Thursday, September 08, 2005

Tragically Unhip

I am a consumer of American culture. I like to think I have some grasp of lots of different aspects of out society--movies, TV, music, books, that sort of thing. Even if I don't actually watch much TV (occupational hazard once the kidlets get old enough to work the remote), I follow the trends. Veronica Mars: yeah! Reality TV: not as good as the days of the first Temptation Island.

I read voraciously, and gulp down People, Us, Entertainment Weekly to keep up on the movies I don't actually see. I'm hip, right? I read Television Without Pity; I have IMDB on the internet equivalent of speed dial.

Since I got my iPod, though, I tend to listen to the music I already have. Which can get stale and leave me in a sort of retro/college/new wave/big hits/big name bands kind of rut. So, I've been trying to branch out a little--find out what the latest in music is all about.

So, I've been listening to The Current, the newest public radio station in town. Neither news nor classical music, The Current has hired an eclectic set of DJs and allows them to program what they want. There is a LOT of music that no one has ever heard of, and I was trying to remain open minded and learn from it all.

What I learned was that I am really unhip. No hippie chick I. I think its a wonderful idea, and I'm glad that people who are so passionate about the current music scene are allowed to share it with the world, rather than be bound into the straight jacket of commercial programming. Really.

But I got to tell you, that the other night, around midnight, when the Crooning French Guy and his Gallic Banjo came on, I totally gave up.

1 comment:

John G. said...

I'm also coming to grips with my increasing "unhip-ness". The Current is a nice station - I enjoy it most of the time. Another station I like a lot is KFAI (90.3 and 106.7 FM in the Twin Cities). They have a different morning and evening drive-time show each day, Monday-Fri. Lots of electic stuff. I've been "turned on" to a variety of different stuff through KFAI. For example, Arthur Alexander, and Paul Pena (the original writer of Jet Airliner), to name but a few.

Of course neither of those artists are seen as particularly hip - but I'm stopped trying to stay current, instead I'm going back to fill in the gaps.