Musical Monday

I need music in my house. I use it to set the mood when I write, and to drown out the sound of my children playing video games, arguing, breaking things, cooking, etc. Considering my youngest child is now nine and the oldest at home is 24, I feel safe ignoring them. They're pretty self-sufficient. With the music loud enough, I can concentrate on my writing instead of them.

I use music at work, too. I'm back to running the food for space camp for a couple of months. I play music nice and loud in the cafeteria during meal times. Despite what the staff at work may think, there is method to my madness in choosing the playlist I do. It's meant to be fun and add to the mood. And yes, some of the music is meant to drive you insane. It's also meant to broaden your musical horizons. I play a bit of everything from charleston dance music to Andean flute music to popular Broadway tunes to tv show themes to pop songs to video game music.

My iTunes stats: 5798 items, 13.8 days, 20.29 G of music. I don't have enough yet...

Some of my recent acquisitions:

Unchained Melody: The Very Best of the Righteous Brothers I have a thing for old DooWop music and the 50s. These are some great songs. My copy looks a bit different, but I picked it out of the $5 bin at WalMart. Another bonus to buying the oldies and classical.

http://www.youtube.com/user/nmckaig Nick McKaig - I discovered this guy a few weeks ago. He is amazing. Everything you hear in one of his performances is him doing all the instruments, voices, whatever. I love his voice, too. I bought his album through the iTunes store and I'm thrilled with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtOvBOTyX00&ob=av2e Christina Perri: A Thousand Years - I'm late to the party. I'm not a fan of Twilight, not in the least. But I love this song. I bought Christina Perri's album through iTunes because I've enjoyed her songs when my daughter played them or when I caught them on the radio. She sings lyrical songs with an almost folk vibe.

http://www.televisiontunes.com/search.php - TV show themes! This site has a gazillion files to download of tv music. The quality is all over the place, but where else can you get your Bonanza fix or, my favorite, Buck Rogers opening credits music? I could spend hours on that site...

Do you write to music? What groups are your favorites? What have you discovered recently?