Random

Music has officially become a weird thing for me as I'm getting older. When I was 14, I had a cassette tape of Green Day's Dookie that I practically wore through. In fact, I had it timed exactly right so that if I hit the auto-reverse on my Walkman during the right moment of "She," it'd flip to the exact beginning of "When I Come Around." I always hated its predecessor, "Pulling Teeth."

When I was that old, I fed off music. I couldn't get enough of it. And up until a few years ago, I never thought I'd ever grow out of that phase. I guess it's starting to hit me.

There was once a time when I had to cart 35 CDs around with me everywhere I went because there was always something in particular that I'd need to hear on a certain drive. The iPod changed that for the better, although now having my entire music collection at my disposal at any time has provided an overwhelming upgrade to the Walkmans of old. With the birth of iTunes came another obsession: following my play counts and the "last played" feature. I love checking back to see what I was listening to last year at this time (Diplo remixes, M.I.A.'s mixtape "Piracy Funds Terrorism," and The Beatles' "Rubber Soul,") or the last time I listened to Radiohead's "The Bends" in its entirety (Jan. 27, 2012, from 3 to 4 p.m., presumably after school in my classroom.) But, as I scroll through my Top 25 played list, and what I've been listening to mostly over the past few years, it's been random.

I typically rock the shuffle feature on iTunes lately. Contrary to 10 years ago, sometimes I actually want it to be quiet when I'm working or chillin' out. While living at various college houses with friends, I can never remember silence, nor having the thought of wanting it to be more quiet. And, when I do want some background music that I can just ignore while I'm working, it tends to come from the shuffle mode. I have so much crap in my iTunes that it's almost like listening to a legitimate "everything but country" mix radio station. And thanks to iTunes' shuffle filter (so as not to land on a 3 minute Grateful Dead tuning track) and HP's dashboard controls, I don't even have to multitask out of my lesson plans or browsing session when I skip tracks.

There's nothing like that forgotten oldie that comes on, or when iTunes magically happens to select the perfect song that you never would have thought to play. I never thought I'd come full circle on the digital music thing, but it's certainly changed the way I consume music these days.