# Sequential song titles, or my iPod shuffle is totally awesome!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 14, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803 "2004-08-14T04:42:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803/1 "2004-08-14T04:42:35Z")

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I was listening to my iPod just now. I always have it on shuffle. The song that I was listening to was titled “A Storm is Coming,” from one of the _Lord of the Rings_ soundtracks. The next track to come up was titled “The Storm” by Gaelic Storm.

How neat is _that_???

I thought that was too incredible to keep to myself! Anyone else had an experience like this?

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**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803/2 "2004-08-14T05:30:26Z")

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My iPod seems to have a thing for segueing from dramatic, sweeping soundtracks straight into Monty Python novelty songs. Hard not to chuckle when you go from Peter Gabriel’s _Passion_ to “Sit on My Face and Tell Me that You Love Me.”

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**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803/3 "2004-08-14T05:47:44Z")

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I never used the shuffle until I found [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=267962) and now I’m hooked on it. I’d been using my iPod less and less over the past few months, but since I started using “shuffle” it’s like I have a whole new toy and a whole new music collection.

And I’m even more convinced that deja vu and similar things can just be explained away by the human brain’s desperation to find connections and similarities in everything. Because I _know_ that there is no inherent logic to the iPod’s shuffle feature, but I keep finding myself eerily convinced that there’s some kind of internal database it uses to group certain songs together. For instance, some memorable line-ups have been:

“Superman” by R.E.M.  
“Mesopotamia” by The B-52’s  
“Sailor Beat the Blood Out” by the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies  
(All bands from Athens, GA! How did it _know_ to play those in order?)

“Tell Me Why” by the Beatles  
“Don’t Know Why” by Norah Jones  
(Coincidence? I think not!)

“S.O.S.” by ABBA  
“Toxic” by Britney Spears  
“Can’t Help Loving That Man” by Bjork  
“Dream a Little Dream of Me” by the Beautiful South  
(It’s the gayest playlist possible from my music collection! And I didn’t even touch it!)

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**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2004, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sequential-song-titles-or-my-ipod-shuffle-is-totally-awesome/259803/4 "2004-08-14T06:29:35Z")

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Not iPod, but I have a classic rock playlist in Winamp. About half the songs are by the Eagles, the rest are by other bands. I set it to random, and wouldn’t you know it, it went through every Eagles song, skipping the others. Apparantly my playlist randomizer is an Eagles fan.
