Chapter LXVII: Playlistism

From urbandictionary.com:

PLAYLISTISM - n. Discrimination based not on race, gender, or religion, but rather on a disturbingly horrible iTunes music library discovered through a school or job network. Often requires awkward explanation of why you have "that song."

Mike accused me of playlistism when I questioned his collection of Color Me Badd b-sides.

Personally, I've never understood why music is such a big deal, so I was never able to judge people based on it. I enjoy music too, but only as a form of temporary diversion, not in any sort of philosophical way. Call me shallow, but if a song is catchy, I'll listen to it; meaningful lyrics are a plus, but ultimately irrelevant if I can't stand the tune. Also, I have no compunction against removing a single song from the "context" of its album and playing it ad nauseaum, all by itself. I guess I can understand some people's intense feelings about music if I think about it in terms of my own emotional investment in graphic art.

But really, I'm more likely to look down on you based on the newspaper you subscribe to. Los Angeles Times? How parochial. Wallstreet Journal? Stop pretending you're smart. Christian Science Monitor? ...Stay the fuck away from me.

I am often surprised by a person's musical tastes when they seem incongruous with other aspects of his personality. Like my former roommate, a Christian fundamentalist , Chinese EE major, who always has his speakers blaring what I affectionately call "the black people music." He says it's because he grew up in the "bad part" of the Bay Area. Whatever, Quinn.

Or when you're browsing Facebook, and you come across someone you knew in highschool--honors kid, SAT scores through the roof, always very sensible; and the first two bands in his Favorite Music are Killswitch Engage and Silverchair. Sheesh. Maybe I'm deluding myself in thinking that there is any connection between what people listen to and other things they do.

Anyways, I have embedded a Stickam player in my sidebar and loaded it with a more or less random selection of songs that were readily available on my hard drive. Wonderfully, the player also displays photos, so the Flickr photostream has been phased out, though the transition has not been completed yet (Stickam requires jpegs). Stickam also supports a bunch of other stuff I'm not using, so many of the buttons will be fruitless.