The 3 C’s of Local Tunes

Sidebar:  At the risk of upsetting any Beatle-philes out there, I don’t get the big deal about John Lennon.  He would have been seventy today; I know this because of the Internet, specifically Yahoo headlines and the status updates of several of my Facebook contacts.  It frustrates me to know this – I like learning new things daily, but John Lennon’s hypothetical age is now just taking up space in my head.  It seems to me the greatest contribution he has made to our society is not his music, and definitely not his taste in life partners,but the round-framed glasses he brought into vogue.  I like those glasses.  Yoko Ono and “Imagine,” not so much.  And please let his “War is Over” Christmas anthem fade into the obscurity it deserves.  But the glasses are cool.

End sidebar.

One thing about Alabama that’s wildly different from New York is the available selections of radio station.  Now, I didn’t listen to a lot of radio in New York.  At work there was a satellite network that played exclusively Motown and R&B, and the public transit systems didn’t have any music playing, so I was pretty much jacked into my iPod all the time.  And at home, we don’t really listen to the radio, because there’s a TV.

But now we drive, and the music makes driving more fun (and calmer), so we are now radio listeners.  And here’s what I’ve discovered:

The Three “C’s” of Music Where I Live:

1)  Country.  There’s a LOT of country.  I’ve even found that some of it isn’t bad.  Predictable, maybe, which is why I like my full-of-surprises alternative genre.  But country music has some of the most creative lyrics, and also the easiest to understand.  And in country, you can get away with just about anything.  You can sing about shooting your neighbors with a shotgun, having lost your right hand in the war (which is why losing your home to a tornado isn’t so bad, according to the song), or how tequila makes your ladyfriend’s clothes fall off.  And they say rap music is subversive and violent!

2)  Christian.  I have not hung around on any Christian stations long enough to give this one the old college try.  I have maybe two or three Christian artists on my iTunes, but (and this is the sad and sorry truth) I didn’t know they were Christian when I downloaded them.  Vota, Flyleaf:  Your music is good, and I’m glad I found you.  I wish all Christian music sounded as good as you or better.  Can you get together with the Amy Grant set and teach them your wisdom?

3)  Classic rock.  This has now become my radio-station bread and butter.  I think about half the radio stations down here are classic-rock giants with nicknames like “The Rock” or “The Eagle” or something equally hardcore-sounding.  I can now almost tell the difference between Journey and Kansas, and I’m slowly correcting all the lyrics I’ve been misquoting since junior high school.  One unwelcome surprise:  Ace of Base’s horrendous cover of “Don’t Turn Around” now counts as classic rock.  Ouch.

“Contemporary Rock” counts as a lower case C where we live.  We’ve only found one station that plays it, and really, I’d rather not – contemporary music, ironically, gets old fast.

And Classical?  That’s a silent C.  I dare you to find a classical station for me.  No, really.  Please find one.

Musically speaking, though, I really got no problems.  Still rocking the iPod, and our Dish Network has plenty of unexpected surprises on the something-teen music stations it carries.  I have all the tunes I need.  Which is good, because life without music is like cats without crazy.

So.  Rest in peace, John Lennon.  Tell everyone to leave you alone.  You’ve earned it.

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~ by joshkauffman on October 8, 2010.