This has nothing to do with running. Well it might. It could. Wait, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that I dedicate this post to Yohn who had to put up with me for so long.
I'm a chronic song-repeater. When I hear a song I like - no, LOVE, like really really love - I tend to play it over and over and over (and over and over, much to the dismay of people I have lived with). If you were to go into my iTunes and look at my songs in order of play count, you would probably find a handful of songs with astronomical play counts, while the rest sit anywhere from 0-5. Those are the songs that I have fallen head over heels for, the ones that spark something inside my soul that says THIS SONG IS AWESOME AND FAR SUPERIOR TO OTHER SONGS WHY WASTE YOUR TIME ON OTHER SECOND-STRING, JUNIOR VARSITY MUSIC.
I think I can trace this back to the 6th grade when I became obsessed with "Build Me Up Buttercup". I heard it at the end of There's Something About Mary and couldn't stop thinking about it. At that time in my life there were no iPods and my CD collection consisted of Hanson, Spice Girls, and All That: The Album (which is awesome, check it out). The only way my 11-year old brain could figure out how to satisfy my need to listen to it was to watch it on some primitive music video viewing ..thing on VH1's website because I had not mastered the art of downloading music. I can remember the very moment when I discovered that I could watch the video online, the happiness that filled every crevice of my brain, the smile that spread across my face. It was like I was breaking a fast and eating everything in sight, except in this case I was filling my insatiable desire to listen to this song that I had been deprived of for so long. So I played the video. Over and over and over. When I went off to summer camp where no electronics were allowed, I sang it. Over and over and over. And when I finally got my hands on the soundtrack to There's Something About Mary (which is awesome, check it out), I played it over and over and over.
WATCH IT AND SMILE AND BE THANKFUL FOR HOW
EASY IT IS TO LISTEN TO THE MUSIC YOU LOVE
Fortunately, or un-, this habit has stayed with me since. I can remember trying to catch the song of the moment on the radio so I could record it with my tape player. I would then spend the next several hours playing, rewinding, playing, rewinding - all the while cursing that half of my time was taken up by overshooting and trying to find that perfect spot where the song started. Thank goodness for the 21st century for allowing me to continue my fixation on single songs wherever I went.
College saw Perfect Gentleman and Poker Face climb my iTunes play count chart (until one of my roommates titled a facebook album "I'll cry if Jessie plays Poker Face again"). And lately it has been Blurred Lines - by Robin Thicke, feat. T.I. and Pharrell. I just.cannot.stop.listening. These songs are laced with crack. I have found that the only way to stop this monster is to let it run its course, something I'm totally okay with. I listen to the song on repeat and eventually I'm not listening to it as much anymore and it winds up in the land of overplayed songs, AKA my running playlists. Which brings me to another point..
Running is my outlet for listening to songs over and over and over without embarrassing myself or annoying others. I once did a run only listening to Africa (will forever be on repeat). So there - my secret's out. And let me finish by saying sorry I'm not sorry that I listen to songs on repeat.
