"Aww yeah, TURN THAT SHIT UP! I fucking LOVE this song. The harmonies in this song are amazing, the raw emotion of the lyrics in the chorus and...
"Aww come on, man! Why are you turning it off? This song's great! Oh wait, you use to love this song, but since you listen to the radio every day in your car as you commute to and from work and since this song is #1 on the singles list, all the radio channels have conspired to play this song on all their stations and you can't avoid it, you've begun to hate it with a passion? Well sorry, man... that sucks. We don't have to listen to it.
"I do have to remind you that I constantly catch myself singing this song, especially the chorus... so if I do that and it irritates you in advance, I apologize in advance."
So that pretty much sums up all of the conversations I've had in my friends' cars every time "Somebody That I Use To Know" comes on the air... and almost every popular song that's good, but gets WAY overplayed to the point people are just tired of it.
I understand their argument; I never listen to the radio because I grew tired of what they were playing and the couple of songs that I liked, they played it every half hour along with the other seven songs I either liked or didn't like in varying degrees. I remember having to listen to the same Britney Spears song every day at 6am, the time my alarm clock went off. One day, I woke up and they were playing something else. Of course, the song ended in ten seconds, and the DJ introduced, of course, the same Britney Spears song (it could have been "Slave 4 U" or "Toxic" or one of those, I don't remember.) But right there and then, I decided never to wake up to the radio.
"But you didn't have to CUUUUUUUUUT me off..." oh shit, sorry. It just happened, I'm sorry. Where was I?
Unlike some of my friends, I take the bus to work. I can listen to whatever is on my iPod or smart phone. Or YouTube or Spotify or Pandora or whatever. Why can't they just turn off the radio, or put in a CD? If I was stuck in a car, I'd get bored listening to traffic noises and go into road rage sooner or later. And CDs? What if you get bored and wanna change a CD? Is anyone really going to change CDs while driving? Getting the CD out from the glove box, take the CD out and replace it? Unless you have a passenger, changing CDs might get you into an accident, no matter how quick you are.
"And I don't even NEED your love..." Dammit, not again.
I could blame the person in the car, but it's really not their fault. I could blame the song, but is it the songwriter's fault for having a catchy song that everyone likes? Isn't that a dream for most writers out there: to have a successful song that people really enjoy? Sure, half of the music on the radio (or more, it's been a while since I listened to the radio constantly) is utter crap that's got that one catchy pop hook that enough people will like it, despite the shitty lyrics and repetitive beats, but there's some good songs out there. It's just harder to find sometimes.
"Treat me like a stranger, it feels so rough..." Sorry, I got distracted. This happens every fucking time a song gets stuck in my head.
Nah, I blame the current radio culture. I blame Clearchannel for having their monotonous business structure in every song, ad, and DJ segment mapped out in advance. That's why I have to hear Britney Spears every time I woke up at the same time. That's why people get tired of good songs (or really bad songs) when it's playing on the radio every eight minutes.
"But'cha didn't have to..." Shit! You see, I stopped myself there.
It makes me sad to hear someone hate a good song because it's overplayed. It's true that you don't need to listen to the radio every day to get tired of a song (supermarkets, TV, and movies can overplay a song just as much.) Then again, people can listen to the radio every day and not get tired of a certain overplayed song.
"Every now and then I think of all the times you screwed me over..." See, I wasn't even thinking. What? I sing the girl part, so what?
The thing is: there's always an alternative. If you're tired of the radio, hook your iPod to the car stereo. If your car is old, CD it up. Or listen to NPR, if you don't fall asleep to talk radio, that is. I just hope one day, the radio will stop overplaying my favorite songs so that I don't feel like a douchebag every time I accidentally sing a song out loud.
"Toniiii-yiii-eiaiiaiaiyght... we are young..." Wait... no.
Knowing today's music scene, though, the flavor of the month will change to some song that we'll all like or dislike, the song will stop playing, and hopefully we can all look back on that one song we didn't want to listen to any more because it drove us crazy up a fucking wall, and realize it was actually pretty good. Maybe I'll go back to that one Britney Spears song and say, "Hey, it's actually pretty catchy." But if it was "Slave 4 U," only the video... you know why. Maybe it was "Toxic" that got overplayed... fuck, who cares?
"Now you're just somebody that I use to know..." There I go again... you know what, no apologies this time. NO APOLOGIES!
"Somebodyyyy..." "I use to know..." "Now you're just somebody that I USE TO KNOWHOAWHOAOW!" The harmonies kick ass, dammit. I don't care how many times it's played, I'll always like that part.
At least it's not Jaguar Love... or shitty Christian Country "rock." Or "Friday." Or "Whip My Hair." Or anything off of Maroon 5 that's NOT from "Songs About Jane."
No comments:
Post a Comment