Tuesday, April 26, 2005

You Are What You Hear?

Users of digital music sharing system judge others by their playlists - A very interesting study done by Georgia Tech and PARC on the social phenomena around music (playlist) sharing and how it affects people's perceptions of each other.

From The Wesleyan Argus on the topic of "playlistism":
"Some people don’t have any Elliot Smith in their playlist. This means they’re not as brooding as they ought to be and they have no respect for the dead. Not the type of person you’d want to meet. Some people have crazy scary German bands. These people are usually bad-ass fascists or enjoy wearing mesh shirts. Or both. Either way, be careful. Some people have extensive collections of show tunes, often with accompanying karaoke-style instrumental tracks. All right, so maybe that one is only me, but you don’t know the thrill of signing Fiddler on the Roof in your underwear. Some people have obscure bands I’ve never heard of. These people are probably too cool for me and I’ll leave them alone until I have an iPod. Some people have a song called “Dead Baby Orgy Club.” I’m not sure how to respond to this one."

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