What does your music preferences say about you?

Recently, a music loving friend of mine convinced me that I needed to download an app called Spotify. I had never heard of Spotify. When I first heard the name I seriously thought it was like a key-finding service or something (wouldn't that be amazing, btw?). So, he explained to me what it was and I promptly downloaded it.
And promptly fell into love with it.

Then the free preview ended and I promptly forgot about it (#shortattentinospan).

Spotify is an app that allows you to stream music (for practically nothing) commercial free and without downloading it. You can gather "friends" on there and also listen to their playlists as well, which works out great for me because I hate making playlists (I know, weird. Am I the only one?).

Recently, I remembered how much I liked it and decided to go for it and pay the $10 a month for mobile streaming on my phone. Basically, I wanted to listen to what I wanted, when I wanted without commercials or annoying deejays. Pandora is great, and I will probably still use it regularly, but so far I like the music organization of Spotify and how I can search for one artist and listen to their entire album as much as want for, ahem, only $10/month. Cheeeaaap!

Anyway. The reason for this blog post is I didn't notice until recently that Spotify posts everything you listen to on your Facebook page*, which is fine, but it got me thinking. Sometimes music can be a personal thing! What I want to listen to is determined by so many different variables! My mood, what I'm doing, where I'm going... etc, etc, etc, they all dictate what kind of music I will be listening to that day.

I definitely do not have one favorite type of music and my tastes change every. single. day. It's kinda funny, but my tastes tend to change with the seasons too - for example, in the summer I listen to a lot more country, and in the winter I always go through an alternative phase.

Take yesterday for example, I listened to:

• The Civil Wars - while studying. This music is PERFECT for studying. It's not distracting, has just the right beat, and the music is gorgeous (don't try to deny it. They make beautiful music. Just saying...)


• Rihanna - usually I'm not a fan of top 40 music. I would rather listen to something a little bit more, uhhh, underplayed? But today? I was feeling it. We Found Love? Not too bad if you haven't heard it 34235674 times. After about a minute, I was on to something else.
  


• Bruno Mars - I love that man. Everything except for The Lazy Song, is top of the list for me. I love Runaway Baby, Count on Me and Marry You. All such good songs! I think I listened to that album about 10 times yesterday.
  


• Glee Christmas Album - yep. I admit it. I love me some Glee music. I don't watch the show (am I the only one???) but I love the music from it! On Mondays and Wednesdays when I work with C, she insists on Christmas music in the car and this is perfect.

• Everclear - How can you not love Everclear? They make me all happy inside. I'm also in a serious 90s phase right now. I cannot get enough. Give me some Goo Goo Dolls, Smashing Pumpkins (love), No Doubt (love even more), Cake, Weezer, DMB, Pearl Jam... Ok. I'll stop now. Seriously though, if you're an 80s or 90s child, try not to smile when listening to any of those!


• Oldies - Sometimes I swear I am a 50 year old trapped in a 30 year old body. Blame it on my dad. In fact, I DO blame it on my dad. I love the 60s and 70s. I can think of countless times I walked into the house to hear my dad blaring some sort of hippie music that he loved in the 60s or 70s. If I'm listening to the radio here in Des Moines, it is most likely on 93.3, our oldies station. I hate that they have begun to play 80s music though. It makes me cringe and I usually turn it off. Hear that, KIOA?? No. More. 80s. Please, I am begging you. Sincerely, a young fan of the oldies. (if anyone makes a joke about me calling myself young, I will never speak to you again. I mean it.)

So, where am I going with this? Music can tell you a lot about a person and give you a lot of insight into their personality. For me, it can tell you if I'm happy, sad, energetic... whatever. It can tell you if I want to be bothered or not. It can symbolize how easygoing or uptight I am. How outgoing I am feeling, or if I'm feeling shy. It really says a lot.

What kind of music do you listen to? What do you think it says about you? Are you a radio person? Ipod person? Pandora? Inquiring minds want to know!

*You can change the settings so that it does not post to your Facebook, but it kind of loses that comradery** of finding out you like the same music as some of your friends.

**is that spelled right? Merriam-Webster says yes, I think it looks funny