Talking 'bout Pop Music

I take music pretty seriously. You see that scar on my wrist? You see that? You know where that's from? I heard the Beegees were getting back together again. I couldn't take it, okay!

Okay, I take it a shade less seriously than Denis Leary ('course if I was older, the Beegees getting together again might have had the same effect on me...can't be sure).

I don't listen to a lot of radio nowadays...mostly because the majority of stations 'round here don't play much worth listening to. Mostly relying on people like Julie, Alex and Mike who have good taste to help me find new stuff, or just waiting 'til artists I like put out something new. But there's always a radio playing in the grill area at work, so I'm getting my fill of the radio.

Now most of the time, the radio is turned to a Spanish-only station. Now based on my education from Wall of Voodoo and Tom Petty, Mexican Radio sounded like a wonderland, but I just don't get the allure. Part of my beef is that I can't understand a lick of it. This really annoys me, it's the same reason I don't listen to opera, operetta, most choral stuff--if I can't understand the words, what's the point? Although I do have to appreciate the fact that there are "rock" artists other than Weird Al who are promoting the accordion.

But the last couple of weeks, somehow the tuner's been changed to Top 40 stuff--and I miss the lyrical depth of the Mexicans... Not all of it's bad, mind you. For example, Bowling for Soup's "1985" is a fun song. Two songs I'm hearing incessantly are really getting to me.

1. Brittney Spears' "My Prerogative." I'm tempted to expose myself to intense radiation so I could perhaps grow 8 more thumbs so I could give it 10 thumbs down. Really, little girl, couldn't you have picked a better role model than Bobby Brown? And if you were going to do a cover, make it somewhat original, put your stamp on it. I will admit that I owned, and liked, Bobby's Don't Be Cruel album that the original song was on. But that was 1988, and what worked in '88 doesn't work in '04--you've got to do something other with the original. Brittney can be tolerable, even slightly fun, when she's doing silly bubble-gum pop. But now that she's decided she's the second coming of Madonna, she's just sad. And then this...Warhol's 15 minute clock is ticking, m'dear.

2. Some silly girl group is doing a cover of Bryan Adams' "Heaven" (and no, I'm not on an anti-cover rant...some of my favorite tracks are covers). The lyrics are semi-vapid, a little cliché, and the music's uninspired. But for some reason when you put Adams' raspy voice and "heart" together with them, it works. With these wannabe's...blech. Sadly, as popular as it seems to be, I live in fear of Jessica Simpson covering "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" or Christina Aguilera doing "Straight from the Heart."

If either of those happen, I will spill blood, I just don't know whose yet.