iRant

My iPod's shuffle function isn't random: it favors some bands and ignores others. Out of the 4300+ songs I currently have stored on it, less than 20 are They Might Be Giants songs, and yet I get to hear at least one of them every day; the same is true for Fugazi (one a day, usually one of three songs out of thirteen total). By contrast, I never hear Bauhaus, Bob Dylan, Iron and Wine, Gastr Del Sol or Grandaddy (one album each); I never hear Elliot Smith or The Shins (two albums each).

Thankfully, there's a new New York Times article, iTunes, a Hard Drive and (Just Maybe) a Brain, that confirms I'm not alone in thinking the iPod is biased:

"Dan Cedarholm, a Web designer in Salem, Mass., insists that his iPod has a predilection for the indie punk band Fugazi. Even though he only has two of the band's albums stored on his 'vintage' 5-gigabyte device, the band seems to dominate his iPod to a degree wildly disproportionate to the amount of space it occupies on his player's memory, he said.
'It is truly bizarre,' said Mr. Cedarholm, who no longer likes Fugazi. 'Before, it was this hidden gem, and when I heard them I would be like, 'Oh yeah. Fugazi. Cool.' '
Now he hits the Fast Forward button.
Mr. Cedarholm has contemplated removing all Fugazi songs from his iPod, but he said he fears that 'the baton will get passed' to some other band, like his beloved Pixies, "and God help me if I wind up hating them too."