Picture this: it’s a day just like any other and you’re walking down the street as usual; your phones neatly tucked into your ear, playing a soundtrack for your meandering existence. What if a stranger would come up to you and ask “Hey You! What song are you listening to?” Would you feel offended? Angry at being interrupted? Or would you just be glad to share what you were listening to? Indifferent, maybe? Well, regardless of what your reaction might be, you’d better just name your soundtrack. Because then, you may just turn up in one of these cool and popular videos.

Hey New York! What song are you listening to?

Neat, uh? There’s something quite intriguing about this concept. Sure, at first glance it’s just a bunch of random passers-by professing their momentaneous musical preferences. But when you look at in perspective, as a collage of lifestyle soundtracks, it really starts getting interesting. For some elusive reason, it’s just outright fascinating getting access to something as trival and still intimate as the music someone is listening to at that exact moment. And when you start trying to guess what kind of music someone would likely admit to listening, it’s actually surprising how often you’d miss the mark. If you haven’t realized that in the first video, maybe you should check another one:

Hey London! What song are you listening to?

While this simple but ingenious concept for a video was originally conceived by one Tyler Cullen, many others soon became inspired to do someting similar, by going out on their own cities and playing a similar exercise. This is actually a good thing, and it gets even more fascinating to observe how musical tastes vary across cultures, and often how they are very much the same. It just goes to show that you can’t judge musical tastes by the look on someone’s face, in the same way that you can’t judge a book by the cover. So wihtout further due, let’s watch yet another video from yet another capital.

Hey Lisbon! What song are you listening to?

Well… do you feel inspired already? Have you not quite taken the cue? If not, please allow me to lay if out clearly for you: Grab a camera and go out there find out what random strangers are listening to on their headphones! Make you own video and join this musical phenomenon. You will likely have lots of fun, while adding to this rich documented tapestry of human lives and musical styles, cross-matched. If you are so inclined, make sure to post a link to your video in the comments section, for everyone to watch and enjoy.

Hey Singapore! What song are you listening to?

As you can see, walking around with headphones on need not be a way to alienate yourself from the surroundings. Sometimes, it can actually be a good starting point for striking a casual conversation. Speaking of which… what song are *you* listening to right now?