Day 259

When Stars Align

It's sad how little I have to write these days. It's not because I don't want to or am bored with doing it. I simply don't have anything to say anymore. Nothing interesting enough, I guess.

I feel like writing tonight, though, so go to the bathroom now while you have a chance. This might take a while. It's going to be epic, you just wait and see.

----------

I'm going to be really freaked out on the day that 'N Sync is played on KOOL 105, the oldies station. They're starting to play '70 stuff, which is a mere heartbeat away from playing some Guns N' Roses or—god forbid—Paula Abdul; you know, all the stuff that came out around the time I was born.

But honestly, if 'N Sync makes it into the definitive music collection of my generation, I would actually be okay with that. Sure they're kind of lame, can't dance very well (watch Dancing With The Stars recently?), and mostly have higher voices than Hilary Duff. But so what? Regardless of those things, they were a worldwide phenomenon. I firmly believe that if they had stayed together for another decade or had put out a few more albums during their time together, they would have been the second coming of The Beatles, the boy band of the '60s. According to this wikipedia list, they really didn't sell all that many albums, but they also only had 3 original studio albums compared to The Beatles' 18 in the US [source].

Please, if you have it handy, start listening to Celebrity right now (just because that's what I'm listening to right now. If you've got No Strings Attached, I actually recommend that more highly). Now get over the fact that N' Sync is "so last millennium" and that most of their songs were heavily overplayed on TRL. Just forget all of that. Now try to tell me honestly that there wasn't a single song in there that you didn't want to wiggle in your seat to, or you didn't close your eyes at some point and try to belt out some sultry falsetto tune with real feeling ("I been sittin' here/ can't getchoo off my mind/ tried my best to be a man and be strong..."). It's impossible, you can't tell me that. I even bet that more than one of you actually got up and did a Michael Jackson kick-n-spin.

You know, we can be as embarrassed as we want about our musical history, but there had to have been a reason that we were drawn to it in the first place. There had to be something about that stuff for it to have been so damn popular in its day. I recently listened to Kris Kross for the first time since I was about 10 years old, and I thought "Man, this shit sucks." Well, Jump (Extended Mix) is actually still pretty bomb, but the rest was tough to get through. But after taking another look at it, from the eyes (ears might be more appropriate here) of my 10 year old self, I remembered why I liked it so much: two of my peers were rapping about staying up all hours of the night, sneaking into clubs, partying with grownups, and catching some fine little ladies' attention. All of this right around the first instances of boy-girl parties, dating (hand holding was optional, kissing only allowed during spin-the-bottle), and middle school was on the horizon (where all the hot chicks are!).

Then for some reason it became unpopular to like them. Just like that, before I knew it, nobody liked Kris Kross anymore, and they had left me in the dust. I was still a fan. When I finally caught up with reality, I remember turning to Kris Kellogg (a 5th grade friend of mine with an awfully coincidental name given the current topic) and saying, "I can't believe I used to listen to Kris Kross. I'm so embarrassed." I was lying. I was just trying to cover my tracks in case I ever let it slip that I still liked them after their fall from grace.

He responded, "It's okay, don't worry about it. We all used to listen to them."

Hot dog! He hit the nail on the head. He was absolutely right. We ALL used to listen to them. So if you're ever embarrassed about having listened to (or still listening to) some bands that it's cliché to hate, just remember, the person sitting across from you or in the car next to yours probably used to blast it from their Diskman, too.

So I say own up to your musical tastes, past and present. Whether or not you fit into the typical demographic for a particular artist shouldn't matter. They created that music to entertain people, and by golly, you're going to let it entertain you! We ALLLLLLL listened to 'N Sync at one time or another, and whether or not you enjoyed what you heard, you're a part of their legacy and they're a part of ours. Our generation embraced them, were defined by them, let them change the landscape of music forever, and it's time we acknowledge them! They deserve it. They deserve to not be criticized or hated in hindsight.

At the very least, they deserve to be on KOOL 105 when the time comes.

-----

Now, as I said earlier, I am in fact listening to them at this very moment. This might be kind of surprising after the preceding rant, but I'm actually not a huge fan of theirs. I can't seem to get into any of their non-singles, but I do enjoy the occasional romp around the room while waving bye, bye, bye.

The reason I'm listening to them is because I'm on a mission to listen to every song in my iTunes library. I've been on this mission for 6 months now since I got my new computer and loaded a brand new iTunes onto it. I have the library sorted by play count, and every time I open the program, I scroll down to below the songs I've already listened to and double-click at a random spot and start listening. Rarely do I seek a particular song or artist out, and almost never will I listen to it if it's already been played once.

Today, I randomly selected the middle of an album by My Morning Jacket, and 'N Sync just happened to be the next artist after them.

I currently have exactly 11000 songs in my library, and I have listened to 3366 of them at least once, or approximately 9 days 6 hours worth of music. I have been charting my progress for the last few months, and I have been banking almost 1000 songs a month. That's like 3 whole albums per day. Craaaaaaazy.

I originally thought that this was going to be a good way for me to get re-acquainted with my music collection and find all of those hidden gems I forgot about, but I've realized otherwise since. I'm pretty notorious for being a digital pack rat. I don't throw music away unless the album is incomplete or it was a particularly terrible recording (CD was skipping, lots of digital hiccups, etc.). So pretty much every album I've ever downloaded or purchased has made it onto this list.

I tell you, some days I really regret having made this goal. The days that Mariah Carey comes up are particularly tough ones. I've started to listen to only one or two of her songs each time I open iTunes and then quickly move on. That way I'll never have to spend three consecutive hours listening to her vomit into my ears. I'm chiseling away at that shit, slowly but surely.