Moody Tunes
When I was younger, I often noticed that the radio would play a song that reflected my mood, or something I’d been thinking about. (I did figure out that it was a selection effect; after all, I didn’t notice when the song didn’t match.)
Now, of course, we have iPods (and radio stations run like iPods), so it’s pretty random (or not).
Well, yeah, except for the additional selection effects. Not only is there the “I only notice when it’s noticable” effect, there’s the “skip to the next song when this one doesn’t match my mood” effect and the “start picking songs that match my mood using iTunes” effect (especially if I start using Party Shuffle to build an ad-hoc playlist).
This does mean that, at times, sorting my iTunes library by last played date will let me see what my moods have been like for the past few weeks. It also means that if you’re watching my iChat status message, you can sometimes tell what kind of mood I’m in. (One or two similar songs in a row? Probably shuffle play. Half a dozen angry ranty songs? I’m grumpy.)
