I am become one of those Jeopardy people?
You know the ones I mean -- those Jeopardy people familiar with the minutiae of, like, the Third Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674) who have never heard of Miley Cyrus.
For the record, I have heard of Miley Cyrus. Dude, that Hannah Montana branded stuff is everywhere.
However, yesterday I came face to face with the fact that I'm actually pretty out of touch with popular music when I could not participate in a conversation about Rihanna and her (apparently) famous song, "Umbrella." Which, I figured that I'd probably heard it and just didn't know what it was so I'm listening to it on The Hype Machine right this very second and: no.
The thing of it is, I pretty much stopped listening to the radio circa the end of college and then WHFS, which had been my occasional go-to when I totally forgot to bring CDs for the car, magically became a Top 40 Latin station in the middle of the day on January 12, 2005 with absolutely no preamble. But, y'know, given the dismal state of radio, it's not like there are many people out there playing anything but what gigantic, faceless corporations tell them to play. It happened more than a few times in the 90s that I'd be listening to HFS and hear a song that was so patently awesome that I absolutely had to go out and buy the album (Garbage's eponymous album, Lush's Lovelife, and The Dandy Warhols's ...Come Down just off the top of my head). But then all the women on the radio pretty much disappeared into the dismal pit of suck that was late 90s/early 00s rap rock/nu metal -- because Evanescence does not count. People always think they count. Maybe if Kittie had gotten radio play in any kind of broad way, but NO. And everyone had been bought up by interchangeable meglo-corps so I found that commercial radio pretty much slipped out of my life and I didn't miss it.
I mean, I do listen to the radio and I have had those OMG gotta buy the album! moments since 2002: Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic, Franz Ferdinand's eponymous album, and Bumcello's Nude for Love -- the first courtesy of WRNR, the last independent station in the area, and the last two courtesy of NPR's The World, which is kind of why I don't listen to The World anymore -- their world hits were costing me money.
But the current situation makes me think about an article I read a few years ago, your typical rending of garments about how the popularity of iPods would sound the death knell for our collective musical tastes. Essentially, the author's argument was that iPods closed the feedback loop -- people would just listen to what they liked, not even entire whole albums, just particular songs, and close themselves up in these little bubbles.
Which, I think that's pretty silly, or I did at the time. I do find that digital music has changed the way I find new artists, but I can't say that that's a causal relationship as opposed to incidentally coinciding with the dismal pit of suck referenced above. I rely much more on my friends and certain trusted music reviewers and the occasional music blog and random people from the Derby. But that does leave me in a position where I'm all about, say, Emmy the Great, but not Rihanna. Which, in and of itself is not bad, but a) it's nice to be able to make small talk about, y'know, stuff like music, movies, and tv and b) people tend to feel as if you're judging them when you say that you don't really listen to the radio/watch tv/go to the movies often, so I don't know.
For the record: I am not judging you.
For the record, I have heard of Miley Cyrus. Dude, that Hannah Montana branded stuff is everywhere.
However, yesterday I came face to face with the fact that I'm actually pretty out of touch with popular music when I could not participate in a conversation about Rihanna and her (apparently) famous song, "Umbrella." Which, I figured that I'd probably heard it and just didn't know what it was so I'm listening to it on The Hype Machine right this very second and: no.
The thing of it is, I pretty much stopped listening to the radio circa the end of college and then WHFS, which had been my occasional go-to when I totally forgot to bring CDs for the car, magically became a Top 40 Latin station in the middle of the day on January 12, 2005 with absolutely no preamble. But, y'know, given the dismal state of radio, it's not like there are many people out there playing anything but what gigantic, faceless corporations tell them to play. It happened more than a few times in the 90s that I'd be listening to HFS and hear a song that was so patently awesome that I absolutely had to go out and buy the album (Garbage's eponymous album, Lush's Lovelife, and The Dandy Warhols's ...Come Down just off the top of my head). But then all the women on the radio pretty much disappeared into the dismal pit of suck that was late 90s/early 00s rap rock/nu metal -- because Evanescence does not count. People always think they count. Maybe if Kittie had gotten radio play in any kind of broad way, but NO. And everyone had been bought up by interchangeable meglo-corps so I found that commercial radio pretty much slipped out of my life and I didn't miss it.
I mean, I do listen to the radio and I have had those OMG gotta buy the album! moments since 2002: Mike Doughty's Haughty Melodic, Franz Ferdinand's eponymous album, and Bumcello's Nude for Love -- the first courtesy of WRNR, the last independent station in the area, and the last two courtesy of NPR's The World, which is kind of why I don't listen to The World anymore -- their world hits were costing me money.
But the current situation makes me think about an article I read a few years ago, your typical rending of garments about how the popularity of iPods would sound the death knell for our collective musical tastes. Essentially, the author's argument was that iPods closed the feedback loop -- people would just listen to what they liked, not even entire whole albums, just particular songs, and close themselves up in these little bubbles.
Which, I think that's pretty silly, or I did at the time. I do find that digital music has changed the way I find new artists, but I can't say that that's a causal relationship as opposed to incidentally coinciding with the dismal pit of suck referenced above. I rely much more on my friends and certain trusted music reviewers and the occasional music blog and random people from the Derby. But that does leave me in a position where I'm all about, say, Emmy the Great, but not Rihanna. Which, in and of itself is not bad, but a) it's nice to be able to make small talk about, y'know, stuff like music, movies, and tv and b) people tend to feel as if you're judging them when you say that you don't really listen to the radio/watch tv/go to the movies often, so I don't know.
For the record: I am not judging you.