{ 2001 05 28 }

The Word of Lucifer

I’ve decided that not all pop music is the work of the devil. Maybe I’m just going through some kind of odd phase, but I’ve been listening to quite a lot of it lately… Not only that, but I’ve been enjoying it. Now even Utada Hikaru’s really poppy songs are pretty awesome. Am I going mad? Or is it ok for someone who once condemned all pop music and the people who listened to it to Hell to suddenly be seen doing her chores and dancing to the sound of ATC’s “Around the World”?

I can even venture a few guesses as to why I’ve made this change. Raymond Carerra. You know, that 16 year old from work who I was infatuated with. The one who just made manager a few weeks ago. I discovered accidentally one day that he was what the Alternative World might call a “teenie-bopper”. Initially, this totally devastated me, and I tried to use it as an excuse to get over him. But to my dismay, I couldn’t shake the feelings I had. He was still a cool guy, despite his shitty musical tastes… And then I wondered if maybe his musical tastes weren’t all that shitty.

Another guess has to do with something I saw on tv recently. It was called “PopStars”. Americans are finally catching onto the genius-like tactics of the Japanese pop-culture industry and organizing a yearly “PopStar Search” for five talented young people, who they will train into being legitimate pop-stars. Japan has been doing this since before the CD was invented. Anyway, this “PopStars” thing on TV was actually pretty cool. These three judges traveled across country to hold open auditions. Some of their activities were filmed along the way, and that was what the weekly tv show was about. The coolest thing about this show was the spirit and ambition and raw emotion of all these young girls. They were so glassy-eyed and full of dream-like wonder. Some of them could really sing too! They came from all these different kinds of life-styles… from theater and drama background experience, to music-majors in college to the good old “Brainless Blonde with a Voice”. I just couldn’t believe how many girls in each of these cities were so ambitious… All of them that I saw on tv had these really sparkling personalities. Even the ones who did not get called back. All of them believed they had what it took to be pop stars. I admired their self-confidence and self-esteem. Getting up there took guts! I could tell auditioning was really difficult for some of them. There were nervous break-downs, shaking pale bodies, anxious tears, all right next to the overpowering diva-chicks. Most of these girls were real people with normal lives and normal fears and normal goals. That show sort of just gave me a new perspective on this mad mad mad mad mad mad mad mad world.

Now, none of this has made me want to go out and become a pop star or anything… my musical tastes haven’t suddenly been inverted. It is more like they have been expanded. I’m still obsessed with the Pumpkins, and I still hate Eminem. I still prefer music with emotion and quality of depth, and a razor sharp guitar is always cool, but now the more manufactured sounds and simpler meanings of some pop songs and artists have begun to grow on me. I think I’ve begun to appreciate and maybe even approve of this enigmatic world of the modern music industry.

Now, is anyone out there gagging in my general direction?

Posted by emily on Monday, May 28th, 2001, at 9:29 pm, and filed under music.

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