I am one Pantera's Box you do NOT want to open!

I have recently discovered two things:

1. Pandora.com

It creates radio stations for you out of preferences that you consciously and unconsciously choose through the Music Genome project. Through this program, I can hear all of the songs I want to hear whenever I want to. For now, I listen to my Waterdeep Radio, which includes most worship-type music I enjoy.

2. I don't know what I like.

I have realized throughout the last 10 years or so that I don't really know what I like. I convince myself that I like what I am familiar with, that I like what others around me who I respect like, that I like what is opposite of what I used to think that I liked, etc. However, it is very hard for me to pinpoint what I actually like.

For instance, when listening to Pandora.com or even the radio on my way home from work, I struggle to distinguish whether or not I choose to listen to a song because I like it or simply because I find it familiar. Like many oldies, or the worship songs we sing at church.

Tim has made many Cd's for me over the last 10 years. I struggle to decide, in retrospect, what songs I actually like, what songs I am simply used to, what songs I think I like because Tim likes them and he knows more "good" music than I do, what songs I like because they are not the songs I am used to, etc.


So, how do I know what I like? I could come up with a list of things I know that I know that I like (Katy, homemade mashed potatoes with gravy, Rocketman, etc.) and a list of things that I know that I know that I don't like (gratuitous horror movies, too much of the same-textured food in a meal, having diarrhea, etc.) and try to determine factors that have led me to those conclusions. Then, using those factors, I could determine whether or not I like the things that I think that I like (Oldies, Numbers, reading, etc.). Maybe, I could study what connoisseurs think I should like and I'll like that. Maybe, I'll like things negatively - I'll think of all the things I used to like that I don't want to like anymore as well as the people I think I don't like and the things that they like and I'll choose to like opposite things.


P.S. When did I stop listening to all of my Rap Cd's and start listening to music that other people group into "Country" sub genres?