I listen to a lot of music.
Maybe this isn't sinking in yet. My iPod is literally bursting at the electronic seams from how many songs get rotated on it on a near-daily basis. With my recently-shortened attention span since graduating from college and general fear I might die without having heard Beck's entire discography, I listen to music as often as possible, whenever, wherever. I create new Pandora stations at work nonstop, download a disturbingly high number of songs on the weekends (at my peak it was over 200 songs. my peak, it should be noted, was last weekend), and generally tend to live life with my earbuds anchored safely in my ears.
I have a social life. I swear.
Music has charted my journey into growing up. You know the phrase, "soundtrack to my life?" I have soundtracks and playlists for every moment. Certain musicians define my age, my attitude at the time, and the environment around me. From the age of birth to 10 or so, my parents began my music education with The Beatles, Annie Lennox, Pet Shop Boys, Prince, Elton John, and Led Zeppelin. Not too shabby. Then I started moving myself in my own direction.
Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, singing off-key into my hairbrush at 11.
The Cure, Marilyn Manson, and Cradle of Filth, sullen and blackened-soul poetry writing at 13.
"Heather, I was at Best Buy and nobody there has heard of Paul van Dyk or Felix da Housecat." Getting my mom to buy me electronic DJ's at 15.
Liv Kristine from Leaves Eyes, made me believe in voices of angels on my 16th birthday.
Arcade Fire, the Holy Grail journey to graduation from high school, at 18.
The Smiths, lighting the first day and drive in California, at 20.
Depeche Mode, hello college girl who loves her '80s collection when she writes reports and does projects at 22.
This list barely begins to cover it, but that's the discography life for you. Is it perfect? Was my taste forever impeccable and beyond its years? Hell no. I listened to what I liked and my interests changed non-stop. Today I might like mellowing out to Massive Attack, tomorrow it might be some obscure record by Dimitri from Paris, or I might even put on some terribly guilty good Ke$ha pop.
You grow, evolve, change with music. I used to worry I wouldn't be able to hear all of it or enough of it to satisfy my insatiable need.
Then came Girl Talk.
Girl Talk is all of the best nights of your life rolled into 16 tracks. Every dance you ever got down to, every song you hummed or drunk karaoke'd. The mix you wished existed to make those high school dances so much less awkward and the one you won't ever forget. It's the contents of your iPod, your dream playlist, all of the songs you thought you forgot about, and the ones you never could.
Mixed together by Gregg Michael Gillis (who's a really cute guy that needs his face on more printed publications ASAP), each song is one big mashup of the most unlikely pairings. Lil Mama and Metallica? Missy Elliot and Nu Shooz? The Cranberries, M.I.A., Nirvana, and Kanye West all together now? Done, done, done. It works and more than just sounding great, it's the future of music to me. Hear everything all at once and take it in, but don't dwell on one hook for 4-5 minutes. Mix it up and keep it coming.
Once you go Girl Talk, you just don't go back.
Take a listen for yourself...
Love to you all,
Heather
