Shuffle mode

I listen to Pandora at work a lot. I have a bunch of different "stations" that are based off of artists that I like. Songs come on that are similar to the artist you choose and you can either like or dislike the song, which means you can either listen to it or skip it. I've found that the more I hit the "like" button on songs, the more I hear songs by that same artist over and over again. The problem is, no matter how many times I dislike a song, I can't seem to ever get rid of that artist altogether. And sometimes, like in the JJ Heller station I'm listening to right now (which always makes me think of Opinionated Friend), the artist is so unknown that they don't really know what to do on that station and play the same 6 artists over and over again. Or if it's a station, like David Crowder*Band, then they play music by guy bands and nothing by girl bands...Pandora is a little sexist like that.

The music that I'm listening to at any moment in time is usually a good hint to the mood that I'm in. There are songs that I specifically turn on when I'm feeling sad and want to cry. There are songs that I listen to when I'm mad at the world and just want the radio really, really LOUD! There are country music times, 80's pop times, indie-rock times, christian rock times, all Amy times and Christmas music times, just to name a few. There are times when I just need to be back in college or high school. There are times when I need to be introspective and quiet. Music is the indicator of my soul's needs at the moment.

Lately I've been plugging my I-Pod into my car's stereo system. For some reason I have two options with the stereo system. It will either play the songs from the first artist only or it will play the songs on shuffle. Being one who grew up with cassette tapes, I am REALLY used to listening to one song right after another as they were put on the album. One song will end and I can usually start singing along in the right key to the next song, pretty much in time. It's just how I am. So, the shuffle setting has been a little frustrating.

Until this morning. This morning I put my newly uploaded IPod in and was ready to be hit with whatever song shuffle choose...only to have it start with the first artist on the IPod and go through that artist's album song by song. Such a letdown! I wanted the randomness of the shuffle setting. I wanted to be thrown from introspective to high school to angry music to indie-rock, to alt-country to All Amy.

Which made me wonder if this is an indicator of my soul right now...all over the map, in shuffle mode. I kinda think it is.