miTunes

Now here's an unbelievably ignorant comment for you:

I don't like most black people not because of their skin color, but because I don't like hip-hop and dancing. I don't like most women because I don't like shopping and romantic comedies. I do have female and black friends, however, because they don't belong to those cultures; they belong to my culture, which involves sci-fi, anime, and board games.

ScientistMother has already done an awesome job of ripping this comment to shreds, so I won't bother. But seeing as I described myself on that thread as "a white chick who loves (good) hip hop and board games and romantic comedies and shopping and sci-fi, but hates dancing and doesn't really get anime and likes square-toed boots more than pointy shoes", I've decided to segue seamlessly (or not) into a wee discussion of my musical tastes.

When I first came over from the UK I brought my favourite CDs in a folder. They reflected my taste at the time - almost all British Indie "four white guys with guitars and drums" music, with the occasional Chemical Brothers, Finlay Quaye, Fatboy Slim or Propellerheads album thrown in.

I'm glad to say that my tastes have diversified since then, thanks mostly to Mr E Man. He has a very eclectic music collection and introduced me to some great new bands*. He also has several friends who go out of their way to find new music, and then evangelically get the rest of us to listen to it too.

So, my budding iTunes library now has the following genre breakdown:

Acoustic: 14
Alternative & Punk: 254 (old habits die hard)
Blues & RNB: 6 (I have more CDs to be imported as soon as I get them back from my sister-in-law)
Country: 22 (previously a big no-no for me, but there is some good stuff out there!)
Electronica & Dance: 77
Folk: 21 (see Country)
Hip-Hop / Rap: 77
Jazz: 9 (still learning)
Pop: 86
Rock: 340 (see Alternative & Punk)
World: 23

Hey, can I turn that into a meme?!

This year's favourites:

Dusty Foot Philosopher by K'naan. Mr E Man saw K'naan at a music festival this summer and came back saying "you HAVE to hear this guy". He's in Canada as a refugee from Somalia, and incorporates his life story into his music. The whole album is great, but this is a stand-out.



(Mr E Man also brought back an album of didgeridoo music, which he admitted did not sound as good sober as it did when he was dancing to it at the festival).

Delhi to Dublin - Celtic / bhangra fusion. Seriously. This was the only clip I could find with decent sound, they're mostly a live band. I've now missed seeing them TWICE due to circumstances outside of my control.



Mao Tse Tung Said by the Alabama 3. I think these guys have been around for a while - they did the title track for The Sopranos - but I've only just got into them. Incredibly catchy! Let me hear some of that sweet muthafuckin' acid house country music!



And finally an old favourite that is in all my playlists - Good Girl Gone Bad by The Herbaliser feat Wildflower. I got totally obsessed with this tune the first time I heard it and played it like ten times in a row. I wanted to walk down the aisle to this song at our wedding, but Mr E Man wouldn't let me. We went with Here, There and Everywhere by the Beatles instead. We seriously considered having U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For as the first dance, but sanity and decorum prevailed and we chose Not Fade Away by the Stones instead.

Anyway. Enjoy.

(If the embedded video won't play or isn't visible (it's not from YouTube and didn't show up in the preview), here's a link)

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*on an early date, he took me to this little live music bar that looked like nothing from the outside but was hoppin' inside. There was an amazing jazz band playing, so we ended up staying until about 1 am. At that point the band were still going strong, and Mr E Man confessed that he'd been hoping they would either suck or finish early so he could take me home (for the first time) instead! We'd been talking about my musical tastes, best concert experiences etc, so he said "if you like we can go to my place and listen to some U2". "OK!" says the smitten English girl. When we got there he spent ages looking through his CD collection. "It doesn't have to be U2", I said. He replied with "Um, yeah, I don't have any".

This was also the night of the classic "This drink will put me over the limit so I can't drive you home, but as it happens this bar is only one block from my apartment". Just after we arrived at said live music venue. Yeah. I married a smooth mover.