Music: Better Listened To Than Seen

For the third year running, I once again made the honest attempt to watch the AMA Award Show last night. I just couldn't. I think I lasted up to whoever followed Pink. I'd never paid attention to her before, except I read somewhere that she made a big public deal about having her nipples pierced. Why anyone would care is well beyond my ken. Last night, though, I noticed, without really looking up from my computer, that it seemed as though she actually can sing. Unlike the few others I heard before I finally gave up.

I'm no pop music expert, and I don't know all the currently popular artists or their songs. I'm often finding new artists that I like, and often trying to remember those whom I'd rather never hear again. I like to listen to new music radio stations to discover the newer talent.

But, man, do they (most of them) look hideous on tv. They (most of them) dress in the most atrocious, mismatched and unkempt clothing imaginable. Their hair is atrocious--too long, too short, dirty looking, over styled, under styled, bizarrely colored or just....shaved off (partly or totally). Makeup? That's another whole story. Anything goes, from full clownface to the natural smallpox look.

I like the Black Eyed Peas, for example, and think Fergie's kinda hot, but Will I Am? Has all the fashion sense of a child running amok in a film studio wardrobe warehouse.

Women generally look better than men (showing my personal preference), and country artists usually look better than rockers (who look better than hiphop and rappers).

Very few of them know how to conduct themselves in a formal setting--they seem to be a little like a cattle stampede through a town of the old west. They speak very poorly and seem to be unable to put ten words together to make a rational thought.

Yet, on a cd, or on the radio, most of them sound delightful. I can't handle the hate and stupidity of rap and I have a big problem with the (mostly) pop singers who can't seem to hold a note for a tenth of a second, but who seem to wander all over the scale with nearly every indistinguishable word.

I'm not going to get into the vapid, silly, stupid and terminally terminally unintelligible lyrics in a majority of today's (and yesterday's) popular music because of the wide range that runs from wonderful to super cool to who knows what (s)he's saying? to suicidally depressing.

But, I love much of it. It's rock 'n' roll.

I just think back to Fats Domino at the piano in a suit with a tie, singing about Blueberry Hill. Buddy Holly in a sport coat, with or without a tie, with white socks, raving on. Elvis Presley in a light jacket over an open-collar shirt with tan slacks, singing about his Blue Suede Shoes. The early Beatles with their "Nehru" jackets and tight slacks, wanting to Hold Your Hand. They all had neat hair (short or long) and looked good on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Guess I'll have to remove music award shows from my tv watching repertoire and to find other ways to keep up with the newest music trends. I don't think I want to actually see those people any more.

When your mommy tells you how to dress, LISTEN!

Warm regards,

Col. Hogan
Stalag California