Challenging music

Over the summer, my friend set a challenge to listen to all of her iPod’s music collection alphabetically. A through Z; every song. Every. Last. Song.

I recall admiring her dedication and I also recall thinking it must have been easy enough since she had less than 1,500 songs and I assumed they were all music of her choosing. I recall smiling as I realised that she was truly enjoying the challenge – and enjoying re-discovering her music. She made several comments about how others should do the same, and I was mildly interested in trying it, but not enough to actually take on the challenge.

Until 30 September 2010.

Yep, that morning I got to the office, plugged in my iPod, and instead of selecting “shuffle” I chose to play every song I had in alphabetical order. A through Z; every song.*

Every.

Last.

Song.

That was 130 days, 4,868 songs, and 313+ hours of playtime ago.**
It was fun.
It was boring.
It was mind-numbingly boring at times.
It was exciting.
And it was educational.

So, here are some fun little facts, figures, and musical musings for you to ponder:

  • Letter with the most song titles: “S” with 540 songs
  • Letter with the least song titles: “Z” with 3 songs
  • Number of songs starting with numerals (so, “1” but not One): 21
  • Number of artists: 452
  • Number of albums: 555
  • Number of genres: 34
  • Song I have the most versions or copies of: “N17” by The Saw Doctors (Six copies)

Would I do it again? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe? But I’m not willing to make a promise at this point!

Would I recommend that you do it? Absolutely! It really is interesting and entertaining – especially when you hear long-lost tunes.

* Actually, A-Z plus 0-9, because some started with numerals.
** To save me from complete madness, I opted to only attempt the challenge whilst at work which means that it took a bit longer to make my way through the collection than it would have otherwise.

3 Replies to “Challenging music”

    1. I’ve not removed any songs, but there are several that I will skip from now on.
      I have all of my music, Paul’s, my folks’, and one of my sister’s and her kids’ music. Most of it is pretty good, but some of the kids’ stuff (Sir Mix A Lot) sucks.
      I do like the idea of having an amazing variety of music so that if I take my iPod somewhere and someone wants a specific song, I’ll have it!
      I can hold up-to 40,000 songs, and want to get as close to that number as possible!

  1. i’m glad you took the challenge, and enjoyed it. There are times you wonder why you have some tracks. And there is definitely something about ‘having’ to listen to a particular track rather than choosing to that can be a pain. But it’s also an excellent alternative to the ‘shuffle’ button – and can come up with some truly random experiences!!

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