4th BGJ Blog Entry

Grammys And Today's Music - February 14th, 2005 - 17:31 PM.

My cousin, who is on her way to Florida tomorrow (well she was, when I first wrote this) for a bit of a vacation, asked me today what I thought of the Grammy awards last night. I wrote to her that I did not watch the award show, and that in fact only have ever watched it once (last year, due to a tribute to The Beatles being advertised for it) in my entire lifespan. I continued by telling her why I thought that was, and it got me thinking enough that now everyone gets to read about it. Lucky you!  I don't listen to much current music. In fact, only since heavily using the Yahoo Launch radio service have I really ever listened to stuff I wasn't familiar with (since writing this entry, said service has become defunct). Now, of course the immediate question becomes, "If you don't listen to music, how do you like any?" Well, there are two ways I get to enjoy a song, one old and one current. The old way was simple, and only can be understood if you were entering your teen years during the early 80s: Music videos began. Blam! All of a sudden, an enormous explosion of music and sound on as many as 6 afternoon shows a day (keep in mind, Dear Reader, that this was before MTV and MuchMusic), and how could a self-respecting teenager not be enthralled by all the pretty lights and way over-dressed people? Of course, now, videos are simply a part of the Grand Marketing Scheme for any band, but back then videos were new, fresh, and boy did we get some of what would now be termed as 'classic' art! Never mind the fact that The Beatles had already been there and done that about 20 years earlier; this was new, vibrant, and imaginations ran wild. And, to top it off, there was emotion in the music, something which I personally find lacking in the current stream of forgettable SSDD groups of today. SSDD - Same Shit, Different Day.  (Also, please take note that this was LONG before channels like Much and MTV stopped actually airing videos, and the internet was mainly for finding illegally obtained copies of said videos when this was written.)  Micheal Jackson, while he was still black (and alive, not flitting around his mansion as a ghost) and hanging with McCauley Culkin seemed normal, made history again and again with videos like 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It,' and then blew the doors off with the 20+ minute video known as 'Thriller.' Duran Duran told a story that, while odd as hell, grabbed us and held us through two different videos, 'Union Of The Snake' and 'Wild Boys.' Madonna, an artist that owed all her early success to her music videos, launched a career with 'Lucky Star,' the first minimalist video, and then took video global with 'Like A Virgin.' If you grew up in those years, you can't help remember the visuals that were being thrown your way, from 3 men and a little girl beating the shit out of a piano, to an obviously gay romp down the Mississippi River on a riverboat, to Bruce Springsteen hauling a surprised Courtney Cox up on stage to dance with him. Those were the days, and they are long gone.  Today, all you need is a room, a beat, and about 20 half-naked women to dance suggestively, and they'll call that a music video. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for half-naked women, suggestive dancing or not, but if you remember how mainstream videos started, it's a pretty safe bet that you already know that the golden years of video has already long passed us, and that except for a few standout videos a year, it's just a rehash of what came before. I don't watch videos now, except if I catch them on Pop-Up Video (also apparently now defunct), and they are usually the classics or the best of now, so I'm already familiar with the tunes.  As for the other way of my appreciating music, well it isn't as enjoyable a method as the one already mentioned. Scott and I talked about this last night too, and we came to the conclusion that there are just some songs out there that have so much airplay, get so much attention, appear on so many television shows and commercials, that they undoubtedly seep into the public's consciousness whether the public wants them to or not. You ALL know what I mean; ever found yourself humming a tune you loathe, and are somehow unable to stop returning to hum it after you've chastised yourself for doing so? Britney Spears got stuck in my head that way, while I was on vacation in the Dominican Republic no less, and as a result I have the damn video on the computer (I figure, if I have to be stuck with - ugh - liking one of her songs, I might as well try to ease the pain by looking at her goodies).  So, that's where I get my music from, and except for a few bands that have just grabbed my attention from the first note, I just have no interest in today's music for the most part. Every so often, a song will grab me because of the lyrics (Good Charlotte's "Lifestyles Of The Rich And The Famous," Black Eyed Peas' "Where Is The Love."), or maybe I'll hear a song in conjunction with something I enjoy (Daniel Lioneye's "I'm The King Of Rock And Roll," which is the theme song for Viva La Bam, which I found as a result of watching Jackass the Movie, which also gave me the Rezillos' "Somebody's Going To Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight."), but for the most part I don't listen.  (In actuality, a lot of the new stuff I now listen to comes from two sources - commercials and video games.  Other than that, I'm grabbing a lot of videos on YouTube and putting them on my channel.  YouTube user name: Spellteacher.)  Oh, and those few bands which have grabbed me immediately? They are, in no particular order and regardless of whether anyone else likes or dislikes them - The B-52's; The Barenaked Ladies; The Northern Pikes; Midnight Oil; Train; and Weird Al Yankovic (who himself has interested me in some music I otherwise wouldn't have heard). That's right folks, If you know me you know I love The Beatles, but they were acquired via the second method above, though I wholly wish it had been the first. So, Rock On Dudes! See you next entry!