Raise Your Hand If You Like Country Music
*Please note: My hand is *NOT* raised. That's not, as in, my hand is down, which is the opposite of up.
Okay fine, full disclosure: I like the song Jolene, by Dolly Parton, and there was one song years ago that I liked that might be by Shania Twain or somebody like her. I think it had lyrics like "I had a bad day, grab me a cold one and oh by the way..." Those are the only two country songs I've ever liked.
Last weekend a friend and I were talking about the months-old question, Hillary or Barack. Because I'm fun like that (that being a digable planet, naturally) I switched the question from who do you WANT to who do you THINK will win. She doesn't know. But she's sure it won't be Barack. Why? (Here's where she dropped the bomb.) Because "80% of the United States listens to country music."
Well. You might say that's not a reason to think Barack can't become president. (You also might say the previous sentence has double negatives.) But come on, who are we fooling? If that statistic is true, we know it IS the reason. Now I have no clue where she got this statistic from, and I wish I'd asked. However. Does anybody else think it could be true? Because that scares me. In a maybe-I-should-entertain-the-thought-of-moving-to-Canada kind of way. I wonder if you can get statistics broken down by city, state, country, etc. saying what percentage of people in that area like country music. Yes, I am stereotyping, but I don't want to live in an area that's dominated by country music. I just don't. I don't like cowboy hats, pickup trucks, cows, grits, or country music. How it came to be that I love Friday Night Lights, I don't know.
Growing up in Long Island, there was one country radio station I knew of. The girl in my brother's grade who worked at the shoe store with me liked country music. (She also liked my brother and he did not like her back, but that's a very short blog post for another day.) She used to always turn the radio from Z100 or KTU 103.5 to whatever that country station was, and we'd complain, she'd pull rank, we'd roll our eyes, and suffer through the rest of our shift. Thank god we didn't have to touch feet at work, because the combination of touching other people's smelly, sweaty feet WHILE listening to country music would have put me over the edge. (It was an OUTLET store - we just helped people find sizes.)
When I lived in South Florida there were two or three country stations, and once I listened to one while driving down 95 to downtown Fort Lauderdale, but it was an accident and I arrived at work in a bad mood.
Here in San Francisco there also seem to be about three country radio stations. I don't get great reception, and the station that comes in clearest is country. Howard Stern was always my back-up radio station when I lived in Florida, but he's moved on. I have embraced the beauty that is static, because each time I try to listen to any non-country morning show, I am sorely disappointed.
I don't know what radio station I was listening to this morning, but the DJs were trying with all they had to be like Y100 (Z100's sister station in South Florida), complete with trapping people who are cheating on their significant others. This morning a woman thought her husband was cheating on her so the DJ's called him, pretended they were a flower shop and he'd won a dozen roses to be sent to anyone he wants. They asked him who to send them to. "Kelly." Great, and what would he like the card to say? "Thanks for last night, I never realized massage oil could have so many uses." Ew! I mean, Busted! Then the wife starts screaming "Edmund, who the BLEEEEP is Kelly?!" Edmund first plays dumb. "Who's this?" The wife becomes infuriated. "This is your WIFE! You know, the woman you had a baby with!" Next Edmund plays indifferent. "Whatever, I never liked you anyway." Dude, so why'd you marry her and have a baby with her? Why'd you stay with her? What's your interpretation of that "forsaking all others" mumbo jumbo?
This sounds interesting. This sounds exciting. This sounds like something you'd like to listen to. But really, it's all because of my awesome writing skillz. In reality, it's just sad. It's sad people like Edmund are bringing children into the world. And I also find it kind of sad that someone would want to bust their husband in such a public Jerry Springer sort of way. I mean yes, the wife has nothing to be ashamed of - she did nothing wrong. It's just ... why let all of the Bay Area know about your marital problems? Isn't it enough that when you get divorced it'll be public record?
And so in conclusion, if you vote for me and I become POTUS, I will make sure there are better radio station options.
Okay fine, full disclosure: I like the song Jolene, by Dolly Parton, and there was one song years ago that I liked that might be by Shania Twain or somebody like her. I think it had lyrics like "I had a bad day, grab me a cold one and oh by the way..." Those are the only two country songs I've ever liked.
Last weekend a friend and I were talking about the months-old question, Hillary or Barack. Because I'm fun like that (that being a digable planet, naturally) I switched the question from who do you WANT to who do you THINK will win. She doesn't know. But she's sure it won't be Barack. Why? (Here's where she dropped the bomb.) Because "80% of the United States listens to country music."
Well. You might say that's not a reason to think Barack can't become president. (You also might say the previous sentence has double negatives.) But come on, who are we fooling? If that statistic is true, we know it IS the reason. Now I have no clue where she got this statistic from, and I wish I'd asked. However. Does anybody else think it could be true? Because that scares me. In a maybe-I-should-entertain-the-thought-of-moving-to-Canada kind of way. I wonder if you can get statistics broken down by city, state, country, etc. saying what percentage of people in that area like country music. Yes, I am stereotyping, but I don't want to live in an area that's dominated by country music. I just don't. I don't like cowboy hats, pickup trucks, cows, grits, or country music. How it came to be that I love Friday Night Lights, I don't know.
