The allure of top 40

July 9, 2007


I’m feeling strong enough to admit it.

Yes. I listen to popular, top-40 radio.

I can say this now because I know there’s no shame in it. We all listen at some point. There’s a secret desire to do so – to discover what it is that the masses flock to, to sniff the opiate that seems to defy taste and class and talent.

Hi. I’m Corey. And I listen to Avril Lavigne on the radio.

Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I started doing this recently for a few reasons.

1. My neighbors at work listen to it, so the songs were slowly being drilled into my head – enough that I actually recognize a few of them.

2. I have written a good chunk of the advertising that is being played on our top-40 station – the venerable HOT 104.7 – so it’s purely work related.

3. I’ve found that, at times, it’s not that bad.

It’s true – hear me out. Over the past two days, I’ve heard two former Left of Center (the Sirius indie-rock channel) standbys on our local super-cool top-40 mix station. Amy Winehouse is the most recent addition. Panic at the Disco is a rather older one.

Not only are these songs familiar to me – delivered through the ether from a former radio experience, it sometimes seems – but they are on heavy rotation. See? Good music can indeed become popular! Coldplay was an earlier example of this, as was Gnarles Barkley. Panic at the Disco (as much as I find myself annoyed at the singer’s voice) has three songs on rotation currently. It’s amazing.

Sometimes I also find myself drawn to the complete train wrecks – the songs that, as I’ve told countless people countless times, prove anyone can be famous with the right beat and the right voice manipulation.

For example: the aforementioned Avril Lavigne’s new song – “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend,” or whatever it’s called. Horrible. Brutal. It pains me to hear it.

But I can’t look away. It’s a sociology experiment gone awry. Same with Fergie – the talentless piece of Black Eyed Peas eye candy that somehow has weaseled her way into a solo career that involves spelling her name and adding “icious” to her name. And The Pussycat Dolls. Don’t get me started.

It’s not healthy, this new top-40 obsession. But don’t hold it against me. Sometimes, I’m intrigued. Often, I can chalk it up to work. And sometimes I can’t look away.

This is how it starts, isn’t it?

Next stop – reality television.

Tags: Career, Music |

8 Comments

Comments

8 Responses to “The allure of top 40”

  1. Deane on July 10th, 2007 1204 am

    Do you think it at all pretentious that you felt you had to post an “admission” for this? By doing that, aren’t you backhandedly damning it? What compelled you to over-justify the fact that you listen to the same thing as 90% of the population?

    Would you apologize in the same manner for listening to some indie, college station? I’m assuming no. So, why not? Why would that be so inherently acceptable as to not be worth a mention, but a Top 40 affinity rates 433 words of explanation?

    Your post reminds me of this Onion article:

    Local Hipster Over-Explaining Why He Was At The Mall

    For the record, I’m an unapologetic Justin Timberlake fan. JT rules.

  2. Corey Vilhauer on July 10th, 2007 836 am

    “I can say this now because I know there’s no shame in it.”

    The post was partly sarcastic, as if I’m apologizing to my friends very much in the way of that Onion article.

    And as you see above, I don’t have any shame in it. But I used to – as an indie-addled fading scenester, I was vehemently against top-40 music stations. Now, I’m finding stuff I like on it.

    I also have no shame in saying that a good chunk of it is totally horrible as well.

    Listening to some indie, college station is not against the norm for me. It’s what I do – though I don’t even do that much anymore. But listening to a top-40 station IS against the norm.

    That’s why it rates 433 words of explanation. Also, it rates 433 words of explanation because I wanted to write about it. Don’t take offense – laugh along. I’m not damning it.

    Everyone has had something like this in their lives — a once shunned item slowly becomes accepted, and consessions and apolgies to that person’s history are considered because, well, it seems hypocritical to like something you once hated. Guilty and hypocritical.

    I also have JT on my iPod. And as a phone ring. And not ironically.

  3. whatever on July 10th, 2007 948 am

    You must have too much time on your hands to do a word count on a blog post. Why don’t you just say, “You’re pretentious, you prick”? It’d be a lot easier.

    If no one questioned pop culture it would be even worse than it is.

  4. Deane on July 10th, 2007 1019 am

    Sorry, I was trying not to be a prick. I must have come off like one.

    I just like Top 40 and always have. Your post seemed a little elitist to me, as if you were apologizing for liking the same thing as us poor provincial bastards.

  5. Corey Vilhauer on July 10th, 2007 1102 am

    Well, you ARE a provincial bastard, Deane.

    I understand where you’re coming from. I used to hate top 40, and now I’m fine with it. I wasn’t trying to say I’m better than the people who do or sound elitist, though with some things I’ll admit I am. It comes through in my writing. Sometimes I’m cocky. That’s me. Sorry. No harm meant. I still hate Avril Lavigne and Fergie, and I will never understand their appeal.

  6. Will on July 10th, 2007 301 pm

    Off topic:

    David Sedaris has a new article out in the New Yorker:

    http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_sedaris

  7. Deane on July 11th, 2007 1025 pm

    Listen to Fergie’s entire album. There are some fantastic songs on there, though I’m under no delusion she had anything to do with writing them.

    Watch old episodes of “Kids Incorporated” sometime. Like her or not, she can sing.

  8. Corey Vilhauer on July 12th, 2007 822 am

    Do you for a second think she was brought into the Black Eyed Peas because she’s a good singer?

    And if I hate the songs already on the radio, why would I want to listen to the rest of them?

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