In the Beginning was the Music

I was walking along Baggot Street last week, when The Delgados' "The City Consumes Us" popped itself into my head.

It's a good little song, not one of their absolute greatest, but still worth a listen, and evidently works for me as an earworm.

The randomness of this song, out of the hundreds that I have ever bought, started me thinking.

The popularity of the iPod and such means that a good percentage of people will be listening to some music at a point in time. What is the likelihood that at that point, more than one person, anywhere in the world, is listening to exactly the same song?

Extrapolating this to my own case, where a song has crept into my mind, what are the chances that two people are even thinking about the same song at the same time.

(Of course this excludes people in bands who are playing a song together live!)

There are seven billion people on Earth. There are far fewer songs that have ever been written, so it is quite likely that two people would be independently enjoying the same song - or hating, or one doing each).

So what are my points in this ramble?

1. There is already too much music to keep up with.

After several centuries, classical music had generated hundreds of compositions. You could spend years of your life listening to them all. Since the advent of recording, the pace of new compositions has accelerated, to the point where many years' worth (by duration) is created every calendar year. It is impossible to listen to it all.

2. There is always a gap for new music.

Seven billion people sharing, at most, a few million pieces of music. There is likely to be at least one pair of ears out there that will be receptive to a tune. The continued success of The X Factor proves this - if only for a couple of weeks. (Who did win the competition last year? Who actually cares?)

3. Music can, and does, function as a glue to connect people.

There is so much music that it is impossible to sample - and then appreciate - it all. Hence we usually narrow our listening to a handful of genres. Human nature, being what it is, means that we will strike up an affinity with those exhibiting the same choices. There's no better feeling, music wise, than being at a gig with ten, one hundred or ten thousand like-minded souls, sharing a moment, often bellowing out lyrics in unison.

4. My brain sometimes functions like the world's most obscure jukebox.

While cycling to and from work, random times do come to mind. I have an unfortunate tendency to sing some of these out loud, a bit too loudly. I would like to apologise to anyone on the Clontarf Road one Tuesday evening, sat outside Bay restaurant, who heard a few lines from "Theme from S'Express" being barked out by a middle aged man huffing and puffing his way home. It is highly unlikely that the same experience could be found anywhere else on earth.

Do track down The Delgados. They were pretty good.