaxxonPike feat. Toby Emerson - Sleepless [Happy Hardcore Mix] (2:44)
65. Apocalyptica - Domination (3:31)
66. Plastico - Communicate (Headquake Hazy Cloud Remix) (6:24)
67. Unknown - I Have a Dream (Pure Ether Mix) (3:38)
68. Prodigy - Firestarter (Empirion Mix) (7:53)
69. Smile.dk - Butterfly (1:29)
70. Robert Miles - X-Files Theme (Remix) (3:30)
71. 36 Crazyfists - Slit Wrist Theory (4:01)
72. Butthole Surfers - Pepper (4:57)
73. Bach - Allegro From ‘Double’ Concerto (5:13)
74. Jan Wayne feat Charlene - Here I Am (Send Me An Angel) - Radio Edit (3:43)
75. Blur - Song 2 (2:00)
76. Jonathan Coulton - Code Monkey (3:06)
77. Fatboy Slim - Going Out of My Head (5:14)
78. Outhere Brothers - Boom Boom Boom (3:07)
79. B-15 - Girls Like Us (Feat. Crissy D & Lady G) (5:32)
80. 187 - Deep Stealth (6:19)
81. Underworld - Born Slippy (4:23)
82. Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up (5:42)
83. Nightwatchers - Insomnia 2002 (Faithless Remix) (7:10)
84. Reel 2 Real - I Like to Move It (3:47)
85. Toby Emerson - Angel (3:58)
86. Paul Oakenfold - Password (4:34)
87. Prodigy - Voodoo People (6:27)
88. Hot Butter - Popcorn (3:39)
89. Beastie Boys - So What’cha Want (3:35)
90. Funker Vogt - Narayan (4:55)
91. Junkie XL - Dealing With the Roster (2:50)
92. Voodoo and Serano - This is acid (7:43)
93. System F - Out Of The Blue (6:39)
94. ATB - Hold You (Clubb Mix 1) (2:34)
95. Petey Pablo - Raise Up (7:40)
96. Eric Prydz - Call On Me (Main Mix) (8:02)
97. Binary Finary - 2000 (DJ Jam X and OU Monoe’s Millenium Mix) (5:25)
98. DJ Miss T - Skywalker (DJ Mix) (3:50)
99. Prodigy - Firestarter (Instrumental Mix) (4:41)
100. Antinomie - Euphoria (3:06)
101. John “00″ Fleming - Alpha 5 (Olmec Heads Remix) (8:52)

If you don’t know enough of the music, or any of it. Take my word for it… it’s eclectic. Anyhow, I like the music that I like because its different. Most of it, you can hear and say “Oh, thats this band!” because its distinct. Along those lines, I’ve been reeling against the trend in music that started when I was in high school. This whole prefabricated pop sound that allows a studio to grab some schmoe of the street, put him behind a microphone, and make an album that follows some convoluted, normalized formula for success. I mean this stuff is CRAP, it all sounds the same, and everyone tries sounding like each other because they were successful.

When I was in high school, I really started to notice that this mentality was bleeding into other genres of music: rock, alternative, even rap was getting in on the “success formula”. The first hard example I saw was when Scott Stapp (frontman of Creed) went from a raw lyrical sound to trying to sound like (and doing a horrible job of) Eddie Vedder (frontman of Pearl Jam). Anyone who knows what Creed sounds like, knows what I’m talking about. Chords progressions become formulaic, lyrics become sterilized, etc. By 2000 punk music, a genre that shouldn’t even really exist (I’ll rant about that later), was starting to follow the trend. And sadly, the world embraced it. We ended up with thousands of bands that didn’t write their own songs, or really know how to play their own instruments, they only sounded good because they had awesome producers that could pitch shift, dub, and effect mask the music to tolerable levels (if you don’t believe me look up the album Paris Hilton put out a year or so ago).

Up until recently I thought people who thought like I did were in a vast minority. Not so… I just came across something that has apparently been circulating around the Internet for several years now (without my knowledge! *gasp*). A gentleman in Canada heard a Nickelback song on the radio, immediately after hearing a different Nickelback song. He got an idea in his head and spliced the 2 songs together, one playing out the left channel, one out the right channel. The results were this song, which has made its rounds on the Internet scene. IT’S THE SAME SONG! Well… essentially. The lyric progression is different, but the chord progression is identical, the verse lengths are the same, need I go on? This was such a popular item that NPR did a story on it.

Recently I’ve been surprised several times by future generations. I know a 15 year old girl who shocked me when she said she can’t stand listening to the radio because the music on there sucks. When queried as to which bands are her favorites, she listed off some older punk bands (not common among the 15 year old crowd). Another of that generationm told me her favorite singer was Renee Olstead (a jazz singer). Could it be that the canned recording trend is starting to fizzle? I hope so…