Pop Music and my inability to avoid it

“Oh, very funny.” I say to my internet radio as I sit pondering what the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Janet Jackson have in common.

 

I work in a cube farm, much like most of white collar America, and the silence and rapid key slapping drives me a touch crazy. In order to stop me from going completely insane I plug myself into two various Internet Radio sites. Pandora and Jango. Now, before I go into what I am going to, I would like to say without these two sites, my floor would be riddled with small caliber bullet holes and bodies would be strewn about. There are a few individuals who insist on holding calls from their cube on speaker phone, for all of us to hear. There are others who leave their side of the building to hold personal calls, they do this in our area and it is very annoying. Without Pandora or Jango I would long since have gone nuts and either burned the building down or let 30 stray cats loose in the building at 6pm on a Friday giving them free reign on the joint until Monday morning.

 

Pandora, if you aren’t in the know, is a part of the Music Genome Project. See Here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_Genome_Project. And is, in theory, a great fucking idea. I have been exposed to many new artists and genres that I had no idea existed. Until I discovered these sites I was easily 4 years behind in the music scene, now, thanks to these two, I am happy to say I am only 2 years behind. Wooo hoo! Pandora is a running machine that exploits the essence of the genome project. Jango, is a similar form of this machine but not directly linked. In Jango, you can pick and choose the artists but it is more genre based than attribute based.

 

However, every now and then, these two stations like to play little jokes on me. For instance, on my Pandora list, I have a station centered and created around The Arctic Monkeys. A great band, in my opinion, which has a unique sound and catchy lyrics…but on this station, from time to time, I get crap that I don’t think should be played on this station…like Madonna. Yeah, fucking Madonna. Now if you aren’t familiar with The Arctic Monkeys, they almost have a punk sound or something 3 shades into the Indie rock category…Madonna sounds NOTHING like them. So why do I get Madonna? Why do I get Beyonce Knowles when creating a station on the band the Black Keys? They sound nothing alike! They aren’t even in the same state, let alone the same Ball Park. Jango is just as guilty of this.

 

However, what has prompted me about this is what I experienced today. Apparently there was some sort of Beatles release lately. This is great if you’re a Beatles fan. I dig the Beatles, I appreciate and respect what they mean to music, but it’s not what I prefer to listen to. On three separate occasions today, on three VERY different stations, I have been given Beatles songs. So, I feel I am justified in being thoroughly confused when the Beatles follow an M.I.A. song. This begs the question as to how much control I actually have over what is played and what isn’t. I’d like to think that when I create a station filled with Danger Doom, King Geedorah, M.I.A., and the Roots, that I should not…EVER…get the Beatles. Not on that Station. Unfortunately I was in Jango when this happened and could utilize a handy feature Pandora provides you with called, “why did you play this song?” This feature in Pandora tells you specifically why a certain song was played. I would like to see what exactly Ringo and Questlove have in common. I have somewhere in the vicinity of 8 or 9 different stations created and on EVERY single one, I get a Modest Mouse song at least every hour. Not that I don’t like Modest Mouse, I just have a hard time believing that they are that versatile to have something in common with EVREY station or band I listen to.

 

A Similar thing happened upon the death of a certain pedophi….err Pop King. I would get “Billie Jean” played on my Neutral Milk Hotel station. WTF?!? So, again, this begs the question of “who is really in charge of what I listen to?” I live in Houston, TX and have successfully avoided the Houston Radio for a VERY long time. In Houston we have this monster known as Clear Channel Communications. They are fully responsible for almost EVERY radio station here in town. And Almost EVERY station sounds the same. We have one Alternative Rock station that seems to think Stone Temple Pilots is fresh and new. So, is some “suit” sitting by running high powered algorithms to plug specific “pop” music into what I am trying to listen to? You bet your ASS!! Why else would I be getting these plugs? I love the Idea of controlling what I get to listen to and the idea of suggestions being made on what I have been listening to…so long as those suggestions are apt and not some lame excuse to try and hock some bullshit pop culture drivel (Madonna and Beyonce specifically, not the Beatles). Is there no way to escape this bullshit? Is there no way to escape Pop culture? “Outlook not so good” says my magic 8 ball.

 

I still highly recommend these sites as they are free and can open you up to a wide variety of new music, but mind what you are doing. God help you if you create a station on any “popular” artist. You will get all manner of corporate garbage played before you. Create a station on the Foo Fighters and you are likely to get…shudders…Lady Gaga. Create a station on Metallica and you are going to get Nickelback. And I think we all know the answer to this next question, kids. What’s worse than Nickelback? Fucking Nothing!

 

Cheers, and have a great fucking day!