Thursday, August 31, 2006

Is Punk the New Pop?

I’ll say it. I don’t care for Hip Hop. There. Some of it is fine, but in general, I don’t go out of my way to listen to it. To me it still sounds like Rap, just with a melody. What I do find myself listening to is music that reminds me a lot of Punk from the 80’s. Now this in itself is not really a great stretch for me. I love 80’s music, but I was definitively a pop princess and not a punk whatever-you-would-call-them. I was more likely to listen to Wham! than The Cure.

I have purchased so much music this summer. I became such a fixture at Borders; I think they are going to name a pastry after me. (Probably some sort of tart, I imagine.) I also got a bit of an education into this word I had somehow managed to never hear before: Emo. Yeah, I know it’s been around forever. Like I said, not a lot of Punk hiding out in my music collection. Anyway, I seem to be making up for it. I believe I started with The Smiths. I really like them. From there, I focused more on newer artists.

I finally purchased a Green Day album. Hard to really call their new stuff Punk, isn’t it? The fact that it is so commercially successful probably doesn’t help. I still tend to think of Punk as the scary, pale kid with spiked hair and piercings wearing tartan and possibly a dog collar. Where before it was underground and edgy and cool, now that description could fit any number of bands I am seeing in heavy rotation on VH-1. The Killers, anyone? So apparently, I am still managing to stay true to my Pop roots.

One thing I should mention regarding Emo is that I certainly don’t find it all to be equal. There are a number of bands out there that I can’t seem to tell apart. Seriously, some song will come on the radio by the latest Snow Patrol, Fall Out Boy, Artic Monkey, Dashboard Confessional, Aqualung, Fray-band and I have no idea what the Hell I am listening to. And I don’t like Cold Play or James Blunt either. I’m good for about one song apiece and then it’s just noise. So here are some of the albums I bought this summer that I really like a lot:

  • Kaiser Chiefs- Employment
  • Camera Obscura- Let’s Get Out of This Country
  • Imogen Heap- Speak for Yourself
  • Keane- Under the Iron Sea
  • KT Tunstall- Eye to the Telescope
  • Wolfmother- Wolfmother

The other music I am listening to is more the dance/retro-disco stuff. It’s awesome. I need to check out the new Scissor Sisters album. I saw the new video this morning and I really like the song. I also saw a video for a group called OK GO. Too fun. I have to check that one out too. So here are more albums I bought that are a little easier to dance to:

  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs- Show Your Bones
  • Under the Influence of Giants- Under the Influence of Giants
  • Panic! At the Disco- A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out
  • Gnarls Barkley- St. Elsewhere

And finally, there has to be some mellow stuff too. I’ll also include the other albums that don’t seem to fit in the other lists.

  • Katie Melua- Piece by Piece
  • Ane Brun- A Temporary Dive
  • Zero 7- The Garden
  • Regina Spektor- Begin to Hope
  • The Flaming Lips- At War with the Mystics
  • Corinne Bailey Rae- Corinne Bailey Rae

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, thank you, thank you for admitting you don't really like Coldplay. I've kept that opinion mostly to myself for a few years now and it feels good to be free and speak my mind.

Calendar Girl said...

The song I like best from them is called Trouble off the Parachutes album. It's the only album of theirs I own. Yellow is also an OK song. The rest of their stuff is over-played noise.

Rejoice in your new "hater" status.