honesty in playlists
Status update: Trying to get over the flu, doubtful that I ever will, feeling that I should say something about Obama and Rev. Wright, unable to do so. The most I can handle today is a thought or two about Chip Kidd’s playlist (as shared on Dwight Garner’s NYT “Paper Cuts” blog).
Thought 1: Can’t a blog about books be just about books?
Thought 2: Has anyone ever given an honest answer to the question that’s implicit or explicit in posts like this: “What are you listening to?” Anyone over thirty, anyway? Is it really possible to resist the temptation to calculate the proper degree of hipsterosity? I mean, if you’re over thirty — or, in my case, WAY over thirty — you can’t just choose a bunch of songs available only on college bands’ MySpace pages, you have to choose some older stuff — but if you choose only older stuff you’ll look out of it. You also have to be properly eclectic, drawing on different genres, even if you’ve not actually been listening to different genres lately.
The what-I’m-listening-to thing always strikes me as aspirational rather than documentary. It’s really not “what I’m listening to” but rather “what I would be listening to if I were actually as cool as I want you to think I am.”
I think you are missing the true dynamic of “what I’m listening to” lists. They are a device that people use to bind themselves to listening to the music they aspire to listen to.
— Bryan · Mar 19, 04:47 PM · #
feeling that I should say something about Obama and Rev. Wright, unable to do so.
Please give it another shot. I’d love to hear your take on it (more on Obama’s speech than the Wright pseudo-scandal).
— Michael · Mar 20, 03:26 PM · #