Cock Pop

No, it's not some naughty lolly you'd find in Spencer Gifts or some mangled Engrish Japanese sports drink. I'm talking about music - the kind by male-led bands that are on the border of Cock Rock and Pop. You see, I finally configured our damn computer to run two separate instances of iTunes - and trust me, getting this to work is a real bitch. M & I had been sharing one library of all our music, and one more surprise Ani DiFranco marathon on my iPod and I was going to hunt down and garotte all spoken-word performers within a 10-mile radius... which, come to think of it, should be on my to-do list, anyway.

At any rate, now we can store 50 squillion hours of music and video on the ol' hard drive but have our own separate libraries. This means that, while we can sample each other's music, we can both concentrate on what we each like. Although we share some tastes, there are always selections that make the other's eyes roll. For example, I enjoy Barbra and Judy, but only in limited doses when the mood strikes me, whereas my nearly non-discriminatory hoarding of 70s and 80s pop based on the good, so-bad-it's-good or hey-I-remember-that-vaguely standard drive her crazy ("Oh, good - Amy Ray is emoting to another 15-minute lame-ass guitar solo again," "OK - Run, Joey, Run. Need I say more?").

The cool thing is, since I've got the iPod I've been immersing myself in music more than I had in years. I had dreams of stardom and used to perform in coffeehouses and do sound editing for some really awful bands in college, but was far too self-critical and perfectionist, so I couldn't hack public performance in the long run. I stopped listening to music very much because I wasn't over the pain of having dropped that dream, yet. M has gone through similar issues, having been a music performance major with serious talent who emotionally beat herself into temporary vocal chord issues. But now that we have access to more music, we're both really enjoying it. Plus, as we're newly able to load lots of our own preferences, what we really like to listen to comes to light.

Hence, my new phase. I'd been listening to a lot of folk-rock and 80s pop for a while, and I have Kanye on there just like everybody else, but now I'm starting to get interested in some more current pop/rock bands. Some stuff is "alterna" (whatever that means nowadays), but I'm learning that, at least recently, I have a predilection for male rock/pop. It shouldn't be surprising, having spent my childhood listening to my brother's Cars albums and my sister's Squeeze tapes, then my teenage years immersed in groups ranging from New Romantic to Hair Rock like Duran Duran, The Cure, The Smiths and Def Leppard (with house, metal, goth, punk and proto hip-hop on the side) that I'd have this weakness. It only follows that I'd eventually end up downloading bands like Green Day, Vertical Horizon, The All-American Idiots and Third Eye Blind. Because, come on, "Stacey's Mom" is basically a remake of "Just What I Needed", if you get right down to it. I've even been sampling the heavily popular Fall Out Boy, but mostly on the basis that my friend worked on their video. The small problem is - I'm somewhat embarrassed. After all, isn't this that big, bad commercial radio I'm supposed to be too smart for? No, it's not Aaron Carter (or whoever the kids are listening to nowadays), but it is rather frat-boy middle-America. Of course, today's frat boy is probably listening to more rap than pop/rock, but I'm sure it still exists out there, mainly as what we used to call "college music" or "alternative" stations for teens and twenty-somethings who don't want to be "too black."

I suppose it doesn't matter - what we like is what we like. A difficult part of being semi-intellectual is feeling it's plebian to like anything that isn't deeply meaningful or, at the opposite side of the spectrum, so laughable as to be trash camp. So sue me, I like Cock Pop. I love The Darkness and their Queen-derivative ways and I think Maroon 5 is kinda catchy. And I'm not totally down with my girlfriend when, after playing John Mayer's first record to death when we first discovered it (being from Georgia, he was a local find she'd seen at Eddie's Attic for her), it was decided he had sold out and become overplayed by the time his second rolled around. I mean, there's part of me that thinks that way, but hey, he still sounds similar and you know what? Good for him for making a buck. Really.

So, do I have to turn in my queer card for being too Middle America? Well, I doubt they'd ever let me live in Williamsburg, anyway. We all have our guilty pleasures, and it's time I came out about it. Besides, Foo Fighters? Totally awesome when you're working out, dude.

[Note: this isn’t the long, semi-meaningful post I’ve been alluding to recently. That should be up soon.]