I went to a concert in the recent past after a semi-last minute invite from a cute boy, to see a band that I semi-knew and liked what I did know of them.
So, I'm all excited about the concert because I love live music and I think it'll be a great show. It was - I didnt know all the songs but the lead singer was entertaining, showed a ton of talent by busting out into various songs that were not his genre, the sound was awesome and it was one of the better shows with regard to pyro-technics. It was a blast - no pun intended.
I should take a quick side-bar to explain that I despise radio ... I may have mentioned this before so humor me while I rant again: The DJs on regular radio are loud, obnoxious and laugh at themselves and each other, even though most of the idiotic things they're saying really aren't that funny. It's kind of like a laugh track, only live ... Laugh hysterically NOW. No, NOW. They play one or two songs, often ruining good songs by overplaying them, and then you are subjected to 10mins of advertisements, headlines, traffic, weather and who-knows what else. What's really annoying is that the ads are usually louder than the music so you damn near get blown out of your car if you have the volume up because they happen to play a good song that they haven't ruined yet. Okay - climbing off my soapbox now.
What does this have to do with anything ? Well, it makes me reliant on friends to clue me in to new music, what's playing and what I might want to download to play on my ipod (which, other than NPR, is pretty much what I listen to on a daily basis unless I need traffic info on TOP). This means I'm often a little behind and don't keep up on what people think of various bands/music. I think this lets me make my own decisions as to whether I like the music/bands without being influenced by others. This means that if you ever get ahold of my ipod, my musical tastes are laid bare for judgment ....
Me being me, I did some research on said band when I got to a computer the next day. I had no idea that this band is one of those -either you love them or loathe them- bands. Those that loathe them are pretty visceral about it. Comments included that the lyrics were sophomoric, music unoriginal and/or was the same album to album, the lead singer must be violent, depressed or on drugs etc etc. All the "respected" publications (eg. Rolling Stone) are pretty harsh about this band, and those who consider themselves music snobs seem to follow suit.
On the other hand, they're pretty damn successful judging by album sales so they must have a following.
Personally, I think the music itself is decent most of the time but the lyrics are fantastic. They often range from a little crude to really crude, but I find them to be mostly amusing. There are a few pretty catchy "anthems" and some "down and dirty" songs, intermixed with a few slower, more poignant numbers. Granted, my musical taste is pretty varied, from Beethoven to Eminem to Elvis to Kanye, so maybe that's why I can appreciate something that doesn't appeal to everyone.
By now you're wondering what band I'm talking about- or maybe you've guessed ?
2 comments:
My guess is Nickelback.
Is that the same cute boy who sent you the flowers?
well done, anon - taking my wanna-be cliff-hanger and turning it me wondering who would know to ask about the flowers but didn't know who I went to the concert with... Hm ...
the answer is nope, different cute boy.
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