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May 16, 2008
Yeah Whatever: My Life in Music (with video)
The meme I provided last time required you to answer questions about your life with random songs from your itunes program.... I thought, why not choose the answers, from the songs I like best? I have friends who never rate stuff, but I do--I assign one star and five stars and there are even songs I hate so much that I uncheck them from the program, though I don't delete them because I want to preserve the integrity of the album they're on.
So I took Wednesday's questions and devised a new meme. For this one, you answer the questions by going through your top-rated songs and finding ones whose titles actually help answer the question, more or less.
And because my favorites are weighted heavily in favor of 80s pop, some of it a tad obscure, I've included videos for some of the stuff that never hit the top 40.... also videos I really love. For instance, I love Robert Smith in the bear suit, but just about everyone who watched MTV in the late 80-early 90s saw the "Why Can't I Be You?" video.
Anyway. The videos do not provide the answers to the questions; the titles do.
1. How would you describe yourself?
True to Live (Roxy Music)
2. What is your motto?
Express Yourself (Madonna)
3. What do you think about often?
The Politics of Dancing (Re-Flex)
4. What do you think of your family?
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pink Floyd)
5. What do your parents think of you?
Not a Virgin (Poe)
6. What do you think of your friends?
Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
7. What do your friends think of you?
She Talks in Stereo (Gary Myrick & the Figures)
8. What do you think of your best friend?
Why Can’t I Be You? (The Cure)
9. What is your best friend’s theme song?
Don’t Feel Sorry for Lover Boy (Scritti Politti)
The song is also called "Oh Patti," but this title is funnier. One of the first conversations I had with my BFF CSV involved her explaining why she reviled the song "Everybody's Working for the Weekend" by Loverboy.
to my knowledge, Scritti Politti is the only band with a song titled "Jacques Derrida," and a band name that comes from the writings of Antonio Gramsci. That's not why I love SP: I love them for the perfect pop songs Green Gartside produces. White Bread Black Beer is one of my favorite albums, even if it does have a couple of really crappy songs on it, because the great songs are SO great.
And hey! I just noticed that in this video, someone is typing, on a TYPEWRITER! An IBM Selectric, complete with one of those rolling balls instead of daisy wheel. Truth be told, I LOVED my old selectric--they were great machines for their time, one of the best typewriters ever.
10. What do your coworkers think of you?
Blasphemous Rumours (Depeche Mode)
11. What do you like in a guy/girl?
Doot-Doot (Freur)
I'm not talking about those dreadful crimped mullets.... I'm referring to the indefinable, ineffable something expressed by a meaningless phrase.
12. What do you think when you see the person you fancy?
I Think I Love You (Voice of the Beehive, covering The Partridge Family)
13. What do you want to tell the person you fancy?
Let’s Go Crazy (Prince)
14. What is your hobby/interest?
Sound and Vision (and creativity, David Bowie)
Fashion (and textiles, David Bowie)
Life on Mars (and on earth, David Bowie)
Suffragette City (and feminism in general, David Bowie)
15. What is your biggest fear?
Love Will Tear Us Apart Again (Joy Division)
16. What is your biggest secret?
A Question of Lust (Depeche Mode)
17. If your heart could talk what would it say?
Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? (Lloyd Cole and the Commotions)
18. What is your theme song?
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths)
19. What do you want to be when you grow up?
So Alive (Love and Rockets)
20. What song will they play at your wedding?
I Feel Loved (Depeche Mode)
21. What will they play at your funeral?
Young Americans (David Bowie)
22. What is your mood right now?
John Barleycorn Must Die (Traffic)
23. What will you repost this as?
Yeah Whatever (Moev)
24. What does your future look like?
God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
I tag everyone.
Posted by holly at May 16, 2008 9:14 AM
I think I'm the last person in the world who doesn't have an Mp3 player...
It's more fun, I think, to try to find songs that match the questions than to just leave it to chance.
I don't own an Mp3 player and have no real plans to get one, but loading itunes onto my laptop has certainly changed the way I listen to music. I spent much of January loading every last album I own of music composed after 1900 (in other words, I didn't load classical music) onto an external hard drive (because otherwise, there wouldn't be room on my laptop for anything but music). I almost always keep itunes set on shuffle and listen to whatever comes along. I hardly ever listen to albums proper, though sometimes I get a hankering to hear one certain thing. And it's so much easier to do it with my computer than to use my stereo. I totally dig it.
The Politics of Dancing ... excellent choice! Thanks for the flashback.
Glad you enjoyed it, LG--it is a great song. I wish I had bought the Re-Flex album when it was reissued in the 90s--copies now sell for about 400 bucks. Which is a bit pricey for my blood.