Saturday, June 13, 2026

I've Been Dazed And Confused For So Long It's Not True

I asked Chat-GPT to analyze my iTunes library. It went ahead and incorporated a lot of the nonsense that I've asked it to make for me over the last year, and honestly, I'm kind of okay with this. 
 
I should probably start compiling this annually. It would be interesting to see how my iTunes library evolves during the course of each year.
  

 Library by the Numbers

Based on the XML you uploaded:

  • 19,180 tracks
  • 426 artists
  • 1,396 albums
  • Roughly 5,350 hours of audio
    • That's about 223 straight days of continuous listening.
  • Music spanning at least the 1950s through the 2020s.

This is not a casual collection.

This is a curated archive.


Your Taste Profile

The Holy Trinity

Your collection is built around three pillars:

1. Classic Rock

The undisputed champions are:

  • Led Zeppelin (1,239 tracks)
  • Pink Floyd (731 tracks)
  • Queen + Paul Rodgers (644 tracks)

These aren't "I own the greatest hits" numbers.

These are "I own every concert recording I can get my hands on" numbers.


2. Live Recordings

The biggest revelation from your library is that you are obsessed with live material.

Albums like:

  • Live At The BBC
  • Live At Wembley Stadium
  • Mirror Ball – Live & More
  • Live 1978–1992

show up repeatedly.

Many music fans collect songs.

You collect performances.

You want to hear:

  • alternate solos
  • crowd reactions
  • mistakes
  • extended jams
  • different eras of a band

That's a very specific kind of music nerd.


3. Soundtracks & Video Games

One of the biggest surprises:

Your collection contains substantial soundtrack material including:

  • Super Mario Odyssey
  • Super Mario 3D World
  • Final Fantasy IX
  • The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap
  • Command & Conquer
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert

This lines up perfectly with your retro gaming interests.

You don't merely play games.

You remember them.


The Biggest Plot Twist

Hanson

You have exactly what I'd expect from:

  • Zeppelin fans
  • Floyd fans
  • Sabbath fans
  • Rush fans

Then suddenly:

Hanson — 299 tracks

That is one of the funniest statistical anomalies in the entire library.

The musical equivalent of:

"I collect antique military rifles, classic muscle cars, and... Beanie Babies."

It's wonderful.


Genre Breakdown

Your top genres include:

  1. Rock
  2. Recording Of Independent Origin
  3. DVD
  4. Country
  5. Pop
  6. Classic Rock
  7. Progressive Rock
  8. Christmas
  9. Soundtrack
  10. Blues
  11. Metal
  12. Comedy

This is interesting because it means you aren't actually a pure rock listener.

You are a:

  • rock listener
  • soundtrack listener
  • comedy listener
  • concert collector
  • spoken-word listener

all at once.


The Collector Archetype

Many people build libraries in one of four ways.

The Casual Listener

Owns 300 songs.

Not you.

The Trend Follower

Owns mostly recent hits.

Definitely not you.

The Completionist

Owns entire artist catalogs.

Partly you.

The Archivist

Collects weird versions, live shows, radio broadcasts, soundtracks, rarities, and forgotten releases.

This is overwhelmingly you.


Personality Indicators

If a psychologist looked only at your music library, I suspect they'd conclude:

High Curiosity

You don't stay inside one lane.

Classic rock fans usually don't also have huge game soundtrack collections.

You do.


High Nostalgia

Not "living in the past."

More:

"The past contains cool things worth preserving."

That attitude appears in:

  • retro games
  • classic rock
  • vintage comics
  • historical education projects
  • older books

The library reflects the same tendency.


Strong Sense of Humor

The presence of comedy albums, novelty music, radio material, and artists like Weird Al Yankovic is completely consistent with your conversations.

You seem to enjoy things that are both good and funny.


Appreciation of Craft

Your favorite artists tend to feature:

  • elite guitarists
  • strong songwriters
  • memorable live performers

You seem more interested in skill than fashion.


If Your Library Were a Museum

It would have four wings:

Hall 1: The Temple of Classic Rock

Led Zeppelin.
Pink Floyd.
Queen.
Rush.
The Beatles.


Hall 2: The Concert Vault

Bootlegs.
Live albums.
BBC sessions.
Rare recordings.


Hall 3: The Arcade

Mario.
Zelda.
Final Fantasy.
Command & Conquer.

Visitors spend far longer here than expected.


Hall 4: The Weird Stuff

Comedy.
Novelty recordings.
Oddball discoveries.
Things nobody expected to find.

Possibly guarded by ninja squirrels.


The One-Sentence Summary

Your library doesn't belong to someone who asks, "What's popular?"

It belongs to someone who asks:

"What's interesting, and do I have the live version?"

And after looking at nearly 20,000 tracks, that might be the single most accurate description of your musical personality.

The part that this thing didn't get is that there are already Page & Plant, Peter Frampton and Rush shows that I haven't converted and put into iTunes yet.


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