Cleaning the house? Must be time to bring out the love!

Love song CDs

My taste in music is what I’ve already coined – Light Alternative. This takes up the majority of my collection. But I do listen to a diverse mix of songs. I like random pop, random metal, random rap, and so on. Who knows why certain random melodies appeal to me – they just do.

But one genre of music I definitely love, and am slightly embarrassed to admit, is love songs. The more heartbreaking the better, much like the sad movies I love. It seems that when we talk about love songs, people either love them or hate them. I used to switch from Triple J in the evenings to listen to Love Songs & Dedications. I couldn’t get enough of the old love songs on Easy Music Listening 1377 3MP (my first car only had am radio). I went through the discount bins at JB Hi Fi to find the sappiest romance mixes to add to my collection. I am that person.

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Shuffle that iPod Classic!

Following on from my post last week about my obsession with music, I undertook an experiment. I attached my iPod Classic (with its 4584 songs) to a speaker (using an actual cord because it was invented before Bluetooth), and I wrote down the first ten songs on shuffle… just to see how eclectic the mix would be. I must admit I was nervous… there’s a lot of crap on there… but I think it went pretty well. And here’s the big reveal, from 1 to 10.

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My obsession with music & playlists

iPod Classic

Everything I do has a soundtrack. I hate sitting in silence – be it in the car, eating dinner or working – if there’s no music playing, I’m just ever so slightly edgy.

I understand that plenty of people find it difficult to concentrate with music on – but I’m the opposite – I find it difficult to concentrate without it on. There are some situations where silence is required, but for me, they are very few and far between.

I consider my taste in music to be epic. And I consider my music collection to be extensive. Extensively epic, obviously (this is my blog, I can write what I want). Of course most of it sits in what one might call the ‘alternative’ sphere – and in that sphere I’m quite mainstream with a bit of quirk on the side. I don’t really do hip hop or rap or jazz or classical or metal or dance – my passion sits in what I might call light alternative. To demonstrate, here’s some of my favourites: The Living End, Birds of Tokyo, Bloc Party, Radiohead, Nirvana, The National, Muse, Ballpark Music, and the list goes on.

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Mixed Tapes – the technology has progressed but the concept stays the same

casette tape

Having my first year in Austria free meant I had a lot of time to devote to my many hobbies: dog walking, writing, exercising… but of course a lesser-known hobby of mine is making mixed tapes. And even if I do say so myself… I consider myself quite good at it.

I started off very young… mixing cassette tapes off the radio: sitting for hours in my room with a tape in deck… waiting patiently for my favourite songs to come on and pressing play at exactly the right moment (kids these days have no idea!). As I got older, I progressed to purchasing tapes and mixing them together on blank ones… and of course making custom-printed covers for them on the computer!

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Celebrating Hottest 100 Day – my favourite Aussie tradition

Australia_Day_2Australia Day has different meanings for different people. For indigenous Australians it has always been steeped in unpleasantness, but that’s not what I’m here to discuss. I’m here to tell you that Australia Day for me was never about the arrival or subsequent invasion of the British. For me, Australia Day has, at least from when I was a teenager, been about the Hottest 100.

Because I’m a simple little thing.

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