If I Hear These Songs Again, Radio Personalities Will Suffer

I got this blog idea from Darren Barefoot’s 55 More Blog Posts I Hope You Write (not about technology) because I was in the blogging mood with nothing to blog about and I didn’t want to post one of those posts. Plus, I figured that this is a good topic to blog on anyway.

I don’t know what occurs in the mind of radio personalities or whoever decides the music line-up for a certain period of time. I mean, do they think it’s a good idea to put on Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” for the 800th time? Or Justin Beiber’s “Baby”? I mean, I know that thousands of screaming girls are probably like AAAHH JUSTIN BEIBER FOR THE 3548202352TH TIME = LOVE! But when I’m flipping through the radio and I hear his voice bursting through, it bothers me. It bothers me that I can’t even flip through a radio station without hearing Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, Ke$ha or a super trendy, bad hip-hop song with weird, vulgar lyrics.

First of all, I don’t listen to the radio much because 1) it’s basically an iPod except without the songs you actually want to listen to and 2) the commercials piss me off (no, I do not want to enter a contest to record a duet with Miley Cyrus that’s “going to be on her new album”). But if I’m having one of my pop moments (I have those on occasion) or I want to hit up a song that I don’t have on my iPod or I’m in the car with a friend and the radio’s on, I’d like to hear something A LITTLE more substantial than Tik Tok, where the lyrics are literally Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy Grab my glasses, I’m out the door, I’m gonna hit this city Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack ’Cause when I leave for the night, I ain’t coming back. YOU JUST PLAYED THESE LYRICS 82 TIMES IN ONE DAY! THANK YOU FOR ENLIGHTENING US!

It’s not even that bad when they overplay a crappy song. I mean, it can’t get much worse than that. But how about when they bring a good song to the dark side (meaning the landfill of overplayed, burnt out, hear-them-again-and-die songs)? This, to me, is the worst and is another reason I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t want to have one of my favorite songs ruined. Remember a few years ago when OneRepublic’s Apologize is ALL you’d hear on pop radio? Or what about KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See, Love Song by Sara Bareilles, or any of Taylor Swift’s hit singles like Love Story and You Belong with Me? People liked these songs once upon a time (or at least I did). These are songs that to me, personally, when they first came out, struck me as good, great, or even my favorite songs. But as the radio chipped away at them little by little, they became less and less appealing. I think I got to the point where I’d hear It’s too laaate to ‘pologize! in my dreams. Okay, maybe not. But it was getting there.

Is it really that hard to put together a list of songs that are new and likable without overplaying every single one? Seriously, like 300 albums (or something) come out a day. You don’t need to play the Top 10 songs on repeat every day of the week. We get it. You wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. We don’t need you to confirm this irrelevant fact 82 times.

Is it just me or do radio stations completely destroy perfectly good, innocent songs on a regular basis?

(Note: Yes, all of the numbers in this post were completely exaggerated.)

The World of Music

I was inspired by Mary to do this post about a topic we all know and love: LA MUSICA!

Music makes the world a better place, and nowadays there are so many kinds of music that there are tons of options for your taste. The thing is, a lot of people disagree, or agree, or have mixed opinions about various artists and bands which make for interesting discussion.

I’m a pretty open person when it comes to music. I listen to all types from close to screamo to the pop-y, fluff-y kind of music with little appeal except for the catchy beat. But I’m different than most when it comes to music’s importance, as in what draws me to a song. For me, it’s lyrics all the way. If I can relate to the lyrics in some way (like not the songs that are like DA DA DA YEAH BOOM SHICKA BOOM MAN MMM WOO), I’m hooked. The vocals are key, too. The artist could be singing about the most relative thing that I identify with 100% but if their voice sounds like they’re constipated or they just ate something bad for lunch and its comin’ back up, yeah, that’s not exactly going to my number one artist. The music is of the least importance. Sure, the music can’t be completely irritable and off beat, but if it’s catchy, or soothing, or dance-y, or whatever the song is supposed to convey, I’m good with it because chances are, I’ll be paying attention to the lyrics and the range of the voice and whatnot.

Also, I’m not that picky with notes and chords and all those technicalities, because frankly, I have no clue what the hell it all means! Like when people are talking in music jibber jabber, I act like I have a clue but I don’t at all. (ZOMG THAT G CHORD WAS IMPOSSIBLE! Yeah, and when you play C and D together it’s like, I don’t even know, it just sounds all screwed up! EW WHAT WAS HE THINKING PLAYING AN F-SHARP RIGHT THERE?! I don’t know it definitely should’ve been a C-sharp) ….these conversations baffle me and since the previous one was totally made up, you music prodigies are probably falling off your chairs laughing at my musical stupidity.

Anyway, I find it weird how people (although the best of friends) can have ridiculously different opinions in music. For example, my FAVORITE solo singer is Taylor Swift (cliche, I know). Her voice isn’t so ridiculously powerful that it’s hard to sing her songs, but she has a soothing quality to her voice. Her lyrics are EXTREMELY relatable and the music is either catchy or melancholy, which completely gets you in the mood of the song. Her genre is pop-country crossover, but my favorite bands consist ofParamore, Eisley, Boys Like Girls, and The Academy Is, all of whom are rock bands.

My best friend (and cousin) has really similar music tastes as me (we both love Taylor), but I also have two best friends whose tastes are just the opposite (with the exception of Coldplay who everyone loves). They like the funky voices and the weird-named bands, whereas me and my cousins like maybe the more popular bands, music types, and lyric patterns.

What kinds of music do you guys like? What’s more important to you–lyrics, vocals, or music?