So because I MURDERED MY LEG APPARENTLY, I’m taking a few days off from walking.

Which blows. I hate it.

BUT it’s given me a chance to try to organize my music in a bit more of a coherent manner in preparation for the big end of my “Decade of Music” project in a few years. Doing so got me thinking about my 5-star songs and what, exactly, makes a song qualified to be a 5-star.

For y’all that aren’t aware, I use iTunes for my music. iTunes gives you the option of rating your songs as 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 stars. In my ranking system, the “5-star club” is very exclusive; I’ve made it a rule that I can only have 50 songs rated 5 stars at a time. And considering I’ve got like 4,000 songs total, that’s not very many.

But how do I choose what gets 5 stars versus 4 stars? For example, what makes WALK THE MOON’s Avalanche only get 4 stars but the same group’s Tightrope get an enthusiastic 5 stars?

It’s hard to define the distinction, but there is one. 5-star songs are an experience. They make me instantly feel excited when I hear them. Quite often, if I’m out walking in the winter and a 5-star song comes on over my headphones, I will say something like “I love this song!” out loud. 4-star songs don’t give that reaction. 4-star songs are those that I can listen to on repeat, but do so “mindlessly”—that is, without really paying attention to the songs themselves and just liking them for the background noise. With 5-stars, I will deliberately re-start them if I don’t feel like I’m listening to them closely enough.

The 5-stars do change; every once and a while a song will just naturally be dropped from the list because it no longer provides that visceral “OH HELL YES I LOVE THIS FREAKING SONG” reaction. Other times I’ll find a new song that is amazing and 5-star-worthy and will have to reconsider my current 5-star list in order to kick an older song down to 4 stars.

Anyway. There is a distinction, but it’s very feelings-based and weird. Which I guess is everyone’s reaction to music and the reasoning behind their favorite songs.