Just for shits and giggles, here's my favorite recent musical downloads:

Jefferson Starship "Find Your Way Back"
The Black Crowes- "Descending"
Triumph- "Magic Power"
Mariah Carey- "We Belong Together"
Guns N' Roses- "You Could Be Mine"
Afghan Whigs- "The Temple" (it's a cover of a song from Jesus Christ Superstar and yes, it rocks)
Badly Drawn Boy- "The Shining"
Led Zeppelin- "Your Time is Going to Come"

And "We Belong Together" is a great song.

Anyhoo, a friend and I were talking about what we've been listening to lately. I've been having trouble with that question lately as I don't really know what I've been listening to. Or there's nothing really that I've been listening to, I'm just listening to crap that I've downloaded, which, as you can see, is a bit all over the place. My friend, who is a musician, said that he's only been listening to the discs of his friends' band that were burned for him.

Which is when it occured to me that one of the things about all this new fangled music stuff is that in a way, it's making what we listen to more insular. Because a lot of people, like me, aren't really out there listening to new stuff that's out there in the pop culture landscape, but are mainly listening to stuff that they can find elsewhere. Which is great in a way- I have about eighteen hours worth of music on my computer, all of which are songs that I like. When I'm home, all I pretty much listen to is my mp3s off a computer. But I've lost a lot interest in checking out what's out there because I'm completely happy with what I can find online. Same with my friend- he's only checking out his friends' stuff.

Which is a great thing for music in a way in that there's more stuff out there and more stuff accessible but also really bad for music because it's so much harder to get anyone to care to give it a listen.