Growing up in Long Island, there was one country radio station I knew of. The girl in my brother's grade who worked at the shoe store with me liked country music. (She also liked my brother and he did not like her back, but that's a very short blog post for another day.) She used to always turn the radio from Z100 or KTU 103.5 to whatever that country station was, and we'd complain, she'd pull rank, we'd roll our eyes, and suffer through the rest of our shift. Thank god we didn't have to touch feet at work, because the combination of touching other people's smelly, sweaty feet WHILE listening to country music would have put me over the edge. (It was an OUTLET store - we just helped people find sizes.)
When I lived in South Florida there were two or three country stations, and once I listened to one while driving down 95 to downtown Fort Lauderdale, but it was an accident and I arrived at work in a bad mood.
Here in San Francisco there also seem to be about three country radio stations. I don't get great reception, and the station that comes in clearest is country. Howard Stern was always my back-up radio station when I lived in Florida, but he's moved on. I have embraced the beauty that is static, because each time I try to listen to any non-country morning show, I am sorely disappointed.
I don't know what radio station I was listening to this morning, but the DJs were trying with all they had to be like Y100 (Z100's sister station in South Florida), complete with trapping people who are cheating on their significant others. This morning a woman thought her husband was cheating on her so the DJ's called him, pretended they were a flower shop and he'd won a dozen roses to be sent to anyone he wants. They asked him who to send them to. "Kelly." Great, and what would he like the card to say? "Thanks for last night, I never realized massage oil could have so many uses." Ew! I mean, Busted! Then the wife starts screaming "Edmund, who the BLEEEEP is Kelly?!" Edmund first plays dumb. "Who's this?" The wife becomes infuriated. "This is your WIFE! You know, the woman you had a baby with!" Next Edmund plays indifferent. "Whatever, I never liked you anyway." Dude, so why'd you marry her and have a baby with her? Why'd you stay with her? What's your interpretation of that "forsaking all others" mumbo jumbo?
This sounds interesting. This sounds exciting. This sounds like something you'd like to listen to. But really, it's all because of my awesome writing skillz. In reality, it's just sad. It's sad people like Edmund are bringing children into the world. And I also find it kind of sad that someone would want to bust their husband in such a public Jerry Springer sort of way. I mean yes, the wife has nothing to be ashamed of - she did nothing wrong. It's just ... why let all of the Bay Area know about your marital problems? Isn't it enough that when you get divorced it'll be public record?
And so in conclusion, if you vote for me and I become POTUS, I will make sure there are better radio station options.
Labels: Music
posted by Green at 3/15/2007 10:33:00 AM
5 Comments:
Dammit, Blogger lost my whole post!
I live in Hickville, USA, so most people I know are fans of country music. 80%? Seems kind of high, but I do believe that the numbers have grown substantially since the early 90s - aka since Garth.
I haven't listened regularly since someone forced me to listen to 8 hours a day a station that played the same 10 songs over and over, but I do tune in occasionally. With a few exceptions, the new stuff just doesn't sound right. It's not country. But if I find a station that plays the old stuff - Hank Sr. through to Kenny Rogers, I'm there. That music has heart.
And the cheater exposure on the radio - not cool. That's private stuff, not public entertainment.
You will always have my vote, can't say I know what a POTUS is, but I'm old...
y'all be good now hear?
I rather share Sparkling cipher's opinion, that most of the country music played now isn't, well, country. The genre as it is right now reminds me of the Mmm Bop song, for some reason. Which was alright at the time, sorta...Yeah, I dunno where I'm going with this. But I do have a vote free if you'd wish it.
An I'm lovin' your blog, b'lieve I'll lurk for a bit longer, though.
I despise country music. Unless it's Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson or the Dixie Chicks, I most likely have no use for it other than to wipe my ass with it.
80% sounds way high. Please-oh-please let that not be a correct stat.
(I think you should register POTUS as a new handle.)
If you were driving more, I'd say this:
two words: satellite radio.
My boyfriend has it and it offers a pretty good range of options. However, if it's not in your car, and you're not at home, I don't *think* you can have it with you from place to place like regular radio (fact-checker please! hehe).
Meanwhile, I *do* recommend an MP3 player. I'm anal about what I listen to, so it's nice to be able to add and delete entire albums dependent upon my mood. I've only got 8G and honestly, that's lots. You don't need a monster system because everyone knows you have your favorites, and if you're really motivated you can put together a playlist and ditch all the tracks you DON'T listen to.
Good luck finding good music. And trust me, there are tons of country fans up here in Canada too. Put it this way - for several years now I have been saying it: country music is an oxymoron.
And I *don't* agree that the old-school country is any better. BARRRRRRRRF. "there's a teeeeeeeeear in my beeeeeeeeeeeeeer"... ~yodels~
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