Other people’s music

Like many of you, I usually spend a good portion of my day wearing headphones and choosing music; clicking buttons on an MP3 player, scrolling through my computer’s iTunes, fiddling with Last FM and slotting CDs into the mouths of players. Yesterday I took the headphones off to conduct a serious piece of social research (i.e. the batteries went in my MP3 player) and decided only to listen to the music I came across accidentally.

Train (morning): Small child singing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.’ Well, he’s never going to win American Idol.

eMusic Europe office (morning): eMusic’s European office is on the second floor of a central London building. The area of pavement directly below us is a favoured place for motorcycle couriers to congregate and eat pizza from the Italian café over the road. I have the window open and can hear them playing the Plain White T’s’ ‘Hey There Delilah.’ I downloaded this teen pin-up of a song a while back on the strength of Joe’s blog post and fell for it in a slightly slushy, crushy way; it arouses the same kind of feelings I had towards Christian Slater when I was 13. Then the couriers play it again. And again. And again. Quite relieved when they get involved in a ‘who can rev the loudest’ competition.

YMCA shop (lunchtime): Feeding my thrifting addiction and listening to Magic FM. They’re playing Kim Carnes’ ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’ I have a slight problem with 1980s soft rock, that is, I like it more than is seemly. I thought I liked this, but memory has deceived me. Kim sings like she’s swallowed an ashtray, stretching for notes, horse and cracking. It’s painful and makes me cough in sympathy.

Outside wine bar (evening): Not missing music because I’m talking to my friend Vicky (she works in Westminster and always has great political gossip). Then a busker appears with an electric violin and a truly deadbeat amp. We have to move because the sound is so distorted.

Train home (night): Drunken woman singing… something. Well, she’s never going to win American Idol.

Home (night): Stay true to experiment and let boyfriend choose music. He picks Shit and Shine’s ‘Jealous of Shit and Shine.’ They’re like a less psychedelic, sillier Boredoms. One of them also plays with noise rockers Todd. Track titles include ‘Fisherman’s Jumper’ and ‘It’s a Pentagram.’

I had hoped to discover new things at random (After all, I first heard Kano played by a bloke on a bus), but it was actually an exercise in aural pain. Shit and Shine were a great discovery, but since the CD was in my house, being enthused over by my boyfriend, I’d have found them sooner or later anyway.

I bought some batteries this morning.