The Soundtrack

Once upon a time, I always wrote to the radio.  I had my boom box plugged in and turned on throughout elementary school and on through college.  I typed term papers to the beat of Expose and then Depeche Mode, onto Prodigy, Nine Inch Nails, Chemical Brothers, Aphex Twin, Basement Jaxx.

I wrote to the radio because I didn't have to deal with flipping over tapes and albums or messing around with buttons every time a CD skipped.  I never knew what I was going to get, but I was certain that I would like most of it.

Then I started to hate radio (exceptions: Big Sonic Heaven on Indie, some KXLU shows that I haven't been able to hear since the Christian station took over and most of the weekend DJ mix shows in LA).  This, of course, made writing more difficult.  I tried writing along with the sound of the stations on my digital cable.  That worked for a bit, until I realized that the rotation was just as limiting as terrestrial radio.  I tried writing to the sounds emanating from my iTunes, but I didn't want to deal with creating playlists and I wanted to have that element of surprise.

Now I'm onto Pandora and it seems to be working out alright  I based my station on Hercules & Love Affair, the only band to emerge in 2008 that I flat-out, completely love.  That said, I get a good mix of Erlend Oye and the Human League, which makes me happy.  I have no complaints yet.

Update: Uh, it seems like Pandora repeats quite a bit as well.  That said, I'm making more stations.