Its all in the attitude

So yesterday we were in the car, heading home from another sublime Trader Joe's run..  

We bought one of these for dinner tonight (don't scoff.. they're delicious)  and picked up a few other treats for later in the week, most of which we've already started eating.  

Car rides offer a great opportunity to explore music so I broke out the trusty iphone,  and fired up Shazam

Shazam, if you don't know it, is a music identifying program, that identifies songs from 10+ second clips.  This is a complete lifesaver for those of us who can't leave the car before we know what that song we just heard was.  I can't tell you how much fun I'm having with this thing.  If I didn't already love my iPhone, this would have been enough to make me fall in love with it all by itself.  It works great, even identifies cover versions reliably.

Now a week ago, when i started this mess, I spent 1/2 hour doing my first listen to the top 10 in the hot 100, and I made notes  on what i thought.  Most of which were very snotty.

This, for instance was from the first listen I gave to the top 10:

Lady GaGa Featuring Colby O'Donis - Just Dance

Just stop.. really.  I couldn't take more than 72 seconds before I had to turn it off.

So yesterday we're riding in the car, and a song comes on and I say  "what is this? I like it?",  and i turn on the tag feature in Shazam, point it at the speaker,  and 10 second later, I learn it is.. surprise...  "Just Dance".  I thought it was energetic and fun.

This is not the first time in my life, that not knowing what something was improved my opinion of it.  (For about a decade, I liked Sinead O'Connor songs only when I didn't know they were her.)  and it suggests that my 'open mind for music' needs a little work.  It also suggests from here on out that i should try and do blind listens and see what I really think.

The next song, on the same station, was Prince - "When Doves Cry".  Purple Rain was absolutley HUGE in my senior year of  high school (a very very long time ago), and I've always liked it.    So i'm listening to the song, and making fun of the lyrics (which are silly in places), and I realized that if I had applied my current level of scrutiny to music, back when I was younger, I never would have liked anything.    So I'm going to try and take a more detached listening approach, and see how I react to stuff before I start digging into it, and see if i like things more.

Anyway, I'm off to do some household maintenance, and then going to see "Milk" with a few friends, and then home to eat Tofurkey.   Don't knock it till you've tried it.