What's On Your iPod?

"What's on your iPod?" was a popular question to ask in fluff pieces about five years ago when iPods were all hip and trendy.  I still wouldn't mind getting an iPod.  Seriously.  A 160G hard drive on the iPod classic, compared to the 4G memory on my current MP3 player.  To borrow the meme, with 160G, I could finally have ALL OF THE MUSIC!!

Anyway, it's a question I've been asking myself because, as previously blogged, I finally have an iPhone.  I seem to have spend an evening doing the thing that everyone I know who gets an iPhone does:  make a few purchases on iTunes to see what this iTunes thing is all about.  I already know what this iTunes thing is all about, because I've been buying stuff on iTunes for about four years now.  Granted, I didn't have any kind of i-Device that I could download those songs to.  But, my place is small enough that I can run a cord across my living room and plug my computer into my stereo.  Besides, you can play iTunes purchases on a regular MP3 player.  It's a simple, but annoying process of burning your purchases to an audio CD, and then ripping that CD into MP3s.

But now that I don't have to do that, I find I've been loading my iPhone with my past four years worth of iTunes purchases.

And since I've always believed that music is no fun unless it's shared, I thought I'd do a quick blog sharing a small sampling of my iTunes purchases.

First thing I bought on iTunes was ROAR!: Cloverfield Overture, from Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino.  ROAR! is the end credit music that Giacchino created for Cloverfield, and when I saw Cloverfield, that piece of music blew my mind.  It's such an amazing piece, and a wonderful homage to the music from all those classic Godzilla films.  I wasn't the only one who thought it was mindblowing, and popular demand eventually saw the piece released exclusively to iTunes.




And speaking of Giacchino, the film he won an Oscar for was for the Disney/Pixar hit Up.  The soundtrack to Up was released only on iTunes, and being a fan of Pixar and Giacchino's, had to get it.  Here's the most famous cut from the Up soundtrack, called "Married Life."




So a few years back, in 2009, my hero, "Weird Al" Yankovic, decided to finally experiment with digital distribution.  As he pointed out, when he records his albums, he does his original songs first, then waits to find out whatever's current and popular to parody.  Sometimes, his original songs sit on the shelf for a year or so before he finishes the album.  Rather than let them sit, he decided to release them digitally.  The result with his 2009 EP Internet Leaks.  My favourite cut on Internet Leaks has to be "Skipper Dan," about a promising young actor who heads out to Hollywood to make it big...but the only job he can get is playing Skipper Dan on Disneyland's Jungle Cruise ride.  Pathos in a Weird Al song...whoda thunkit?




I've found that iTunes has become a great repository for TV theme songs.  If you like that 20-second clip in the intro to your favourite TV show, you can find the whole 3-minute song on iTunes for $0.99.  I like The Big Bang Theory.  I like Barenaked Ladies.  Why not get the theme for The Big Bang Theory?  When CTV first started showing The Big Bang Theory five nights a week, I used to wonder what the music they played in the promos was.  Then I bought the whole thing on iTunes and discovered that the music is actually the theme song's bridge.



And speaking of The Big Bang Theory, let's talk about New Girl.  When I first saw New Girl, it kind of struck me as being The Big Bang Theory in reverse.  Like The Big Bang Theory, New Girl has a cast of four main characters.  However, on New Girl, it's the one woman who's the socially awkward geek, and the three guys who are normal and well-adjusted by society's standards.

The theme song stuck out for me because of a borderline fourth-wall-breaking gag in the pilot episode.  In an attempt to lift her spirits, Jess (the socially awkward geek) sings a little song.  The song is a couple of lines from the show's theme song.  At which point, one of the guys turns to her, and with shock and disbelief in his voice asks, "Did you just write yourself a theme song?"

Well, it was clever enough to get me to drop $0.99 on iTunes.




And that's just a small sampling of what I've got.  Maybe I'll do this again with some other tunes in the not-too-distant future, when again I'm just goofing around on a lazy Sunday morning.